Mason Grad Insider

Although as grad students, we have all had to navigate class planning and organization for quite some time, acclimating to what this means for graduate school can be a challenge. As many of us are balancing coursework with other responsibilities, such as graduate assistantships, full-time jobs, and personal lives, it can be easy to get lost in the weeds of timelines and deadlines. Outlined are some of the easiest and most straightforward tips for staying organized throughout the semester.

Oftentimes, as graduate students, we feel the need to continue as if everything is fine, or that taking time to destress will take away from time that we could spend completing another assignment. In actuality, not being aware and recognizing that you need and deserve a break could negatively influence both your health and academic studies.

With Zotero, you can upload your library of research articles, as I did, or you can add them in via DOI, ISBN, ISSN, and so on, and you can even add in sources manually. From there, you can sort your sources by folder (such as a folder for each research project, one for each class, or one for each topic) and add in ‘tags’ to make finding information easier.

As a result of this large and dynamic community, it can be somewhat challenging to connect with others. You may wonder how to find connections and build relationships with those around you. I was one of those people, lost in the hustle and bustle of grad life.

We need to nap, too! During graduate school, when we are trying to balance the multiple demands of school, work, and personal lives, it can be tempting to think of sleep as an optional activity (instead of an essential biological function), just to squeeze a little more reading, writing, or lab work in. In actuality, consistent, sound sleep can be a key to success in grad school.

So self-care has become a bit of a buzzword recently. But what does self-care actually mean? What does self-care look like for you?

One of the more tedious tasks to studying or reading for your graduate course work is taking good notes on what you are reading. While this may or may not come easy to you as a student, it is an imperative skill to master as soon as possible. Below, I’ve summarized how to use the Cornell method on note-taking that you can apply to almost any graduate course you take.

How many of us set goals for the academic semester or year? Goals are important to getting things done and moving forward to advance both our professional and personal lives. They serve as a motivational tool to keep us on track and focused on the many smaller tasks that lead up to achieving our desired outcomes.

Interpersonal skills can be described as those that allow you to successfully interact with and convey information to other people. Regardless of our program or degree level, all graduate students can benefit from improving these skills, especially those of us preparing to enter the career world soon.

Networking — the dreaded topic Career Services loves to tout as uber–important – cannot possibly continue in these socially distanced times, can it?  Yes.  Networking is alive and well.  And, similar to social events, K-12 education, and even political debates, to be safe and effective, a bit of change is required.