At some point in your grad school career, you should be writing.

For me, it cycles through the challenge of writing while in classes to the wide open space of vacations and summers when I should be writing, but seem to do every other thing on my to do list before sitting down at my computer. 

Over the past few years, I've stumbled across some great writing resources, many provide subscription emails. A few subject lines from these resources popped out at me this morning from my inbox, and I'd like to share. 

"How to Get Out of a Writing Rut" from Henneke Duistermaat at Enchanting Marketing

Much of Henneke's emails focus on marketing strategies. But she also provides writing exercises throughout her series that help you mold your writing into something more concise, and pointed. 

My Favorites from Henneke: 
Support for Writers Who Feel Stuck
31 Articles to Find Your Writing Voice
​How to Sculpt Concise Sentences

The Professor Is In by Karen Kelsky

Karen's blog has some great posts about a variety of PhD topics. She also offers a writing accountability program, Unstuck: The Art of Productivity, that you can register for (small fee). 

I highly recommend her book, The Professor Is In. Add it to your bookshelf or your kindle. 

What works best for you? Any great resources or tricks you've come up with?

Bestest,
​Bailey

I read many stories online, most of them from websites that offer an ESA letter for a low price of $49.99 (generalization) with testimonials from happy customers who had been rejected from airlines or tenants for subpar ESA letters before. 

I also found articles written from a legal standpoint that those customer service provisions aren't necessarily the best way to go either. For details explaining the legislation protecting ESA and their owners in "No Pet" housing, read this article.

I contacted my landlord to find out what they would like to have. Specifically, what needs to be stated in the letter from my doctor (or other providers that are accepted) to avoid having to repeat the process. 

By process, I mean scheduling an appointment with my busy doctor to get the letter, only to find out there was some loophole my landlord found and having to go back, dragging out the process by months. And for someone with anxiety, that would not be the best prescription. ​

One of my current projects as a baby genetic epidemiologist is taking a look at missing heritability in type 2 diabetes. Reading papers late one night, this image popped in my head, and I had to draw it out. Laughing alone with my laptop and my dog on PubMed is probably a sign of too much coffee, not enough sleep. But, enjoy the cartoon! I hope to have more. Science is my life, as is creativity. 

xoxo
​BD

Great news! I've come back from my first conference as a PhD student and it went great. 

• For the first time, I knew a good amount of people at the conference
  • It was great introducing my present colleagues to those of past - matchmaker!
• I spoke with a number of interesting poster presenters about the intersection of our research
  • I've already incorporated some of their suggestions in my current projects

If you read my first post on getting the most out of conferences, you may recognize a few of 'tasks' or suggestions I mentioned. 

You may be thinking, "Bailey, what was your goal for this conference?" Read more to find out. 

How do you feel when you go to a conference? Are you nervous? Overwhelmed? Personally I wonder if I’ll ever get to the point in my career where I feel at ease, looking forward to seeing colleagues from all over the nation I’ve collaborated with on projects.
​
My advisor runs a weekly breakfast club for his advisees, and with a national conference coming up in the next few months, we wanted advice on how to get the most out of conferences. He came up with a top 10, that I’ve organized and elaborated on below. I’ll expand on a few in my next post (Part II).

All of these tips fall under the category of preparing for your own success They should be done before the conference, and then acted upon. Make a game plan and you’ll return home feeling accomplished. 

Click the pic or hit read more for all 3 tips.

Re-evaluating your priorities is a good idea to do at least once a year, but can be especially helpful if you are feeling stale or stuck in a rut.

Orientation brings a tsunami of information crashing down on your head. Administrators and students acknowledge this fact in your meetings with a smile and joke. But by the end of the day, your pleasant expression has twisted and you'd prefer they get on with it.

But it's not their fault - what you really need is for the semester to fast forward a week or two. Diving into course material in class, instead of syllabus review. A routine for your schedule - problem sets due Fridays, lab reports due Wednesdays, happy hour on Thursdays.

​Everything fitting in neat little boxes in your head, instead of the nebulous cloud of worry and the frantic feeling you're forgetting something. 

I am 2 days into my first semester as a doctoral student, and am able to clearly see the difference in my mood, my anxiety levels, and my outlook compared to starting a new year in undergrad and during my master's program. 

I'm not worried about the exams or teaching styles. I've had enough professors to trust that I can assess and adapt. I'm worried more with funding, and meeting training expectations, and turning in paperwork on time. These small tasks that build up in your email inbox, while you try to organize the rest of your life. But stick in the back of your head. Even with them written down on my task list, I find myself remembering them days later, with a quick jolt to the chest checking the deadline. 

But guess what? 

​It all just fell into place. 

​A past professor encouraged us to reformat our emails to busy supervisors. Often we start with pleasantries, and hide our true purpose for emailing in a body of text or at the bottom of the email. Get to the point with these templates.

​To continue reading, click below. 

​Transitioning from college to residency, I learned many workplace lessons that ended up being rather traumatic. Any infographic or article you see that lists the differences between Baby Boomers, Generation Xers, and Millenials summarizes many of the challenges that twenty-somethings encounter in the workplace. While we use email and text as a go-to communication tool, more experienced colleagues and supervisors find it impersonal and possibly offensive to address certain topics via email. Similarly, being called in for a one-on-one meeting with your boss may throw a millennial in a tizzy. What did you do wrong? Why are you in trouble? 

While everyone can benefit from understanding why and how these different generations function, that doesn’t mean everyone is going to assimilate. Learning how to construct an appropriate email is important. Learning when not to send an email may be even more important.
​
Email often lacks context, making it a challenging communication medium in general. When Baby Boomers and GenXers view email as impersonal and disconnected, the problem is compounded. As humans, we are programmed to consider facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, and our knowledge of the person. With email, we’re limited to the text in front of us and our knowledge of the person. Some consider TYPING IN ALL CAPS to denote excitement. For others, it’s angry. 

​To continue reading click below.