Best products from r/GradSchool

We found 77 comments on r/GradSchool discussing the most recommended products. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 208 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the top 20.

Top comments mentioning products on r/GradSchool:

u/ProffieThrowaway · 7 pointsr/GradSchool

Hey there!

I am mentoring a couple undergrads right now who are considering the same thing. I recommend starting to network now, if you can, in addition to what was said below (and what I am going to say now).

If you are interested in feminism, go to Fem/Rhet at Stanford this fall. If you are interested in technology, go to Computers & Writing next Spring/Summer in Pullman, Washington. Remember my name on here, message me, and I'll make sure you meet folks (providing you are sincere and professional--which is always important). If you can swing it, go to the CCCC conference as well, but I'd make sure you have a mentor who can show you around and make sure you make it to the evening events too.

Don't be afraid to meet academics in the field. The best ways I've met people (previous to becoming one of them, of course) was working registration at conferences or other so-called "service" jobs. If people thought I did good work they'd give me a helping hand when I needed something later on. Also don't be afraid to friend us on Facebook providing that you say relatively professional things regarding school most of the time. Rhet/Comp people are friendly.

When you start your grad program it's okay if you don't know everything, but don't complain about what you don't know. There is a whole series of books on philosophers and critical theorists to check out if you are "behind" in that area: http://www.amazon.com/Heidegger-Beginners-Eric-Charles-Lemay/dp/1934389137/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372193006&sr=8-1&keywords=heidegger+for+beginners

When you are in grad school make sure to get experience in all three "areas" needed for tenure some day: research, service, and teaching. All three will benefit you on the job market. I also had a lot of administration experience which made it much easier to get hired. I got that through working in the writing center (and eventually being promoted to direct it) and then getting a WPA job before graduation.

Go to a good school, but understand that there are different kinds of good schools and that academics move around all the time. My Masters program was a good program that had "big names" at it. They all left within a year or so of me finishing that degree, so I'm glad I didn't stay for PhD. My PhD program had neither, really, but was good for me for a variety of other reasons (mostly not having to drive or fly home to constantly take care of my parents--only child here, sometimes we don't have a choice). Sometimes programs can be great without having a single "big name," but they are harder to find. Lastly, sometimes "big names" are jerks--getting out there and meeting people and listening to what they have to say about folks in the field is the only way you have of finding this out. Don't take ANY ONE PERSON's opinion as final--listen to what lots of people have to say about a program or person.

Lastly, get somebody to read your statement of purpose for grad school. That is a very important document. Understand that while you don't have to know exactly what you plan to write now, we want to know that you have interests that fit with the folks in the program. It also has to "read" right, "sound" like you had somebody read it, and fit in a relatively tight genre.

u/Oleanderphd · 1 pointr/GradSchool

Sorry I didn't see this until now. I hope it's still relevant to you!

  1. Buy a rice cooker from Japan. The "from Japan" part is important. (Korea is also OK.) I like Zojirushi; I have this one: https://www.amazon.com/Zojirushi-NS-ZCC10-Uncooked-Premium-1-0-Liter/dp/B00007J5U7.

  2. Buy rice. I like short-grain white rice that's fairly glutinous, since it holds together well. Calrose Botan is good. You should try different kinds; once you get fancy, you can match your dish with different kinds of rice. Or you can just buy 20-lb bags of the rice you like.

  3. The rice cooker will come with a cup for measuring rice. Don't lose this! Put one measure of rice in the bottom of the rice cooker.


  4. The inside of the rice cooker will have lines for the amount of water to add. Add water to the line marked "1", because you used 1 scoop.

  5. Open 2 regular-sized cans of pinto beans or one ginormous can of pinto beans. Drain out the liquid. (You can use a collander if you're fancy, but I kind of hold the opened lid down to prevent the beans from sliding out and shake it over the sink. Rinse the beans once or twice with tap water, drain the tap water, and add the beans to the rice.

  6. This is your basic prep, which you'll add things to. I like to use pre-cooked chicken, because I do not have time to cook my own chicken. Rotisserie chicken is aces - rip off little bits and throw it on top of the beans. Those pre-cooked strips are good, too. Or use the internet to find directions for cooking boneless chicken breasts, cook them, cut them into cubes, and throw them on top. DO NOT put raw chicken in this prep unless you enjoy food poisoning.


  7. If you want your spinach cooked, mound it in there on top of the beans and rice. I like to fill the bowl almost to the brim - it'll cook down.


  8. Don't add cheese before cooking!


  9. Press "Start" on your rice cooker. If you got the Zojirushi, it will play you a tune!


  10. When your rice cooker is done (it plays another tune), gently mix ingredients together. Or dig down through the layers, lasagna style. Put this in a bowl, or a tortilla. Layer cheese, guacamole, sour cream, chili pepper flakes, and/or salsa on top in the proportions you like. I like salt, so I usually add a little salt.

  11. That's it! The permutations are kind of endless; canned tuna, Rotel tomatoes, frozen vegetables, a raw egg. Sure, the frozen broccoli is better steamed separately, but you're a grad student with limited time and patience, so throw it on top of the rice! It's still good! If you're really short on time, skip the rice and just make beans plus whatever else you want - it'll heat everything up and keep it warm for you and kind of simmer stuff. I think it tastes better that way.

  12. For oatmeal, add oatmeal instead of rice, set the rice cooker setting to "porridge", and add water to the line that says "1: porridge". Add whatever combo of sweet/savory you like.


    This is all pretty forgiving, so you can experiment a lot to figure out what works for you. I pretty much use mine for everything except baking and boiling water. (Reheated leftovers in the rice cooker requires putting the leftover in the rice cooker and then turning it on until hot. It's aces for Chinese and Mexican food.)
u/nullomore · 4 pointsr/GradSchool

They are not supposed to read like memoirs in that it shouldn't be a complete history of your life, but it's okay to use anecdotes to tell your story. In fact, I'd recommend it.

There's a great book called 55 Successful Harvard Law School Application Essays (http://www.amazon.com/Successful-Harvard-School-Application-Essays/dp/0312366116). I highly recommend that you read a good bunch of them to get a feel for what a good personal statement sounds like. When you read them, try to criticize the essay before reading the criticisms presented on the next page. In my opinion, the given criticisms are often spot-on. Test yourself to pick out what's good and bad about the essays until your intuition is good.

When you write your own, here's what I recommend

  • Decide what is the one more important thing that you want to express. Make sure it's not something already included in your resume. Some acceptable choices are "I am a person who will work damn hard to achieve my goals" or "I am a creative problem solver" or "My special skills in this area will help me be a great student/researcher."

  • Write down a few anecdotes that demonstrate this one idea. Make sure the anecdotes are fairly specific. For example, if you want to talk about how working in a lab during college taught you important things, make sure you state exactly what you did and exactly what that experience taught you. This is the part where you're allowed to embellish a little. If your story isn't quite 100% perfectly suited to your purpose, it's okay to fudge it a little.

  • Weave these anecdotes together in an essay so that it has emotional impact and clearly presents the one idea that you wanted to express.

    source: Editing personal statements is a big part of my job.
u/nanon_2 · 18 pointsr/GradSchool

>Can we also admit that men's IQ tends to wrap around women? Meaning that at the very far ends of the Gaussian, there are more men, meaning that there are more retarded men but also more genius men? When you get to something like professorship, you are selecting for the best of the best of the best, so you are going to start to see that far end of the Gaussian matter.

I honestly don't know why people put so much importance on IQ tests and SAT scores when neither are perfect measures. In fact, a construct like IQ is not a concrete domain and to treat it like it is, is pretty silly. On top of which, there is no CAUSAL link to IQ and success, it is all correlational. I would suggest reading up more on what IQ is, confidence intervals, regression to the mean, how well any test captures the top and bottom 1%, and what an IQ test or an SAT actually measures. To assume that an IQ of 158 versus 165 is going to make ANY difference to your creative ideas or chance at professorship/getting grants is a gross misunderstanding of the skills required in a scientific job. While you are at it, read this article to put "scores" in more perspective: https://qz.com/441905/men-are-both-dumber-and-smarter-than-women/. I would also suggest buying and reading this book: https://www.amazon.com/Inferior-Science-Wrong-Research-Rewriting/dp/0807071706

u/Monory · 10 pointsr/GradSchool

I've really enjoyed Discovering Statistics using R by Andy Field. The book is written more like prose than a textbook, and is rarely dry. It requires you to learn how to use the R programming language as well, but I think it is very worth it. Everything he teaches, he teaches it at the conceptual level first and then shows you how to perform the tests using R. A great bonus is that R is great for data visualization, and being able to visualize large data sets quickly really helps get a better understanding of the data you are working with, which helps learn the theory.

u/Satellite0fLove · 1 pointr/GradSchool

Exercise - I was a total skeptic when it came to this one. Exercise made me feel worse, not better, and I felt as though I didn't have enough time for it. But now that I have consistently worked it into my schedule, it has done wonders to help lower stress and anxiety levels, increase my confidence, and now I actually want to jog.

Physical appearance - This is just a personal thing and varies in importance from person to person, but dressing professionally and taking some time to do hair, make up, buy a new outfit, etc. make me feel more confident when at school. So I basically never dress at school how I would at home.

Don't be too stressed if your research isn't working out, and don't be afraid to share progress - I am in the humanities, so this may be different for other fields, but I had a research paper to work on last semester and it took me nearly the whole semester to finally come up with a concise and definite argument and pull it together. But rather than compromise or give up, I have a good argument and publishable idea. I also decided to present my fairly underdeveloped paper to a conference. I told them that it was an active work in progress and that I was hoping for feedback - and I got just that!

I would also recommend reading Deep Work by Cal Newport. I don't usually take much away from these types of books, but the tips and strategies for time management and productivity really make sense to me and I have been actively working to incorporate them into my academic life.

If possible (I know this isn't always something grad students can do), have a vacation planned far in advance, even if it is just a day or two where you plan to go get out of the house and do something fun. That way you have something to look forward to in the long-term.

u/not_my_nsfw_acct · 1 pointr/GradSchool

This is a pretty curt way of saying it, but I agree. There's probably people here that are a lot better than me at focusing on their research or getting back on track after getting distracted, but it's something I have struggled with throughout grad school. I've recently started getting my political news from 1-2 podcasts I listen to on the weekends; if anything HUGE happens it will find its way to me - I don't need to follow the news constantly.

I'm probably not among the smartest of my peers and colleagues, so I have to stay vigilant to not fall behind.

I find the argument that news/social media/TV/etc. are training our brains to want continuous hits of dopamine pretty convincing and have recently become a convert to Cal Newport's Deep Work philosophy that getting continual streams of information out of your life is a way to be happier and more productive. He is a CS professor at Georgetown, so he's not just some self-help guru; he practices what he preaches. He has a pretty good podcast interview with Ezra Klein (former WaPo reporter and cofounder of Vox.com) on his "philosophy" that's worth a listen if you're interested.

This is a long comment, but the parent made a good point that was worth expanding upon.

EDIT: And if you're wondering "why the hell are you on Reddit then?" - I do my "browsing/social media" stuff between 5-7pm every day to try and limit my exposure.

u/lost_molecules · 2 pointsr/GradSchool

Some thoughts:

  1. Yes, grad school will take over your life. But if you like the academia setting, then you'll probably like it. Also ask yourself, what else would you rather do as a career if money wasn't a huge priority? Work in an office? Be an Instagram model? Housewife/husband? Teacher? What sort of *environment* do you want to be in? BTW, I still have friends and a social life, so it's not all work work work. You can have an apartment, a dog, and bike cross country while being a grad student...
  2. You're smart for choosing Biochem as a BS because it will give you flexibility for going into different fields (medicine, biotechnology, genetics, toxicology, biomed engineering, nutrition, pharmacy, etc.). Usually, you don't go into the same field you majored in. Your PhD is supposed to be more specialized. Pick an idea/project that will interest and challenge you. What do you care about? Helping people? Saving polar bears? Treating cancer? Solving crime? Making drugs? Fitness? Use that as a jumping point to narrow down your interests.
  3. Please take a gap year (or 2). I took 2 before college and another one before grad school to "live my life." You need to figure this ALL out before you commit. Don't apply yet, but start studying for the GRE and lining up who will write your letters of rec. Financially, STEM PhD's have decent stipends so you'll be ok. Also, grad students get to travel, like, a lot. There'll be conferences to attend and travel grants to apply for so you'll get to travel for free essentially. See if you can apply for an REU. It'll give you a taste of grad-level research and they usually pay well.
  4. Do you actually dislike interacting with others? In STEM, there's a lot of collaboration. However, on the flipside, I've spent many a lonely day (and night) in the lab doing solo experiments. You can get an MS, which is less of a commitment and might give you a slight edge. However, those usually aren't funded. But maybe you can find an employer who will pay for it if you're in the healthcare field.

    Your research will not likely change or influence the world, lol, so no need to be motivated by that.

    Lastly, read this book. It will seriously answer all your questions: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-What-You-Came-Students/dp/0374524777
u/kristianmae · 3 pointsr/GradSchool

I know you posted this over a week ago, but I'm currently reading a book that may help you! As the title states, it's a "crash course" on scholarly skills, but it has two chapters that offer some helpful advice on how to be an active reader. (The other chapters are how to write, speak, research, etc.) It's been recommended a few times on this sub, so you may already know about it -- but I'm finding it very helpful! It also reccomends reading for main point

As for digesting.... Just know that you're going to have to read A LOT, and much of it is going to be unrelated to your research interests. There's absolutely no way you can remember everything you read, and trying to do so for some (like me) can be fruitless and counterproductive. So, this may be very controversial to some, but if it's not something you're really interested in researching further, its not a critical text/theory/etc. for your field, or a required reading for a class discussion, there may not be a need to really retain it long term.

So, when I read anything (for my own research, for class discussions, or just because) I highlight the thesis, the main arguments in support for the thesis, and the main arguments against. I write notes in the margins, and at the end of chapters I summarize the most sailent points and add my thoughts. If I can't summarize what I read, I go back and read it again. I scan this back into my computer, add my notes in Mendeley (or a spreadsheet, or whatever works for you), and move on. If I need to go back to it, it's there. Otherwise, if it's something I'll never need to think about again (outside of the class discussion) or it's irrelevant to my research, I drop it from my brain.
Obviously if it is something I need to remember or it is for my research, I don't drop it. But, I still read and annotate the same way since it is incredibly helpful to see my original thoughts if I have to go back to it.

EDIT: I should note that this was what I did for my MA three years ago. I'm starting my PhD this Fall, so who knows if I stick with this after reading /u/grammatiker 's awesome method!

u/beaverteeth92 · 0 pointsr/GradSchool

I'd say don't take a class. You'll be paying a lot of money for a generalized approach intended to strengthen a bunch of peoples' GRE scores, instead of focusing on what you need help with. Suck at verbal and good at quant? A class isn't going to spend more time on verbal just because you suck at it.

I'd recommend hiring a good private tutor and/or joining Magoosh. Magoosh is $80 for six months and it's by far the best prep material I've found. It's all online and has videos teaching you different types of material. Those are like a Khan Academy for GRE prep. They also have questions and a quiz mode, so they throw questions at you and also give you an estimated score range based on how many you get right. The questions are much harder than the real GRE so they prep you really, really well.

I'd say also get the Manhattan Prep 5-lb Book of GRE Problems. They're really good, reasonably challenging, and harder than the real test. They don't teach you "tricks" as much as teach you the actual material you need. Avoid Kaplan and Princeton Review like the plague, since their questions often have a lot of typos and aren't good prep. Also for sure get the Official Guide to the GRE, since it's the only place to get official ETS questions. They resemble the ones on the actual test the most. If you're having trouble with a particular topic, Manhattan Prep also sells guides for individual subjects like word problems and geometry that are really good. ETS also sells books of Quantitative and Verbal questions for extra practice.

Good luck!

u/ZombieDavidBowie · 2 pointsr/GradSchool

This book is awesome; it helps with setting realistic goals for daily production, and helps with making academic writing a part of your daily life. I also do a modified version of the Pomodoro Technique when I work. Kitchen timers don't work very well (I have an old wind up college test timer clock), but there's also an iphone app that's just as good; odd thing about it--I have to be able to hear the ticking. Cuts out the ambient noise, and structures my work habits.

As far as diet and exercise--go with whatever you can manage. I notice that I eat a lot more fiber these days (sorry if that's too much information), and because my gym/cardio takes a bit of a back seat, I make sure I walk everywhere, and I keep a good pace. I operate best when I've had enough sleep--I do my best work in the mid-morning. However, these are just things I do, and I'm sure everyone is different.

u/30_rocks · 1 pointr/GradSchool

Take a look at this recent post. There are some good suggestions in there.

I posted in there, but it still applies here: Writing Science: How to Write Papers That Get Cited and Proposals That Get Funded. Great book, easy to read, and I saw great improvement in my writing.

u/[deleted] · 2 pointsr/GradSchool

I'm sorry you are going through a rough experience. Part of life is finding out how to make room for ourselves in environments where that's not important to other people. It took me a while to do it and who knows how long I'll be able to keep from getting dragged back into a situation like that, but it's possible and it's worth it. I found this book really helpful. I wish you the best.
https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-What-Understanding-Self-Motivation/dp/0140255265

u/WordOrObject · 17 pointsr/GradSchool

Really, right now, just that it's my job. The fact that it sometimes sucks isn't an excuse. Neither is the fact that I don't feel inspired to excellence every day.

I sit down for two hours every morning and write. It's the habit that keeps me going, especially when writing feels like the horrible chore that it often is.

That sounds bleak, I suppose, but I've actually started to feel a lot better about my work and progress since adopting this perspective. It means that I'm not failing at being a grad student just for not "feeling the love" or whatever. It means that I make incremental (sometimes infinitesimal) progress every day.

This book sort of articulates that perspective. It's a book about writing, on the surface, but I've found that it's also a great "how to cope with this shit you got yourself into" manual (at least, if the size of the task combined with the overwhelming pile of other stuff you need to do is what ails you).

u/Schmallory · 1 pointr/GradSchool

We read this book in a graduate writing seminar I took this semester. It was the first book we read and I thought it had some great ideas on how to develop a writing schedule and stick to it. We followed it with "Writing Science" by Josh Schimel which really gets into the details of how to write WELL, not just a lot. It's much more dense but worth looking into if you're committed to improving your writing. :)

u/shoestring_banjo · 1 pointr/GradSchool

As the other poster said, you should look at examples from your field/program/group. Examples of previous students are some of the best places to learn what belongs in your manuscript.

If you're in STEM then I'd recommend the book, Writing Science, by Schimel:

https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Science-Papers-Proposals-Funded/dp/0199760241

It's a great primer on what makes a good paper. The style and way of thinking presented in that text, combined with analyzing previous dissertations, is what I've used to write my dissertation.

You should also ask your PI for any of their prior students' dissertations that stand out as a good example. They'll likely have some that they can name and possibly send to you.

u/iNoScopedRFK · 1 pointr/GradSchool

Where can I find the (up-to-date) tests? Or is there a book that I can buy that has a bunch of different ones? I'm planning on buying this so I'll have the 4 tests included with that but would like to take more as well.

They changed the GRE a few years ago didn't they? So, I'm sure this is a given but just in case, I'm looking for practice tests that are up-to-date with the new test. Thanks!

u/polyphonal · 1 pointr/GradSchool

Writing with Style is great. It's not about thesis writing specifically, but is focused on how professional authors think about their audience when they write. It's enjoyable and useful.

u/MrDominus7 · 3 pointsr/GradSchool

Discovering Statistics Using R by Andy Field is probably your best bet. It's pretty comprehensive in terms of what it covers and is easy (and enjoyable) to follow along with and understand.

u/AmaDaden · 2 pointsr/GradSchool

My two favorite books on meditation are Search inside your self and 10% Happier.

"Search inside your self" is written by a former engineer and current meditation teacher at Google. The books focus is almost entirely on piratical advice on meditation based on peer reviewed research. To be clear, he is not him self a researcher so don't expect that level of detail or writing but there are several pages of references. Here is a talk from him so you know what you're in for.

As I said else where in this thread when /u/slugmaiden recommend "10% happier", I've read a few books on meditation and most are simply "here's a bunch of random meditation techniques". "10% happier" is an actual, interesting, readable, story of how he went from a coke addict that had a panic attack on live TV to a regular practicer of meditation.

u/BrutalCassius · 27 pointsr/GradSchool

Just took the test on Saturday and got 170V/168Q. Let me tell you a few things about prep:

1)DO NOT waste your time or money with Kaplan/Princeton/Barron's etc.. they are inadequate and full of distracting typos.

2)Do use Magoosh.com and/or the Manhattan course. They both come with top-notch instruction and lots of practice tests/questions. I actually used both. For even more practice questions (which you probably won't have time for at this point) check out the 5 lb book of questions.

3) Definitely memorize every word on the free Magoosh vocab flashcards. Knowing these words saved my verbal score.

4) For the love of all that is holy please use the official GRE book that is put out by ETS.

5) Do not ignore the essay. It requires a very specific type of writing. Even if you are a "good" writer you will be disappointed in your score unless you write the way they want you to. What you may not know is that every essay is graded by one computer reader and one human reader. For $13 you can actually have 2 essays graded by the exact algorithm the computer reader uses and you'll get an idea of where you stand.

u/Polyscikosis · 1 pointr/GradSchool

(speaking as a guy in Grad School).... I personally love the Shoulder Bags as opposed to the backpacks. I have one similar to https://www.amazon.com/Mobile-Edge-Messenger-Laptops-17-3-Inch/dp/B0029L7N9E/ref=sr_1_89?ie=UTF8&qid=1535931324&sr=8-89&keywords=shoulder+bag

​

and I am sure there are female styles/colors/ etc that would work for you. It gives you the capacity of a backpack, with a little more seriousness of an academic. (at least this is what I tell myself haha)

​

​

u/AfterSense · 1 pointr/GradSchool

https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Monthly-Weekly-Planner-Easy/dp/B0759T84HT/ref=sr_1_17?keywords=planner&qid=1565896030&s=gateway&sr=8-17

used that when i was in grad school. i like how there's a huge section for the schedule and also a huge blank section that i could fill up with tasks/assignments due, etc. also it's pretty cheap and comes in a variety of sizes. and i liked keeping the dots in there because i had been bullet journaling too but couldn't keep it up during thesis writing.

u/Professor_IR · 2 pointsr/GradSchool

The advice about scheduling writing time is good. The book "How to write a lot" goes through several "myths" of non-productivity and suggests setting a schedule and sticking to it will help you overcome these difficulties. I wish I had read through this short work earlier: http://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Lot-Practical-Productive/dp/1591477433/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334677315&sr=8-1

u/thewaltzingbear · 1 pointr/GradSchool

There are some guide books that give a decent overview of the process, what grad school entails, thinking about the job market etc. It seems like you are at a really early stage of thinking about it, and given you didn't specify the many questions you have, those would be a good starting point. Here are a couple:

1

2

3

u/remembertosmilebot · 1 pointr/GradSchool

Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!

Here are your smile-ified links:

book

---

Never forget to smile again | ^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly bot

u/dogdiarrhea · 1 pointr/GradSchool

I've heard good things about this book.

Edit: Here's the Canadian site: http://www.amazon.ca/Probability-Theory-The-Logic-Science/dp/0521592712

For some reason the US site doesn't have the table of contents.

Another handy link: http://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/prob/book.pdf

It contains the first 3 chapters, you can read through it and see if the explanations are to your satisfaction.

u/byrd_nick · 15 pointsr/GradSchool

I stopped working nights and weekends (with exceptions 2-3 times a year when a bunch of deadlines overlap). Working too much didn't help me get more done.

It just made the quality of my work worse. Once I got in the habit of taking time to rejuvenate, I realized that I could get just as much done in 8-9 hours a day for 5 days as I could working 10-12 hours a day 7 days a week.

This is only true when

  1. I sleep 8-10 hours a night and
  2. I exercise 5 days a week.

    When I do those, it is fairly easy to focus and work efficiently enough to get everything done in 40-45 hours a week.

    And I also recommend (listening to) Cal Newport's Deep Work. Pay close attention to how Newport thinks. His lessons apply more broadly than the examples he gives.
u/krismicinski · 2 pointsr/GradSchool

Nearly all PhD students face this as they come to the final years of their degrees. Coursework, reading groups, and teaching are often (sometimes artificial) ways to give structure to your life and allow you to escape the reality of confronting the hard work that needs to be done on your dissertation. Realizing that you're totally alone to structure your time and organize your research can be daunting.

When it comes to difficult knowledge work, don't feel too bad and realize that you will go through spurts. Many people only get a few (2-4) hours of genuine writing done a day: this isn't something you can crank out for eight hours a day continually for a few months like experiments or coding.

I read a book "how to write a lot," and found it helpful in accomplishing this:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Lot-Practical-Productive/dp/1591477433

u/betti_naught · 4 pointsr/GradSchool

I would highly recommend reading Deep Work by Cal Newport. The book has really helped me in balancing working full time for a silicon valley startup, writing a master's thesis, and having a family.

u/scubasnack · 3 pointsr/GradSchool

How to write a lot. Ironically, the book is quite short!