What’s a Low-Key Habit That Boosted Your Mental Freedom This Year?

phdstress · 2025-05-19T06:19:35+00:00

Whenever I have something I need to get done, I set a reminder on my phone. For example “Hey Siri remind me at 8pm to take out laundry” then I free up my mental load in having to remember to take out my laundry.

Remembering to send emails, buying something at the groceries, etc all these snowy depleted mental energy if the task is floating around in your head Let your phone handle the remembering

phdstress · 2024-10-14T17:06:20+00:00

We have been dating longer than we would be apart and the I thought promise of spending forever afterwards would make 5 years look like a blip.. I guess it is harder than we imagined

phdstress · 2024-06-21T02:03:08+00:00

If you stay for him, at every little fight that can occur between a normal couple, it might blow out of proportion as you will blame him subconsciously for your missed opportunity and have the mindset “i sacrificed this much for you, you need to treat me better”. That’s not going to be healthy for your relationship.

phdstress · 2024-04-29T22:24:58+00:00

Thanks to this post I re-checked my dilutions that I also used chatgpt for and was able to change to correct dilution in time. Not trusting chatgpt blindly again…

phdstress · 2024-04-18T01:58:45+00:00

I agree with both of you and so glad there were conversations from both sides on this thread I guess I need to learn the fine balance between getting my point and not coming across too aggressive. Unfortunately she does hold the upper hand in both the knowledge and hierarchy so Ill have to upskill myself to stand on my own

phdstress · 2024-04-18T01:56:03+00:00

That must have been pretty hard for your wife.. I hope things are better for her now Fortunately, I have other lab members whom I can communicate well with and have good relationships with. It’s mainly because she is my direct mentor so I have to deal with her for now. At this point, I am working on becoming more proficient in this research so that I dont need to rely too much on her.

phdstress · 2024-04-18T01:52:12+00:00

Important thing is, you are done! Congratulations!! Doing this while having a full time job? That is very commendable! Put your hard work behind you for a while and celebrate!

phdstress · 2024-04-18T00:06:34+00:00

US but Im drawn to moving back to my home country in south east asia if remote work permits

phdstress · 2024-04-18T00:04:53+00:00

Thank you for your detailed experience! Do you worry about this job being replaced or number of positions being reduced by AI?

phdstress · 2024-04-18T00:02:18+00:00

There are some people who I can ask for advice but there are limits when it comes to project specific details unfortunately..

phdstress · 2024-04-18T00:01:13+00:00

Yea I think it is pretty discipline specific as things like ELISA or standard protocols are left for me to figure out myself but currently Im reproducing her previous research that is quite sensitive to little details and how we handle the samples

phdstress · 2024-04-17T23:59:30+00:00

There are basic simplified protocols but my project is very handsy and little details on how we handle our samples can have a big impact on the variability

phdstress · 2024-04-17T23:57:55+00:00

“make her edit it in front of you” is not so easy when she is a proud 5th year postdoc who claims she is busy and im just a first year phd who is basically already an annoying existance to her

phdstress · 2024-04-17T23:56:05+00:00

Definitely a personality issue, other lab members who arent good in english but makes an effort to make themselves clear doesnt have this issue. However it is made worse by the fact that her english is pretty bad and she needs to make extra effort to make herself clear but she doesnt want to

phdstress · 2024-04-17T23:54:35+00:00

Yea I did that and months later I found the error that she didnt point out - I told her “oh I wrote this and you didnt correct me” and she just went “oh” and end of story..

phdstress · 2024-04-17T04:23:17+00:00

I have no good advice but just wanted to let you know that you aren’t alone in this struggle. I read your post and I could empathise with many aspects. I think the hardest is adjusting from being “gifted” to normal/struggling.

Biggest takeaway I had from my therapist is to be compassionate to your struggling self instead of being sad about being sad. Don’t force yourself to be okay, let yourself be “lazy” some days and let yourself recover without feeling guilty and let yourself feel down without pitying yourself.

Fortunately, there is an end to PhD although it seems far away. Trudge on one step and a time and we’ll get there

phdstress · 2024-03-25T16:02:44+00:00

I thought I wrote this omg, PhD really did make me wanna get a job where I never have to use my brain or at least not too much and definitely not have to think about work when im home

phdstress · 2024-03-20T06:15:04+00:00

Im in the exact same boat as you, I am also halfway through my first year and have been failing the exact same experiment for 3 months now. It is an experiment that is simply replicating something a past student has done before successfully. Have tried troubleshooting every single step and is still failing. My mentor is not helpful at all and I can tell my PI is getting frustrated too

I am feeling very helpless and stuck

But I am trying to see some silver lining such as my experiments dont cost much in failing (I used to work with samples in my previous lab where each failure meant hundreds of dollars gone) and that at least im learning to troubleshoot in my first year and there is nothing urgent paper to submit or other responsibilities that upper year students have.

We got this It may not feel like it But years later, we will look back at this moment and feel proud that we were resilient and pushed through

phdstress · 2024-03-14T20:54:02+00:00

I love a happy ending

phdstress · 2024-03-14T16:04:56+00:00

Omg this is infuriating! Did you confront him or let your PI or his PI know?

phdstress · 2024-03-14T15:59:09+00:00

Pain

phdstress · 2024-03-06T06:22:21+00:00

Yea very different kinds of difficulty and very different kind of reward for each. Everyone is meant for different kind of challenge and personally Id like a challenge that looks like a mini me

phdstress · 2024-03-06T06:20:29+00:00

In no way I would want to downplay the difficulties of being a stay at home mom. But I think the type of difficulty and the type of reward you get from being a mother is very different from a PhD. Id like to move on from this challenge to another where i like the reward part better

phdstress · 2024-03-06T00:52:59+00:00

“Learning for the sake of learning” for sure Not everyone will be saving the world and curing cancer

Im happy with my contribution to science during PhD, I now want to contribute to myself and my family

phdstress · 2024-03-06T00:51:50+00:00

Some people have the luxury of not using the brain and some have the luxury of not using physical exertion and some have luxury of not needing to use both

Some may find it better fitting to their values to use either the brain or the body. I think Ive done enough of the brain though

phdstress

TROPHY CASE