看到一篇关于Graduate school的blog，感觉写的很有道理，与我目前的想法很相符。

  • Thought #1: Research Trumps All

This is the master thought that most of the other thoughts support. The job of a graduate student is to learn how to do professional-quality research. At the end of your grad school experience you will be judged by the quality and quantity of the research. And that’s basically it. Remind yourself of this truth often. If you’re not making progress on your research, then radically rethink your scheduling priorities.

Comment: 对于Graduate Student来说，研究重于一切！研究重于一切！！研究重于一切！！！重要的事情说三遍！

  • Thought #1.5: Don’t Let Courses and Quals Distract You From Thought #1

Don’t get too caught up in your courses or qualification exams. Study smart. Do good work. But remember, this isn’t college, and doing well academically is merely a prerequisite for being a successful graduate student — it’s far from the ultimate goal. Keep coming back to your research as priority #1.

Comment: 我这学期犯的一个最大的错误就是，还是把Graduate School当作college来上，整体疲于应付课程作业，完全没多余精力搞研究。

  • Thought #2: Don’t Be a Firefighter

A simple truth: you’ll have more urgent things on your plate than you’ll have time to complete. If you spend your days only putting out one fire after the next as they arrive in your inbox — paper review requests, articles to read, extra experiments to conduct for your advisor — you’ll get very little original research done. This violates thought #1.

This syndrome, fortunately, is easy to avoid. Spend the first 2 -3 hours of the morning doing original work. Only then should you check your e-mail for the first time that day (and let the firefighting begin).

Comment: 每天早上一起来，先做最重要的最original的事。

  • Thought #3: Stick to a Fixed Work Day

The nature of graduate student work is paradoxical. You’ll always feel like you should be working more hours. However, if you add these extra hours, your work output doesn’t increase much. With this in mind, you might as well fix a regular work day (I do 9 to 5:30) and refuse to work beyond these hours (with the obvious exceptions: the night before deadlines, etc.)

Do this, and four things will happen: First, you’ll focus more and get work done faster. Two, you’ll start work earlier which increases its quality. Three, you’ll start turning down time-consuming requests that add little to your career (and be pleased to discover that you’re allowed to say “no”). And four, your stress and guilt will plummet.

Comment: 争取每天下午5:30之前完成所有工作

  • Thought #4: Three Projects is Optimal…

Working on one research project at a time is not enough. If you get stuck you can go many weeks beating your head against the wall and getting nothing done. This sucks. More than three projects are too many; quality will suffer and you’ll feel overwhelmed. This also sucks. Juggling three at time seems to be just about right.

Comment: 至少要有两个项目同时进行，这样当有一个项目stuck时，可以切换到另一个项目，不至于浪费时间。

  • Thought #5: …But Don’t Work on More than One Per Day

Within the context of a single day, focus your attention on a single project.

  • Thought #6: Listen to the Married Graduate Students and Ignore the Unmarried Students Who Live in the Dorms

Students with families have perspective on life and friends outside of the university. They tend to be happy and productive and think sleeping on the futon in your office is childish. They also bathe every day. Which is a nice bonus. The students who are unmarried and living in the dorm have probably escaped, thus far, exposure to the real world in any meaningful form, and because of this they are likely to have a warped sense of personal worth and work habits, and suffer from weird guilt issues. Ignore them.

Comment: 这个建议挺新鲜的，值得一试 :)