At the start of your PhD, it is like finding your feet, enjoy that time, because that is when you are left to your own devices. You walk into your office at your hours of choice, speak with your supervisor/colleagues about the possible directions the next 3(ish) years of your life could go.
This may seem almost offensive, but: USE THAT TIME!
I won't lie to you, it is awesome to use that time to watch the latest TV show or fool yourself into thinking you are doing work by using Twitter etc.
However, it feels even better to engage, and I mean really engage, in a conversation with your peers about things you have just read in a paper.
Now, just telling you to read in (or around) your subject area is unnecessary, it is knowing what to read.
If you are anything like me, you would avoid theses or papers that cross a certain number of pages, this can seriously limit your intake of knowledge.
Rapid reading is a technique that improves productivity, and aids your knowledge intake. Essentially, it is:
- Reading a paper a number of times, at decreasing speeds.
- Becoming aware, earlier, whether a paper is useful to you.
- Extracting key information from a paper, without reading it too deeply.
- Reading a paper with a fresh mind set.
All too often, we rush through a paper, looking for a key piece of information (often to prove us right) and we can miss other information.
Skim reading a paper a few times can help you to avoid spending a few hours on a useless paper.
Plus, it prevents the boredom/despair that can arise from seeing a stack of papers on your desk. You can just spend the morning skimming all the papers (making you seem and feel more productive) and only reading the ones you find to be useful in more detail.
Finally,
