To say the first month of my PhD has been a whirlwind would be a huge understatement. I have learned so much already, about my research area, of course, but also about myself, and about academic life. And I still have 3 years and 5 months left to go!

When starting something new, I think it’s important to take a second to reflect on your progress. For me at least, reflecting gives me the chance to celebrate my successes, learn from any challenges I’ve faced, and help me see the immediate future a bit more clearly. I usually do this in a format like a spreadsheet, but I thought I’d also do it in a blog post this time in the hope that it might help anyone else who is new to a PhD, or thinking of starting one.

General Thoughts

So far, I am loving being a PhD student. I am genuinely so happy to be back studying full-time, and getting to spend my time and energy researching something I am really passionate about. It’s so refreshing, and gives me a huge sense of pride and drive. My friends and family have commented about how happy I’ve been since returning to university: To quote my mum: ‘You sound as excited about space as you did when you were a child!’. Hearing things like that, I’m feeling confident I’m on the right track.

I’m finding my research incredibly interesting, if a little daunting at times. I’ve only just begun to dip my toe into the worlds of distributed ledger technologies and satellite applications, and there is so much information to take in! I’d prepared myself for this before starting my research, but there are moments where the enormity of it all does get to me.

I’m really enjoying learning from the other members of the Applied Space Technology Laboratory and the wider university and space communities. Everyone I’ve interacted with so far has been very supportive and helpful, and hearing about their work and research is so inspiring and eye-opening. It’s awesome to be constantly surrounded by people who love space as much as I do!

I think I’m starting to find my feet in this brand new environment. The learning curve has been steep, but not insurmountable. Of course doing a PhD is going to be a challenge – it’s are meant to be!

Achievements and Challenges

So, what has the last month actually looked like? What have I actually done? Well, here are some of the things I’m proud of achieving so far:

• I had an abstract for a paper about smart satellite maintenance accepted for the International Astronautical Congress in Milan.
  • Really excited to work with fellow researchers from Luleå University of Technology on this paper!
• Womanthology featured me in an article about women working in the space sector.
• I’m getting into a rhythm for reading papers. Having been out of university for 5 years before my PhD, this was a skill I needed to re-learn. I’m finding I can read papers a bit faster now!
• I completed my on-boarding admin for my PhD! (This was no small feat. It was a lot of information to take in!)
• I have created a rough plan for what I want to achieve in the immediate future. At this stage, it’s hard to pin down exactly what my PhD is going to look like, but I have a rough direction for now.
• I signed up to volunteer with ‘I’m a Scientist, Get Me Out of Here’ to get back into some outreach, which I always enjoy!

And as with anything, where there were achievements there were also challenges. The main challenges I have faced so far are:

• The huge amount of information that is out there. It’s a blessing and a curse. It’s amazing to have so much interesting research out there that you can get stuck in to, but there have been times where I’ve felt like I’m buried under a mountain of papers that I need to get through. It’s important to remember that you can’t read everything that’s out there, nor are you expected to.
• Getting distracted. I think I can be like a magpie sometimes. I’ll be reading about one topic, spot a slightly related, really exciting paper on something else and end up jumping between really cool ideas. This is fun, but falling down a tangential rabbit hole is not the best thing for me to be doing! I’m learning to keep myself in check with this.
• Getting used to academic writing again. Research papers and literature reviews are very different from blogs or magazine articles. They have a different structure and language to understand, and it’s a skill in itself to be able to understand a paper and then also make judgements on the quality of what you’e reading. Critical thinking is a muscle that needs to be used a lot in research!

Advice for Other New PhD Students

Finally, I wanted to share some helpful tips I’ve picked up in the last month which might be useful to any other new or soon-to-be PhD students:

• Start using a referencing system as early as possible! (Thank you to Josh in my Group for this awesome advice!). Referencing systems are so helpful for keeping track of papers, and citing them in your future work. I use Zotero for storing my references, but you could also use EndNote if your university has a license.
  
• Reach out to others, including those in your research group, department, other PhD students at your university, people on LinkedIn etc. Building up a network of people not only makes a PhD more fun, but it gives you a support network, many more opportunities to learn from others, and chances to collaborate on projects.
  
• Make a note of what you learn. This may seem obvious, but it can be easy to read lots of information and not actually digest it and turn it into something that may be useful. Summarise what you’re learning in a document or presentation that you can then use in future work. I find this helps me to consolidate my knowledge, but it also helps me spot any gaps in my understanding which gives me a new focus when looking for more papers to read.
  
• Keep a daily diary, and write a sentence or two each day about what you did and what you learned. This helps me keep track of what I’ve been up to because it’s easy to forget! I keep my diary in a OneNote, and I find it helpful when I find myself wondering ‘what did I even do this week?!’. It’s very helpful for fighting any feelings of ‘I’m not being productive enough’.
  
• Work in small chunks. This is some great advice that my supervisors gave me very early on. Don’t focus on trying to solve every problem or answer every question in one go. It’s an easy pitfall to get stuck in. Instead, focus on answering smaller questions or delivering smaller items, and build on each of these chunks in turn. This helps combat any feelings of overwhelm, and also helps to give you some direction when you’re looking for the next step in your research.
  
• Keep an accomplishment and feedback log. Whether you are a student, academic, or working in a different job – keeping a regular record of what you’ve achieved and what people have said about your work can be helpful for so many reasons. You can do this in lots of ways, like an Excel spreadsheet, a notebook, or even voice notes to yourself. Keeping an accomplishment log can give you:
  – A confidence boost when you’re having a rough day
  – Examples of good work if you have performance reviews or – appraisals
  – A reminder of what you’ve been working on (it’s easy to forget when you’re busy!)
  – A chance to reflect and think about what you want to accomplish next.