“Looking Towards The Future”: A Year On

So last year around this time I wrote a post looking forwards towards the future, what I wanted from 2020.

In the end I didn’t apply for my PhD. I looked up supervisors, did some research and then decided that I wanted to wait until the academic sector calmed down enough for it to be reasonable again. I want to give myself the best chance at getting this PhD and to do so at that time wouldn’t have been the right move for me. I made this decision after weeks of going back and forth, and I’m glad I did. This last year was incredibly tough anyway; I changed jobs and then we went into lockdown and when we came out of it I returned to work but it wasn’t the same, my mental health had really been knocked down and ultimately I had to leave work for that. I’m now doing a lot better and able to start looking for work again, but trying to do a PhD if I had been in the middle of all of that? It would have been impossible.

There is a lot of uncertainty still, and the goal is to start my PhD around the end of this year, if not the beginning of next. Hopefully that’s given everything enough time to settle, for things to start going to a degree of normalcy in that sector.

My note taking software has been tested and planned out and I’m eager to put it to good use. I’ve got it prepared and ready to go. I just need to actually start the PhD and get writing now. I still need to look up where I can get physical texts from, and where I can go to do some of the research but as far as I can tell I should be set.

So, looking ahead to this year, what am I expecting?

I have a couple of things that I want to get done, like looking up those last little bits of research and refining my PhD idea again. I want to continue with my current hobbies, language learning and getting a handle on things like keeping the house clean and cooking good meals. I want to put my efforts into being happy, no matter what path I’m on at that given moment. If I’m not happy then why am I doing that particular thing? I’m not just talking about “this class is difficult and i hate it therefore I’m going to quit” but if the entire course is something I don’t like, if it’s dragging me down and I get to the point where getting out of bed is difficult and I’m getting ill just thinking about it. If I get to that point then I should be looking at ways to improve, or what I can change.

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Hey! Tara here and thanks for checking out my blog. I update every Tuesday with posts about studying tips, advice and talk about productivity and organisation too. If you want to keep up to date with my latest blog posts I’d love it if you subscribed to this blog.

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