Top 7 New Year’s resolutions for graduate students

With 2016 under way, here are some of the resolutions graduate students might be struggling to keep. These are worthwhile goals, so stick with it!

• Grow your skillset: A new research technique. Mentoring skills. Communication skills. Pick one new skill (or more) and develop a specific plan for how you will hone that skill. Devoting an hour and a half a month attending relevant Transferable Skills Workshops might help achieve this goal. Remember: A goal without a plan is simply a wish.
• Get organized: Sticking with this resolution will actually help you accomplish most of your other resolutions! Investing time now to get organized (and staying organized) will save a lot of time down the road. Tools such as Evernote or Toggl can prove useful in keeping track of what needs to be done and/or how much time you spend on specific tasks.
• Update your CV/resume: Not much time or effort is required to add each new accomplishment to your CV as soon as it happens. It is much more difficult to try to recall all of your accomplishments or the specifics about each accomplishment, if you wait until you’re ready to start looking for your next job.
• Publish something: Admit it: You are pursuing a degree in one of the biomedical sciences because you like playing in the lab. Chances are, you don’t like to write. However, at some point you have to set down and write a manuscript for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. After all, this is a graduation requirement! Besides, what good is research if you and your PI are the only individuals on the planet who are aware of the results?
• Intentionally meet new people: As remarkable as it might seem, even in a cutting-edge field of research, nobody gets ahead solely by keeping chained to the bench. It is absolutely essential that you build a network of peers and professionals working in related fields of interest. Start small — attend GSA events and participate in planning GSA activities. Introduce yourself to individuals who attend your poster presentations. Expand your network at every opportunity.
• Stay (or get) healthy: A major problem with this resolution is that it is not specific and there are no clear measurable outcomes. Every year, virtually every health/fitness resolution is quickly abandoned because it is too difficult to see progress.
• Spend time working on your thesis/dissertation every day: You don’t need to have your committee’s “permission to write” in order to start writing. Work on writing the methods on days you’re actually performing experiments — the details will be fresh in your mind. As soon as you complete the analysis for each set of data, write up the results — hot off the press! Finding a quiet time each day to write a paragraph or two will ease the load in your final few months as a grad student.