Insights
This week, I attended all my classes. I did my readings and wrote my paper on time. I kept up with my meetings and professional commitments. I showed up for the groups and communities I am part of.
Anyone hearing this might immediately think that I had a pretty good week. Some may even think that it could not have gone any better, given the vagaries of PhD life.
I beg to differ though. Looking back, I realise that my week has been rather unsuccessful, if not downright horrible. For instance, I did not get nearly enough sleep the last few days. I have been eating too much junk. I made huge profits for YouTube and Netflix (Damn you, Autoplay!). And I did not make time (believe me, I had the time) for my personal projects or non-work things.
What counts as a successful week in a PhD is not just a function of how well your research work or other professional responsibilities went. It is equally a function of your health, diet, sleep, relationships, personal projects, hobbies and much more.
Of course, you can’t do everything everywhere all at once. But if you neglect the important things of life, things that are beyond work, then you may still ‘succeed’, but lose all the same.
Ideas
I think that this past week could have been personally more meaningful, had I remembered this wonderful insight from James Clear’s Atomic Habits: “Every action you take is a vote for the kind of person you wish to become”.
We know in the heart of hearts that we have acted in ways that were unproductive or unhelpful and done things that we are not proud of and would certainly dread internalising and becoming.
Perhaps, we can avoid some of that if we can remind ourselves that each action we take is a vote we cast for the future version of ourselves.
P.S. For the uninitiated, here’s James Clear explaining the idea in brief and in long-form.
Inspiration
There is a bunch of public holidays coming up this week, which means I get more free time than usual. But more free time does not always equal more productive or meaningful activities.
In fact, too much freedom is bad for us. We need the right balance of freedom and constraints in order to thrive.
So, this is my personal reminder for the coming week: how can I use all this free time - time that I will never get back - in ways that are meaningful to me?
Maturity
Essence of the whole text---PRIORITY MATTERS.