Starting a PhD is never for the faint-hearted. And yet, that is exactly what I decided to do three years ago, when I was freestyling research ideas with friends over white wine on a summer evening in 2021. Since then, a lot has happened by the second-year mark of this degree. So, as a gift to you the reader (and myself), here are five lessons I have learned that I wish I knew before starting my PhD.

1. Discernment is a Practice

Knowing the difference between who your colleagues, acquaintances and friends are such an important part of forming your support system. We are all aware that being a postgraduate student is a lonely process, and with that, we work in anticipation that many of the long diligent writing sessions will be just us and our laptops trying to get our thoughts out. But that does not mean we don’t make connections – academia does requires some community. But by being so caught up in connections for the sake of connections over instead of practicing discernment and self-preservation is something that I wish I had been more cognisant of. Unfortunately, not everyone in academia is your friend – where you are seeing a kinship forming, others may be seeing as an opportunity to size up their own trajectory against yours. And this comes with its own reasonings – we know that jobs in the academic sector are scarce, and this seems to have filtered down into people’s mindsets of how they can also treat other people. Which is sad but a sobering experience.

2. Harness Technology to Work Smarter

Another thing I would be aware of, is knowing what software or AI tools I would like to use for research. What academia looks like now compared to even 10 years ago when I was in undergrad is a completely different experience. But new technology aside, we know that working smarter and not harder will always pay off in the long term. Therefore, cluing myself up on the relevant tools that will speed up the research process is something that I would want to ensure beforehand. Examples include the well-known Mendeley and Open Knowledge Maps.

3. Double down on a Reliable Routine

Another thing – routine, routine, routine! As a neurodivergent person, I know that I struggle with sticking to a work plan that isn’t affected by my oscillating feelings towards wanting to work. But at the same time, that does not mean certain delimitations must be put in place to make it easier to have systems in place. Compared to my Masters and Honours, this PhD is the one project that requires way more premeditative effort. This is scary – a last-minute situation is just not going to cut it at this stage in the game. Therefore, knowing that I am aiming towards incorporating writing as a daily practice as opposed to fury-fueled writing bursts is something I’d need to practice beforehand. Being the ‘best’ researcher has nothing to do with writing the most profound thoughts at the strike of innovation. It’s about committing to the practice of showing up and trying over and over again. As someone who finds it difficult to deal with rejection, when I get comments back from my supervisors or am simply “not in the vibe” for writing, knowing that there is a routine that allows for writing regardless of how I’m feeling eases the burden of feeling overwhelmed. And this leads to the next thing…

4. Be Flexible Amid Uncertainty

BE 👏🏽 MORE 👏🏽 FLEXIBLE! 👏🏽 NOT EVERYTHING WILL GO THE WAY THAT YOU EXPECT IT TO! 👏🏽

Since my first blog, I have talked about waiting for my ethical clearance. From then until now, I had my resubmissions rejected thrice before they were accepted. If I had been more flexible, the idea of working on my chapters would not have been an issue. But because I was so fixated on when I was supposed to get the ethical clearance, when I was supposed to start doing my fieldwork, and when I was supposed to start writing, it created a mental block for the majority of 2023. Furthermore, many young black researchers often experience the inability to simply ‘do’ their research because the pressure to not only produce the work itself is an impediment but when they are often at the forefront of discovering novel ontologies and research methodologies, it creates heightened pressure. In a chapter titled ‘Carrying a Double Load’, Dunlap (2022) notes that much of the academic research that black scholars do involves searching for solutions that “only the eradication of settler-colonialism can solve”. This is further complicated by the idea that for many black women scholars, hegemonic knowledge production often does not recognise marginalised voices. Ditto to doubling down on ensuring that you can cover all your theoretical bases lest you are deemed unable to have the range within your discipline. So, being less hard on myself and knowing that due processes are part of the journey, while also having practices to remind me that my worth is not tied to following the ‘right’ timeline is something I would be more aware of if I had to restart this journey.

5. Put Self-Care Practices in Place

This ties into the next point: you have to prioritise your wellness. In an upcoming podcast episode I recorded with AVReQ, I talked about how other than gym and consuming different forms of media (TV shows, movies, and music), there was not much else I did (or did) to contribute to my well-being. I think when you are so caught up in ‘living your life’, the optics and spectacle of trying to build your profile as a young researcher can be all-consuming. But something I would definitely be more intentional about is choosing healthier activities that prioritise holistic re-balancing.