The Biggest Mistakes I Made In The First Year of My PhD

Starting a PhD can be exciting and daunting, and when you start, you have a whole vision in your head of how it’ll play out and what you’ll accomplish, and it never unfolds how you expect it to. People say the first year is a learning curve, but as a part-time, self-funded student living alone and running my own business, it turns out, the first two years were a massive learning curve. Everything in my life has changed since starting my PhD, from how I view my relationships, work, mental health, finances, behaviours and interests, thoughts, and talk about and who I open up to.

Today, I want to share the biggest mistakes I made during the first year of my PhD. It should be noted that these are mistakes I made during very specific circumstances and environments, so many of these may not be a problem for you. It will all depend on your subject, economic and social background, support network, student status, learning disabilities, health conditions, etc.

Mistake #1: Following Other PhD Students’ Advice Online

Point number one is incredibly ironic coming from me, a PhD Student, giving advice, but hear me out. Before I started my PhD, I subscribed to and followed many PhD students online, on YouTube and social media, and I tried to do everything they did. I tried to…