Newhouse Insider: I Don’t Know Who Needs to Hear This, But…Grad School Edition

If you’re a Twitter junkie like me, then you already know how that phrase took over the timeline for a few weeks. The phrase is usually followed by a statement of advice, an opinion, or a suggestion, which may or may not be important to your well-being. But hear me out grad students: these are important! Let’s get started — full disclaimer, these are also things I have to practice, too.

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but:

– Write it down! This will eliminate being constantly overwhelmed. Just thinking of these things is enough to make you feel stressed, and being stressed causes you to be unproductive. Writing things down seems to turn chaos to order. Oftentimes we are always on top of what is going on, and that can be a lot.

– Read those articles: Yes, reading may have tripled your load, but here in grad school, just get it out of the way. With loads of reading, it is easy to let it pile up, not get it done, and fall behind in that class. Reading ahead will give you a chance to make the most of your class time. When you read ahead, you will be able to follow along better. Reading before class even lets you be a “show off.” You can show that you’ve read and be able to ask good questions and participate in the lecture.

– Stop ignoring emails: Yes, I feel your pain too. Let’s get better together. Try to stop ignoring those emails because you will actually forget them… Like me. For me, it’s gotten so bad that it’s second nature to hear the notification, look at the brief message pop up on my phone or laptop, and then just forget about it. It’s not my intention to forget, but it’s easy when I start thinking about all the other things us grad students have to take care of.

– Don’t take those critiques to heart! As Newhouse students we are all so creative, and it is our professor’s job to grade and comment on what we have produced, whether that is writing, video, or radio. Sometimes those comments may get us down, because we were up 24/7 getting that work out and this is what you have to think of it.

– Get off social media: Now this is the toughest one, for me at least. Let those apps go while you’re getting that work done.

This post may seem like it was written specifically for you, but I promise it’s not an attack! It’s for me too. As grad students we need reminders to get back on track, and this serves as a good starter. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but…You got it! Hopefully this post ignites some fire in us all to work on these things.

Follow Darasha on Twitter @DarashaS.