Adam Gordon is studying for a DFA in Creative Writing. His doctoral work explores queer histories of Glasgow, and the effect of contemporary theories of ecology on the form and structure of the novel. He is the current Researcher Development PGR Communications Intern.

If you just started your doctorate in January, or even if you’re many months in, this blog is intended to be an ultra-practical checklist of things you can do to make your life easier. While this post is focussed on university life and research, there will be a twin post soon with some tips and tricks for navigating life in Glasgow. I have written both in the sincere hope that others can learn from my many mistakes…

Knowing where to get information: a very rough guide

This graphic gives you a (very) rough idea of how the University is structured. It’s a good starting point for understanding where all the hundreds of emails are coming from and to which bit of the university they refer!

Inverted pyramid showing university structure: University Services / Colleges / Graduate Schools / Schools and Institutes / Supervisors / You.

Your supervisory team will always be your first point of contact for anything relating directly to your doctorate. If you have practical questions relating to your student account / information, campus cards, finances, etc, the best place to start is the Student Services Enquiry Team (SSET).

Questions regarding wellbeing can be addressed to your supervisor, but there may be things you’re not comfortable discussing with them. UofG has a broad range of wellbeing and support services to help in any situation: start here, and remember that you can also contact the Student Support Officers for your College.

Computers & IT

So much of our work and research is now online, it’s worth setting up that online environment with the same care you would your office. If you don’t have a computer and need to apply to borrow one from UofG, you can do so here. If you are buying a new computer, remember you can get a student discount!

Office 365

Take ten minutes to read this blog post on the apps to which the university offers free access. Essentially, you want to get comfortable with Office 365. It’s free, it’s fully supported by IT services, and will integrate with the university systems when you need to make a presentation, for example. You can use it online and/or download the apps to your computer, and cloud storage means you can access your work from any university computer terminal. I’m a Mac user, and it took me months to finally start using the Office suite. It would have saved me a lot of hassle if I’d gotten on board sooner.

To help with this, you can access IT skills courses through Researcher Development. These cover the various apps / programmes you have access to, including functional Word templates for your thesis and even basic programming. Save yourself a lot of heartache and get this stuff under your belt early on!

Printing

To use university printers, you’ll need to install some drivers on your computer. Follow this step by step guide and don’t forget that you’ll need to purchase credit in advance.

Email and web browsers

Inbox Zero. The holy grail. Confession: I haven’t had inbox zero (no unread messages) since about 2012. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a good goal to aim for! I am living proof that if you don’t keep on top of it, it keeps on top of you. And you will be deluged by emails from all the various departments of the university. Try to hit inbox zero each day, and don’t be afraid to delete immediately what clearly isn’t relevant to you.

If you have multiple email accounts – for example, if you also have a UofG staff email as I do - I would recommend using different web browsers to access each. (I use Safari for my job and Chrome for my research.) This will help stop your web browser becoming confused and logging you into the wrong system. (If this does happen, the first thing to do is clear your browsing history and cookies and try again.) I also tend not to save my email passwords on the browser or laptop, to avoid work/research mixups.

Personally, I do not recommend using an app like Gmail, or the Mail app on Macs, to funnel all your emails into one place. It makes it much harder to separate the different areas of your life. If it’s a ‘Thesis Day’, but I’m checking work emails, I’m distracted and it’s all too easy to lose an hour answering emails that could wait until my next ‘Work Day’. Check out this excellent talk from former PGR Intern Charie Rex, given as part of the most recent This PhD Life Symposium, on email, organisation, and time-management.

Smartphone Apps

UofG has a number of dedicated smartphone apps. They are incredibly useful! UofG Life and Moodle Mobile mean that you always have access to your UofG accounts and information on the go. SafeZone is a great initiative that helps us all feel more comfortable on campus. There’s also a UofG Sport app, which I’m sure is wonderful for people who (unlike me) do sport… You can find out about and download the apps here.

Mandatory & Optional Training

Once you’ve got your computer set up, get your mandatory training out of the way. Not only do you have to do it to pass your annual review, it will help you get things like information security and data management right first time around.

Also, there are literally hundreds of optional training sessions across the year, as well as a number of self-paced online training courses. Take some time to browse and see what might be helpful.

Library Borrowing History

We all aim to keep perfect track of our reading, but with the best will in the world it isn’t always possible. (Perhaps literature researchers are especially prone to leaving the library with 12 books in their arms, reading six, and racking up fines on the rest.) Fear not: there is an effort-free solution!

Login to your online library record using your name and the 14 digit barcode number on your campus card. Select ‘View Reading History’ and from there choose ‘History Opt-in’. All the items you check out from then onwards will be recorded. You can delete items from the list if you wish and your borrowing history is entirely confidential.

I know for a fact that there are people who did their entire PhD without knowing this feature existed, and I cannot tell you how much I wish I had done this from the start.

This is a brief overview of what’s available to you, but these are the apps and tips I have found most useful since starting my doctorate. Look out for our upcoming post on navigating life in Glasgow!