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Advice Category: Academics & Research

Writing Resources & Techniques for Grad Students

Recently we’ve received several letters from students struggling with writing. Students tell us they struggle with focusing on competing projects, managing nebulous deadlines and distilling complicated ideas to in a clear and concise way.

As Your Grad School Guide, I know can be difficult to find motivation and avoid procrastination when faced with such writing projects.

Whether you’re developing a thesis or dissertation, or writing essays for a class, there are a number of resources at the UW for support. Here are some ideas of services to access on campus, and tips for developing as a more productive and effective writer.

Campus-based resources:

Looking for ways to beat procrastination or improve your writing on your own? Here are a few ideas:

  • The Pomodoro method. Work in 25 minute increments with short breaks in between sessions. This can help you avoid distractions and get down to business. This technique can help academics make the most of their limited writing time.
  • Develop a strategic writing plan. Ph.D. student Nue Lee details in this blog post how she plans for effective writing sessions. Lee’s plans include daily writing and scheduling blocks of time for writing in her calendar. Your strategic writing plan may differ based on your schedule and needs.
  • Consult a style guide. William Zinsser’s On Writing Well may be a good place to start for insight or inspiration.

What if you’ve tried any combination of these resources and techniques, and nothing has helped. What should you do?

  • Reflect on the things that you’ve tried so far. Did one or two of them help you manage distractions or write more effectively, even a little bit? Of the things that helped a little, what did they have in common?
  • Try dictating your ideas to a trusted friend or a recording device before even bringing pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. It may help take some of the anxiety out of the process and allow you to get your ideas out.
  • In some cases, difficulty with productivity in writing and research may be related to other factors, including anxiety or worry. If you think this applies to you, please seek support from a writing tutor, academic advisor or counselor at the Counseling Center.

Any questions? Feel free to shoot me an email.

Happy Writing,

Your Grad School Guide

Ask Your Grad School Guide is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If your Guide doesn’t know the answer, you Guide seeks out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: your Guide is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Ask your Guide a question >

Postdoc Well-being

As postdocs, you are much more than just researchers, scholars and scientists. You are whole people, with families, personal commitments and a full spectrum of interests. The academy sometimes focuses on your intellectual contributions alone. Evidence now shows we do our best work if we have plenty of sleep, connect with others and have breaks for play and other “offline” activities to reset our minds.

The January 2019 issue of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s publication, ASBMB Today, is dedicated to Wellness. Several authors wrote in their tips for maintaining wholeness while doing the challenging work of being a postdoc. Take stock of where you are now. According to the Gallup Wellbeing to Work scales, feeling solid in these five domains can make a difference to your work productivity (For a well-written explanation and example of this, read Craig, 2019, Finding the help you need):

  • Purpose well-being: Liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals
  • Social well-being: Having strong and supportive relationships and love in your life
  • Financial well-being: Effectively managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security
  • Community well-being: The sense of engagement you have with the areas where you live, liking where you live, feeling safe and having pride in your community
  • Physical well-being: Having good health and enough energy to get things done on a daily basis

For you as post-docs, it may be very difficult to feel solid in most of these categories without considerable effort. And your feelings about these categories may change day-to-day. At the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, we recommend reaching out, finding people around you (in or out of the UW) who have shared interests, and putting YOURSELF on your calendar each day, even for 30 minutes.

Our OPA team contributed to a piece on holistic mentoring to the ASBMB Wellness issue. The piece includes a guide to asking expansive questions; Given the roles you play as mentors to students and others around you, you may find this helpful. Let us know what you think — we welcome your feedback!

In the meantime, it is 2020 National Mentoring Month, so take a moment to thank someone who has been a mentor to you over the past few years. We certainly recognize you and the valuable role you play as mentors at UW and beyond, and we thank you. Even as you are serving others, you must continue to take care of yourselves. 

Your Grad School Guide: Developing leadership skills

Hi, reader! We are excited to announce that going forward, this column will no longer be called “the Grad School Guide” and is now “Your Grad School Guide.” Our new name reflects that while the blog is written by a single, anonymous author, we are culling information from sources across the UW to provide you with the best advice and resources. 

Everything else will stay the same. When you submit a question anonymously to Your Guide, you can still opt to receive a personalized response that will not be shared with anyone else. The methods of submitting a question, the kinds of questions answered and our dedication to providing you with resources and support to thrive in grad school will remain the same. Happy asking! 

How do I get into a leadership position? I am returning to graduate school after nearly two decades in the workforce in assistant positions. I am ready to move upward in my career, if someone will just give me a chance. I am afraid that even when I graduate, I will still be seen as only qualified for assistant roles. Please help, any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
–Anonymous 

This blog post was developed based on input from Dr. Bruce Avolio, Mark Pigott Chair in Business Strategic Leadership. 

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out to your Grad School Guide! I am excited that you are looking to take on leadership roles in your work and I hope I can give you some advice to help you get there.

I have lots of tips and ideas in store for you, but I also want to encourage you to reach out to folks at your campus Career Center or an advisor within your department. They may have additional ideas that are more tailored to your needs within your discipline and career. I’ll list the contacts for the career centers at the end of this post. Your department’s website will have more information about your graduate program advisor or graduate program coordinator.

I asked Bruce Avolio, professor at The Foster School of Business and director for the Center for Leadership and Strategic Thinking, about what makes a good leader. Dr. Avolio says “there are successful leaders without these qualities, but the prototypical leader that most people highly respect have many of the following”:

Personal qualities:

  1. Open to new and different experiences and perspectives. Has a global mindset.
  2. Attitude: positive, hopeful, optimistic and humble.
  3. Authentic and has a strong moral identity. This means acting in a moral and ethical way and being just, highly self-aware of how you impact others, and transparent. Willing to take hard stands on important issues.

Orientation to work:

  1. Motivated to lead! This means you are interested in influencing others and spending the time to learn how to do so. Motivation to lead is usually a starting point for leadership.
  2. Work ethic: conscientious, proactive, resilient and efficacious.
  3. Able to suspend judgment and gather more data before coming to conclusions.
  4. Willing to sacrifice self-interests for the good of the larger group.
  5. Future-oriented in terms of goals and objectives.

Interactions with others:

  1. Empathetic and understanding. Can take other people’s points of view
  2. Builds trust and goodwill by being consistent and following through
  3. Uses positional power in socially constructive ways
  4. Intellectually stimulating and encourages others to see different scenarios, assumptions and different world views
  5. A good steward

Here are some of Your Guide’s ideas for developing these skills:

  1. Identify individuals you respect in current leadership roles and even previous leaders. Observe these people and read about them to see how they show up for leadership and how they treat others, what they focus on, their core values and beliefs, their role models and mentors, etc. (This task is directly from Dr. Avolio!)
  2. Practice being empathetic to a coworker, peer, teacher or someone else.
  3. Reflect on your morals and values. You may find journaling, doodling or list-writing helpful with this. Think about what you care about and how these values will inform your leadership.
  4. Take a class in active listening.
  5. Join a Registered Student Organization (see links below) and take a leadership position within the club. If you don’t find a club that suits your interests, start your own!
  6. Volunteer with a local non-profit in a position that allows you to flex your leadership skills
  7. Look for opportunities (formal or informal) to mentor an undergraduate student in your field.
  8. Read a book written by someone with a different background or identity from your own to broaden your perspective.

Phew! There are a lot of ideas here, but if you pick only one and set an intentional goal to work on it this year, I am confident you’ll make astounding progress!

Finally, don’t be too hard on yourself! Starting grad school is a big, important step in taking more leadership roles. Celebrate the things that you are already doing to advance your career and put some trust in your process.

Sincerely,

Your Grad School Guide

Resources:

Ethan Kruse

When Ethan Kruse was an undergraduate, his friends noticed that as soon as he walked outside, his eyes would naturally drift up – to the sky and the stars. Now, he’s a sixth-year Ph.D. student in Astronomy using the eclipse method to discover new planets. While the upcoming “Great American Eclipse” on Aug. 21 isn’t directly relevant to his research, for many of his colleagues it will be “the chance of a decade – or even a century – to do some really cool science,” science that’s “about answering some of the fundamental questions that humans have been asking for forever. Where did we come from, are we alone in the universe, and what’s in store for the future? The more we understand how planets form in general, the more we can understand about our own earth and solar system, and how it fits into the bigger picture.”

Read a Q&A with Ethan

Professors on Pedestals – Updated

Is there a place on campus where I can learn how to address/talk to professors? I have been in the US for about six years now, but I am originally from a culture where one is supposed to show respect to people older than you. I therefore still cannot bring myself to address a professor by name (as my other fellow graduate students do), or write an email to them without putting in multiple “Thank you for your time!” and “Sorry to bother you…”.

When I read my own emails that I send out to professors, it’s cringeworthy, since I’m so deferential. It’s worse when the professors I address are just a couple of years older than me. I want to learn to get over this. My friend recently pointed out that calling someone “Prof. X”, and writing so many Thank Yous and Sorrys in email skews the power dynamic a bit too much, and that I should treat professors as colleagues if I want them to treat me as one.

How do I learn this? I hang out with a lot of American friends but somehow this is something I’m unable to learn. —Anonymous

This question was originally published in November 2016. The responses have been slightly updated for accuracy as of January 2019. 

Hi, there. In order to address your question, I reached out to several campus partners. I hope their multiple perspectives and experiences are helpful.

Ziyan Bai is a graduate student assistant with the Graduate School’s Core Programs and Office of Postdoctoral Affairs:

“For the past couple years, I have organized a workshop on “Communicating with Faculty” for international grad students. At the workshop, a panel of three faculty members and four advanced international graduate students from social science, science, engineering, and humanities shared communication tips and strategies including communicating in person or via email. We have a summary of notes from the panel.

I also get this question many times during my one-on-one mentoring with new international grad students. This is not an uncommon situation. The bottom line: find a middle ground that you find comfortable with the degree of reverence you show in the email or talking in-person. Usually international students find it uncomfortable if they try to “get rid of” their home culture in order to fit in. There is no universal standard in communication, so staying connected with home culture and being open to learn new culture at the same time is recommended.”

Note: The “Communicating with Faculty” Workshop is being offered this May. Details will be announced in the Graduate School Digest and on the Graduate School’s events calendar.

Era Schrepfer is the executive director of the Foundation for International Understanding Through Students (FIUTS), which offers a wealth of support and programs for international students at UW:

“We hear this question pretty frequently. I usually suggest visiting the professor during office hours and being totally honest about this with them directly. Just say, ‘I’m from XXX and in my country we are taught from an early age to treat teachers much more formally, so the culture in the classroom here is hard for me to get used to. I want to be successful in your class and for you to feel comfortable. What do you suggest to help me with this?’ Usually, they really don’t mind being treated more formally by international students, but it helps to start off the quarter with a conversation.

Sometimes, it’s easier to feel comfortable with a professor when you know them a little bit on a personal level, and it’s meaningful to the professor as well. So ask them questions about themselves. Have they ever been to your country? How long have they been teaching? Where did they go to school? It’s helpful to find some common ground with them and see them as people just like you. Power distance is one of the most challenging cultural elements! I know a lot of alumni who still struggle with it many years after coming to the US!”

Elloise Kim is the president of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, and an international student herself:

“As someone who is from a similar culture, I totally understand why you are hesitant to freely communicate with people like faculty members. In my home culture, a respectful manner for people who are older or hold a higher position is obligatory. Yet, if people here can interpret your attitude not necessarily as carefulness but as cultural clumsiness, you may want to question for whom you insist to keep such manners.

I’d like to suggest to learn American cultural manners in the way you have learned English. In other words, think of it as a foreign language. Its syntax and phonetics would be very different from those of your original language. But, you have to learn and practice it in the way the language is spoken by native speakers. You do not become a totally different person while speaking English – rather, you are speaking another language still being yourself. Likewise, ways of communication need to be learned and adjusted. You can be very polite in a different way!”

Words of Wisdom from Experienced Grad Students

A few weeks ago, Core Programs hosted its annual fall welcome for international graduate students with more than 120 students in attendance! During the event, experienced graduate students were asked to share their tips and strategies with incoming international grad students.

We found the majority of these insights are helpful to all graduate students across the University of Washington. Take a look at some of these tips and see which work best for you:

  • Don’t hesitate to speak up if you have a question.
  • Don’t try to perfect, just work hard and do your best.
  • You are not alone.
  • Learning to cook for yourself will save you money.
  • A big part of doing good research is about revising, revising, and more revising.
  • Consider “light therapy” during the winter if you are experiencing Seasonal Affective Disorder. There are options for free light therapy (for students) at The Counseling Center and Hall Health.
  • Go to campus events for free food (and building community).
  • You are more than good enough.
  • Don’t confuse being busy with being productive.
  • It can be good sometimes to push yourself out of your comfort zone.
  • Save Sundays for adulting (e.g. go over your weekly budget, write a list of errands, cleaning, etc.

We hope you find these insights useful, and let us know what works for you!

Best,

Core Programs—Office of Graduate Student Affairs
University of Washington

How to study for general exams

I could use some advice on how to study for General Exams in the social sciences. I’m especially having trouble getting through all the reading I’m supposed to do! Any tips on *how* to read for exams? How about studying for generals, more broadly?

–Anonymous

*A version of this question and the subsequent student answers were first posted in the UW Graduate Student Facebook Group. They have been edited for clarity and re-published anonymously with the permission of the question-asker. 

Hi, there!

Whew. What a great question! Preparing for General Exams is one of the most challenging and daunting aspects of a doctoral career, but I’m confident with a strong plan and your determination, you’ll enter your exam well-prepared!

Let’s start with how to prepare for General Exams more broadly. Thankfully (for you and for the Guide), UC–Davis has a comprehensive and accessible guide with tips for approaching your general exams.

This guide breaks preparation into five, concrete steps: understand how the qualifying exam works; know your examiners’ interests and personalities; prepare early; reduce your stress; and have an exam day plan. Check out the article for more advice on putting these steps into action!

Inside Higher Ed also features a guest blog post from Ph.D. candidate Stephanie Hedge on studying for General Exams. Hedge recommends writing every day, as well as reading previous exams and writing practice questions.

I hope that these resources, combined with conversations with your advisor, committee members and peers, will help you to feel more confident in how you organize yourself for the General Exams.

The other piece you asked about is how to read all the material you need to cover for your General Exam in a timely fashion. The Guide has gathered several responses from people who have completed their General. Read them below.

On the whole, they made it clear that you should be strategically skimming these texts — not reading them cover to cover — and focusing on the material as it relates to your research and the history of the field.

“Resist the urge to read everything cover to cover. Instead, skim through the entire book or article — spending at most 20 minutes on this step — and then speed read through it focusing on the beginnings and ends of each chapter. If anything doesn’t make sense, go back and read more carefully.”

“Write a mini review for each book from the perspective of your research and your reading list. For me, this helped me read strategically and also better remember what I read. Your committee might be different, but for my purposes knowing the highlights of an argument was important but knowing what X author said on page 53 in the footnote (for instance) was not. And that made it easier for me to read quickly.”

“Read reviews by others to get a second opinion on books you have to skim.”

“Try focusing on the network of conversation as opposed to a single article or book. For example, think about how author X responds to author Y, author Z disagrees with author Y’s response, etc. If you can keep track of that (especially as it relates to your questions) then you don’t need to devote nearly as much time to reading each piece itself, and the intro/conclusion plus footnotes will be enough to tell you how an article or book fits into rest of the literature.”

You will likely find it helpful to develop a system to organize all your reading notes.

One student suggests: “Try using your phone for notes. You may use Siri to dictate important sentences (verbatim or your own analyses/connections to other work, with a symbol to differentiate them). At the end, you should have about a page or two per book or article. That way, it’ll be easier to review that before your exam!”

This Grad Hacker article suggests a few different strategies: using a Wiki, a blog, or even an old-fashioned scrapbook!

Best of luck!

–The Grad School Guide

Ask the Grad School Guide is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the Guide doesn’t know the answer, the Guide will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The Guide is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →

Postdocs, Take Stock of Your Skills!

As the season turns to fall, it’s a good reminder to check in with how your career preparation is going. In past newsletters, we have shared tips and resources about career exploration, self-assessments, informational interviews, assessing readiness for academic careers and other elements that are so essential to the career preparation process. Regardless of your next job, it can help you to spend time reflecting on skills, competencies and unique strengths you’ve developed through graduate school and during your postdoc fellowship training.

You have developed skills that are valuable to your next employer, whether you are going into an academic career or seeking a position in other sectors. And you have developed skills and strengths whether you know it or not! It can help in your process, particularly if you are experiencing self-doubt or imposter syndrome when it comes to the job search (we all experience this!), to have a former co-worker or current team member give you feedback on what they see as your unique strengths and contributions to the team. Here are just a few examples of how accomplishments that may feel routine as part of your extensive training really are giving you great skills:

Completion of your Ph.D. or a postdoc project requires you to become skilled in project management, leadership and organizational skills. You are responsible for setting and meeting deadlines, reporting on results to your PI and mentors and building new collaborations as your project evolves and new questions arise. It’s also likely you’ve organized a department speaker series, hosted an outside speaker or helped to organize a conference. These activities reflect a range of skills that many positions in diverse sectors will appreciate.

You are comfortable presenting your work, which is likely very complex and technical, to a variety of audiences. Through your training, you’ve learned to ‘read the room’ and present your ideas at an appropriate level. In a research group meeting, you can be very technical. Conversely, when describing your work to your family and friends, you likely use more generalities. You’ve learned to use the power of persuasion to convince funding agencies to support your work, for your committee to move you towards graduation, to set strategic visions for your project and to motivate other team members. These skills are invaluable both inside and outside of the academy.

You have learned to make progress even when not all of the information is known. The most exciting projects are the ones with outcomes that are unknown but once figured out, lead to new questions and avenues to explore. This requires comfort with ambiguity: the definition of a graduate and postdoc experience. Often times, the whole picture is unknown when you start a project, but you figure it out as you go along. Your ability to think on your feet, to manage stress, and to tolerate change is remarkable and should be highlighted.

A more expansive list of skills and competencies can be found here: (1) Professional Skills and Competency Checklist, (2) Core Competencies Self-Assessment Checklist, (3) UW OPA blog on transferable skills. By reviewing these common capabilities upon which employers evaluate applications, you can determine which skills you have already developed, and more importantly, identify those that need further attention before you feel fully qualified for a job. Also, remember that if a posting matches your skills by roughly 75 percent, it’s a good idea to go ahead and apply (see The Muse). Employers often identify all the traits an ideal candidate will have; however, most don’t fit the bill 100 percent. If you’re close, go ahead and apply! You are ready for your next professional adventure.

Postdocs, Start on the Right Foot at UW!

The OPA had the pleasure of welcoming a group of new postdocs to the UW at our orientation on September 20, 2018. It was great to spend time with everyone at both the orientation and professional development sessions, as well as the Taco Bar to celebrate National Postdoc Appreciation Week. We truly value your role at the UW and want to help you achieve your professional and personal goals as you move toward an independent career.

For those who could not attend, or have maybe been at the UW for a bit but still have questions about resources and opportunities, we share some highlights of the resources and career development thoughts here:

  • The mission of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA) is to holistically support postdocs throughout the UW. Our website provides resources for all aspects of your professional development: career exploration, skill building, writing productivity, grant writing, mentoring and support networks. In addition, you can schedule an appointment for a one-on-one discussion of your pathway to independence, strategies for managing conflict and career exploration.
  • The UW Postdoc Association (UWPA) works to establish and support a committed network of UW postdocs and provide professional support (e.g. career seminars, research symposium). The UWPA works to support postdoc parents with an innovative Postdoc Parent Group! Postdoc leaders are creating opportunities to improve postdoc experience at the UW.
  • A newly formed Diversity Postdoc Group is starting off this week, recruiting new members.  Thanks again to postdoc leaders for stepping forward to create this group aiming to provide community building, mentoring and targeted professional development, and improve research and training culture. See announcement below for contacts and information on the first meeting.
  • If you are interested in an academic career, please look for upcoming announcements from the Future Faculty Fellows workshop and the Science Teaching Experience for Postdocs (STEP) program; both are open to all UW postdocs. We recommend attending the Future Faculty Fellows early in your postdoc experience as it helps you plan for your future.
  • The UW Career & Internship Center provides downloadable guidance documents focused on the job search for academic careers and diverse career pathways.
  • If you find yourself in a difficult situation and would like some advice, you likely know that you can reach out to your mentors, department chair and administrators, and us at the OPA. An additional resource is the Office of the Ombud, where you can receive confidential, neutral and informal guidance concerning job security, career advancement and research collaborations, and planning for difficult conversations.
  • The Institute of Translational Health Sciences (ITHS) provides access to funding (e.g., KL2) and workshops focused on career development and grant writing.
  • Finally, when looking to unwind from a long day of research, make your way to the Intramural Activities Building (IMA) or the Waterfront Activities Center (WAC) where, for a reduced rate, you can access the pool, fitness classes, workout facilities, and boat rentals. There really is no cheaper gym membership in town, and they have a Gear Shed where you can check out outdoor gear for your next adventure.

We closed with a brief workshop sharing tools and strategies for making the most of your postdoc experience. It is important to start planning your career progression, build your mentor team (individuals that are invested in YOU), set goals that are attainable and specific, explore diverse career pathways, and learn how to network more effectively. There are some great planning tools that can help you, such as ImaginePhD.com. Importantly, be open to new ideas and don’t be afraid to jump in a new direction. Keep a look out for our OPA professional development programming and e-newsletters where we will take a deeper dive into: Effective Individual Development Plans; Pathway to Independence; Careers in Industry; Diversifying Your Funding Portfolio, and much more. We want you to enjoy your time as a postdoc at UW, so let us know how we can help you be successful and feel supported.

Learning to Let Go of Perfectionism in Grad School

I am a perfectionist by nature, but the professors have told us not to be that way in grad school. How do I shut it off? – Anonymous 

Some of the content from this article was first published by Core Programs. It has been revised and updated. 

Dear Anonymous,

Thanks for writing in! I applaud your self-awareness to know that perfectionism is part of your nature and something that may keep you from putting your best foot forward in graduate school. Please know that you are not alone in struggling with perfectionism. The culture of academia tends to promote the notion that your work is always under the toughest scrutiny, leaving little room for error or work that may be rough around the edges.

Your professors are likely telling you to let go of perfectionism because that mindset is extremely difficult to sustain in graduate school. Let’s consider why that may be true. For some students, perfectionism may lead to staying up all night to finish a paper, which — especially when done repeatedly — may be detrimental to their emotional and physical health. Other students may set goals that are impossible to reach which may lead to procrastination, avoidance and feeling not good enough.

I encourage you to shift your thinking so you can acknowledge yourself as a whole person. Four thoughts below may give you ideas for how to approach your work differently:

  1. Accept – Perfectionism reduces you to the sum of what you can and can’t accomplish. The reality is you can’t do it all, and you can’t do it all perfectly. Be concrete and intentional in your goal setting each quarter, so you can do work that is manageable and meaningful to you. Adjust your goals as you go so you know what is really possible to accomplish now, this weekend or this week.
  2. Invite – Perfectionistic thinking distorts the way you perceive the quality of your work and can contribute to isolation. Instead of feeling like you have to buckle down and work harder, make time to ask peers, faculty advisors and colleagues to talk through your work with you and help you to clarify your ideas. Framing something as a “work-in-progress” can take some pressure off. Knowledge production is a process, not a product. Nobody just “gets there” from sheer self-determination.
  3. Ground – Perfectionism can perpetuate obsessive thinking on school or work-related projects. Intentionally spend time with friends, family and community who know you are more than just a graduate or professional student. Your community can help remind you that you are a partner, sibling, parent, friend, artist, dancer, gamer, hiker… the list goes on and on.
  4. Enough – Accepting “this is enough” means that you have done the best you could given the time, experience and resources available, and it is time to be done. It also means you are enough, just as you are. Remember that intellectual and professional development are constant processes that require supportive feedback, self-revision and personal growth over time; you won’t get there all at once, and that’s OK!

I hope this gives you some ideas of how to move forward. I also want to leave you with additional resources that some of your fellow grad students have found helpful:

The Battle Between Perfectionism and Productivity: A Ph.D. student gives some well-tested advice for figuring out why you are struggling with perfectionism and how to cope with it.

How to Overcome Perfectionism: This tool from an anxiety-awareness organization in Canada gives steps for recognizing and coping with perfectionism.

This’ll Do: Kelly Edwards, associate dean of Student and Postdoctoral Affairs in the Graduate School, explains her family’s saying “this’ll do” and why she has carried it into the workplace.

As well, if you are still feeling overwhelmed or simply want more specific strategies for coping with perfectionism, I encourage you to consider short-term counseling with the UW Counseling Center. Managing academic stress as well as moods and thoughts are all topics appropriate for short-term counseling, according to the Counseling Center.

All the best,

The Grad School Guide

Ask the Grad School Guide is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guide doesn’t know the answer, the guide will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guide is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →