Dialogue tool - No worries
Here you will find a tool for sharing and discussing worries. We hope this dialogue tool can help mitigate unnecessary worries that many PhD fellows have when starting PhD studies.
Many newly enrolled PhD fellows are excited to start this new step in their career. At the same time some PhD fellows may feel insecure and a number of questions may emerge.
Do I have the right competences to enter academia? Will I be able to work with my supervisor? Will I get publishable results from my experiments? Can I keep up the motivation throughout the three years?
These are questions that many PhD fellows ask themselves after the first enthusiasm of embarking on their studies has faded. Sometimes these worries may impede transition into independent research, and in any case worrying unnecessarily is unpleasant and disruptive.
You may recognise some of the worries on this page, but there will also be a lot of worries that you do not subscribe to. By bringing out the worries with the use of this dialogue tool, it will hopefully be easier to talk about otherwise sensitive issues, and thereby supporting a better process through PhD studies.
Worries
The tree illustrates the worries that newly enrolled PhD fellows experience. The stem and roots represent inner worries, while the branches and leaves represent external worries. For descriptions of the worries, see dropdown boxes in the bottom.
About the dialogue tool
Here you can read about how to use the dialogue tool, and how it was developed.
Use the dialogue tool together with others
You can use the dialogue tool together with your supervisors or you can form a group of PhD fellows, or establish a forum where new PhD fellows discuss worries with more experienced PhD fellows, who can then become mentors or sparring partners. There are many ways to use the tool and talk about what you recognise, and what it means. But we do recommend that you use the tool together with others rather than sitting alone and become overwhelmed with all the things you can worry about! You would like to reach the point of finding solutions and ways out, and that works best in collaboration with others.
Find positive focus points
Some worries can be turned around and become positive focus points. For instance, if you discuss the time limit and project management, this may result in you forming a group where you support one another in finding good project management tools or courses, or being more aware of asking each other about progress and difficulties, and what each of you may need during the PhD process. In a discussion with your supervisor you may become aware of the need to delimit the research project, to prevent that it gets too big.
Start by noting your worries individually
It makes a difference that you think for yourself first and decide what worries you have, before you look at the tree with all the things you could worry about.
Also see the Instructions below.
We recommend supervisors to use the dialogue tool together with your PhD fellows. Let them reflect on their worries first, and then talk about what it means, how much energy these worries may consume, and what you can do to mitigate or reduce them.
Also see the Instructions below.
- Start individually by noting your worries. Write 3-5 worries on a piece of paper or some sticky notes. It makes a difference that you think for yourself first and decide what worries you have, before you look at the tree with all the things you could worry about.
- Look at the tree and check if you can find similar worries here. Click on the tree if you want it in a file for printing.
- Take turns to tell about the worries each of you noted.
- Then discuss each of your worries, talk about what it means, how much energy these worries may consume, and what you can do to mitigate or reduce them.
In the drop down boxes in the bottom of the page you find descriptions of the worries depicted in the tree. The descriptions will give an impression of what the worries cover.
This dialogue tool is based on a research project that explored new PhD fellows’ worries. In the project we collected data from workshops at the course Introduction course for new PhD students through five years. At these workshops PhD fellows shared their worries. More than 500 PhD fellows have taken part through the five years, and they worry about very different things, some didn’t have any worries, but most of the PhD fellows had the experience that it was constructive to share and discuss their worries. You can read more at this blog post.
Below we have illustrated the frequency of the worries in our research project.
Themes
Here you find descriptions of the worries.
Stem and roots
To doubt oneself and one's abilities and capacity to live up to expectations. This category covers feeling 'too stupid', not having the right qualifications, uncertainty about the task and the challenges, withstanding pressure, and wanting to ‘maintain a good impression’. Some express this as the imposter phenomenon – summed up as: at some point they will discover that I cheated my way to this position, and that I am actually not competent (in spite of all my successes). Others express it as uncertainty about the task and the challenges, and doubt whether one can live up to the pressure and expectations, which for some is expressed as a fear of failure.
Some are well aware that they are ambitious or are perfectionists, and this gives rise to worrying.
This worry can be described in a continuum from purely external reasons for losing motivation in one end, to losing the inner passion at the other end. The external reasons can be formalities and processes, if the research project takes a turn and a direction different from one’s interests, getting stuck, and doubting the relevance of the research, not being satisfied with one’s performance or productivity, and whether it was the right choice to embark on a doctorate or their specific doctoral project.
There is a fear that studying for a PhD may damage one’s body and health, perhaps hair will start to fall out, weight will be gained, or one will experience challenges to maintaining general health.
Becoming lonely is a worry. Some worry that tight relations with family and friends will deteriorate, others worry about their ability to build relationships, whether as a family, in maintaining friendships or in crafting good quality collegial relationships.
This is by and large a worry about maintaining a sensible balance between work and leisure time, perhaps described as a fear that work will get out of hand, or a worry of having enough time for oneself, to socialise, travel or time for family. Some express a fear that they may not enjoy the intensity of the work, worrying about digital distractions, FOMO (fear of missing out) and having too many social obligations.
Both stress and burnout are worries. Some worry about finding good strategies to handle stress and remember to enjoy the fun parts.
Worries about moving to Denmark from abroad may be expressed as a matter of adjusting to the weather, the long winters and Danish food, but concerns about how to integrate socially, including embracing ‘drinking habits’ [sic!] and cultural norms. Some also worry about adjusting to the academic culture and the practice of critical thinking.
Mind you, there were also some doctoral researchers in our workshops who failed to come up with worries – they did not worry about anything!
Branches and leaves
This theme includes concerns about being able to network (making ‘small talk’) or about building a network, making collaboration work, avoiding conflict e.g. in relation to co-authorships, and to getting the support required for academic success. Some worry about competition with other research groups.
For many, this is a new genre, and a source of worries of many kinds including producing publishable results, the time limit – to be able to do enough experiments and produce enough data and write enough manuscripts within the three years, publishing in high-impact factor journals, living up to expectations in the research group, being efficient in publishing, going through the peer review process and get manuscripts accepted.
Another aspect is the writing process, having the skills to write in this new genre, and writing in English as a second language. Some worry that they could face a writing block.
This is closely related to the theme ‘time factor’, but here the respondents are well aware that project leadership is the key to managing the time issues. Worries are about prioritising, being realistic, keeping deadlines, and sticking to the plan so that tasks are not piling up at the end. Also concerning resources like equipment, and laboratories, whether teaching and other duties as an employee at the university will take up too much time, and being able to say ‘no’ to tasks.
This worry is about being able to write the thesis, making a common thread through a coherent thesis, and building up the story through good argumentation.
The public defence itself can be a worry even from the outset of the PhD process.
This can be worries about finding a focus at all in a very broadly defined research project, or more concrete concerns about research projects that are cross disciplinary or lack coherence, fitting their research into a larger research theme, and living up to academic demands whilst collaborating with industry. Some feel insecure as they moved into new territory, having done their Master’s in a somewhat different field. Others worry about the direction that the research takes in relation to their own future career possibilities.
This is a huge worry for many doctoral researchers in our context; to be able to finalise within the time frame given. Some are worried that research may progress too slowly, that they will need to make changes to the plans, and that things will go wrong in experiments. This theme also includes worries that the research project might be unrealistic and too ambitious in relation to the time frame.
This theme covers both specific research competences and more general competences like language and communication, insight in their field of research, setting up experiments correctly, data collection in the field, and managing pregnancy and lab-work. More concrete skills concerns are related to specific research methods, choice of methods, and theoretical framing of analyses, and about the use of statistics in the analysis of quantitative data. The literature review, writing in a second language, expressing ideas so that others understand, creative thinking, developing ideas and innovations, and issues related to research ethics.
This theme covers a variety of concerns including worrying about living up to the expectations of the supervisor, building and maintaining a good relationship, whether the supervisors will show interest in the research project, diverging expectations for the research project, and diverging opinions on how to go about the research. Gaining ‘sufficient supervision’ is a worry, but also getting the ‘right type’ of supervision, the turn-around time for feedback, and whether one can ask for feedback on early drafts. Also, finding the right co-supervisor and clarifying the co-supervisor’s areas of responsibility, and managing two or more supervisors, who may have different interests and internal conflicts.
This can be worries about the day to day business of managing life’s administrative burden, including tasks like finding a place to live, and not ending up in poverty (for those coming with a scholarship from their home country).
Some a worrying about life after the PhD degree. Whether a research career is the right choice, or merely selling oneself and one’s competences and finding a job after the PhD. Or just worrying about what direction to take after the PhD.