By Bakari Akil II Ph.D.  (I wrote this in 2007 in my first year as an assistant professor)

Whenever I want to achieve a task that requires more than a few days work I use a daily checklist. A daily checklist allows you to accomplish the following things; meet short, mid-range and long term goals; allows you to relax at the end of the day; keep track of your progess;  remain clear and focused on what you are trying to achieve; and prevents depressive thoughts brought about by aimlessness.

When I was pursuing my Ph.D. I used a daily checklist to keep me on track, to keep track of my progress and so I could relax. As long as I was accomplishing things on my constantly updated and revised list I knew that I would achieve my objective. It served as a motivational and inspirational tool that allowed me to be active in my own destiny.

Further, my list served as a no-nonsense guide that let me steamroll over road blocks. This is because I knew that if I didn’t accomplish the items on my checklist on a consistent basis I would never get things done. Working on the items on my checklist helped me to build momentum as well as confidence that I could get the job done.

So how can you use this system to your advantage? Here’s how:

1. Set a clear goal or outcome that you want to achieve.

2. Discover what it will take to accomplish that outcome.

3. Create a step by step list (using short, mid-range and long term outcomes).

4. Now break those items down into a list of daily tasks that will help achieve those short, mid-range and long term outcomes.

5. Create a document (daily checklist) that lists the items with a space that allows you to check it off.

6. Print as many copies you need to complete your task (14 days, 30 days, 90 days, etc.).

7. Revise the list as necessary.

8. Keep the daily checklists in a folder or notebook so you can pinpoint why things are or aren’t going according to plan.

By creating a daily checklist you put the outcome firmly in your hands. It serves as a tool for inspiration and motivation and helps you to build and maintain confidence. It also helps you to stay calm because you know that you will achieve your goal. Daily checklists also lets you monitor your progress and can help you determine why you have or haven’t achieved your goal. It is a very useful tool to put in your arsenal of products for getting things done….

Develop your gameplan: 25 tips for the budding Ph.D.

Get your copy of 25 tips for the Budding Ph.D.

Note:  All doctoral students are ‘braniacs.’ 

Colleges and universities are increasingly raising the standards for their admission requirements. The ‘cream of the crop’ students are now fighting each other for entry into the lowest tiered institutions of higher learning. Community colleges are now beginning to see a greater influx of highly prepared students that normally flock to the nation’s finer public college and universities.

By the time these students decide to attend graduate school they are well-oiled machines. When it comes test taking, maintaining superior GPAs and maximizing standardized scores for graduate exams such as the GRE, MCAT, LSAT or GMAT they have absolutely no problems.

So when you are in a doctoral program and look around, the people you see are just as capable, willing and determined to succeed as you are.  However, that success that helps you to gain access to doctoral programs can also be a detriment to the successful completion of a program.

I speak from personal experience and the experience of others.  Unless your like Sheldon, from the TV show the “Big Bang Theory,” most people who enter PhD programs are in their mid 20s or older. Many are married, have children, have worked in a career before returning to graduate school or have had some hard-core adult experiences. Voluntarily reducing one’s social status to student, who is ultimately not looked upon as much different than an undergraduate, can be extremely difficult to do.

This can often lead to an unwillingness to ask for help; to establish relationships with staff or with professors outside of the classroom due to the subordinate role a doctoral student must adapt.  On the other hand, it doesn’t have to be that complicated. Some doctoral students may not search for mentorship because they are so used to solving problems on their own. It never occurs to them to seek the aid of faculty and staff.

Faculty members also play an important role in this equation. They have numerous obligations they must meet in order to remain viable academics. Mentorship requires effort and must be balanced with all other duties. So many are not trying to mentor as many as possible. Often times they will seek out those who appear to be ‘stars’ or who seem to share their same academic interests. Further, human nature plays a huge role in the choice of whom a faculty member chooses to mentor.  Gender, ethnicity or race, age or publicized ideology causes faculty members to naturally drift toward certain people. Faculty members, work against this tendency (I hope), but truthfully, it happens quite often. 

Regardless of the reason, don’t be in the ranks of those who do not have mentorship. Reasons are just that and eventually they become excuses. Here are some thoughts I have on why you should have a mentor:

1. It’s impossible to know what you don’t know.

No matter how intelligent we are as human beings when we are in new environment there are experienced people who must guide us.

2. Mentors can provide you with an overview

At the onset, middle and near the end of a doctoral program it is difficult to see the bigger picture. Your mentor has already survived, flourished and knows the road map.  Why ignore that?

3. Networking

A mentor can point out or introduce you to others you should know in the program or in the field you’re in. They can provide that nudge, tip or insight that may be hard for you to obtain on your own.

4. Recommendations

They can help you with references at a later date. Trust me, I repeat, trust me, you will need them. You will apply to so many different jobs, fellowships and other academic related concerns. It helps to have mentors who can provide references.

Protection

They can help you work through problems with other faculty or the dean if an issue occurs. And they can occur. To have a faculty mentor act as a buffer for you will be crucial when you have an administrative or major problem with a faculty member. I have seen many doctoral students who have cried because they did not know how to protect themselves from an obstinate faculty member.

Sounding Board

You will have many ideas for research you want to conduct and dissertation subjects you are interested in. Mentors can help you refine your ideas and point you in the right direction.

Warning System

They can let you know what trouble may be headed your way. They are privy to many conversations that may include you.  

Dissertation Committee

Mentors can point out who might be a good fit for your committee. They can also serve on your committee if your research matches their specialty. It puts another ally in your corner.

Overall Help

Mentors can be of service in so many ways. And you can have more than one. At times you can think of them as a coach or trainer. Any serious athlete would not attempt to compete without one. Graduate school is not any different. You’re in the big leagues.

For a lot more advice get the book: 25 tips for the Budding Ph.D.

When I was being interviewed for my current position as an Asst. Professor, the Dean of the department told me they use Rate My Professor (RMP) as an evaluative tool. Not just for new hires, but for all faculty.

What????

Of course, my college uses the standard student evaluations as well, but I was informed that we were in the top 10 of colleges for numbers of students who use Rate my Professor. I was flabbergasted, but at the same time I began to recognize the power of these external rating services that allow students to decide which professors’ classes they want to sign up for. 

At my last college, my students didn’t seem to know about RMP so the only evaluations I had on the site were those I collected as a doctoral student. Judging from  those ratings, they either loved me or wished they could catch me in a dark alley. Yet, I was not worried because I allowed my then current employers to send my evaluations to the college I was applying to. They were good to go!

Further, I also had the records of my evaluations from my time as a Graduate Instructor at FSU. They were also very good and I placed those in my application packet too. 

I wasn’t concerned after I had time to think about the use of Rate My Professor as an evaluative tool by the college, but I did learn some valuable lessons:

1) Keep a copy of your evaluations (from every place you teach) to show legitimate observations from students you taught.

2) Make sure you get the majority of your students to fill out evaluation forms (so the results will have meaning).

3) Be fair, respectful, caring and professional with every one of your students. It will be reflected in your evaluations.

4) Know that Rate my Professor and other sites are lurking out there and can have an influence (albeit minor) on your career.

I know that Rate my Professor has value but I also know that students can post comments at any time. Most of the excellent comments are posted all during the semester or afterwards. Yet, the negative ones are almost always posted after the students finds out their grades. The good thing about the in-house system of professor evaluations, used by colleges and universities, is that is provided before the students know their final grades so they can be more objective in their evaluation of their professors. A scorned student who earned a B but wanted an A+ or who earned an F/with 10 unexcused absences, but wanted the “Gentleman’s C” is not a very nice person when he arrives at the Rate my Professor homepage. Your reputation is garbage with this person no matter what kind of professor you are.

With enough evaluations, services such as Rate my Professor can be a very useful tool for students. It can also provide insights for professors, but unless it is highly skewed in a positive or negative direction, the anonymity, the possibility of fraud and the use of it by highly motivated student evaluators makes the service suspect. Your evaluations from students, who actually come to class and are present at the time of evaluation, are the ones that count.

Yeah, Rate my Professor Matters,—– but not really!

Get your copy of “25 Tips for the Budding Ph.D.”

By Bakari Akil II, Ph.D.

Even though I resented the idea that I had a Masters Degree and ended up in a job paying $29,000 a year, I knew that when I entered the doctoral program at FSU my money making ability would plummet substantially. In fact, I had no idea how I was going to pay for my education. Then the letter from the University arrived.

They would pay for my classes. CHECK! (But it was contingent upon the following.)

They would also pay me a salary of $1300 a month (after taxes) if I taught two classes a semester. CHECK!

I’ll take it. Although I had never taught a class before in my life, I’ve held leadership positions, including McDonald’s and the Army. It wouldn’t be that much different, right! (I’ll talk about the teaching experience later.)

The University system has a problem. The student enrollment keeps rising, yet they don’t have the funds to hire full time faculty at the pay rate they currently receive and definitely at the pay rate they deserve. So they let graduate students teach many of the undergraduate courses. They also hire adjuncts. In colleges that don’t have graduate students (including community colleges) they hire mostly adjunct professors to pick up the slack that their full time professors can’t handle. 

Regardless of the debate that is going on over the quality of education that results from this arrangement, it benefits you as the graduate student. I taught all semesters except one when I attended FSU. Two to three classes per semester (I taught three in the summer sometimes).  Teaching provided me with  invaluable experiences. It has allowed me to be  extremely confident in academic interviews, during presentations, when speaking in front of large audiences and provided the teaching experience required for a job. Some colleagues in faculty positions have informed me that they never taught a class until they accepted their first professional position.

Try to find out if these types of benefits are offered for grad students. It can help defer some of the costs associated with a Ph.D. program and may keep you from having to look for an extra job. It is a lot of work preparing to teach and teaching classes. However, once you have your system in place, each semester becomes easier. It is also much easier than a ‘regular’ job. Teaching allows you to spend time learning your field and you are forced to become more informed because you have to teach it.

If the University or college does not offer to pay for your classes or a stipend for teaching there are always scholarships, grants or as a final result, financial aid. Just remember you do not have to accept all of the financial aid they offer to doctoral students, because it is an extremely higher amount than undergraduates are offered. But more on that later.

Need more advice. Get your copy of the ebook - “25 tips for the Budding Ph.D.”

By Bakari Akil II, Ph.D.

When I first thought about applying to the Ph.D. program at Florida State I was working as a protective investigator for the Department of Children and Families for Florida. I had a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and searched for months for work and this is where I ended up. I started out at a salary of $29,500. Needless to say I was pissed. I could have gotten the same position and salary without a Master’s degree.

My job was to go to homes whenever there was an accusation of mental, physical or sexual abuse to a child and investigate. We weren’t allowed to carry any weapons including mace, pepper spray or a taser. So it was just you, your attitude and whatever diety or supernatural device (like a rabbit’s foot) you looked to that would serve as your protection. After months of going to trailer parks in the middle of the woods, roads with no gravel and homes with 8×10 rebel flags in the middle of the living room, I had had enough. My brain had left the job before I did physically. My worst case was when a man had literally cracked his baby’s head and attacked the mother with a bat.

So let’s see. At this point I was underpaid, underemployed, overworked and my job put me in constant danger. I should have gotten out sooner. On my first ride with another investigator (while training) I locked the door to his car when we got out so we could approach the house. He told me, don’t ever lock your door when you go to someone’s house. I asked why? He responded with, “You’ll learn!”

Luckily, I didn’t.

I had an interest in writing and  journalism, so while I was in classroom training to become a Protective Investigator (an unarmed social worker) I also applied to the Communication Doctoral program at FSU. One of the requirements the department asked for was a Master’s thesis or capstone project. I had neither. I completed a summer internship with the Urban League as part of my degree requirements. When I explained my predicament to the program administrator on campus she informed me that I could send in a writing sample as well.

Fortunately, I had been operating a news website for the past year (2001-2002). This was before the popularity of the blogs and you either had to pay someone to design a website for you or you had to know what you were doing. At the time I had 15 to 20 regular journalists, academics, activists, etc., who were submitting regularly. I also wrote as well. So I put together a packet highlighting my staff, our numbers, our mission, who our other writers were, feedback from readers and some examples of my writing.

It did the trick. Coupled with my GRE scores, grades from my Master’s program and my actual mass communication experience I was allowed to enter the program.  This demonstrated that there was a human component to the admission process and that creativity was acceptable as long as it pertained to the mission of the department (which in my case was communication).

Always see if there is another way to get something done and don’t be afraid to ask.

25 Tips for the Budding Ph.D.

Hey! This is from my ”about me” page but it provides a good introduction for this blog so here it is.

I created this website for two purposes. One is to inform you about my book “25 Tips for the Budding Ph.D.” and the other is to provide you stories from my experience of obtaining a Ph.D.

I obtained a Ph.D. in Mass Communication from Florida State University  (FSU), home of the Seminoles. I have a Masters degree in Public Administration from Florida A&M University and I have a Bachelors degree from, you guessed it, FSU in Law and Society.

I had some very unique and sometimes amazing experiences as a Ph.D. student. I will share them here with you so you can see why my book will be valuable to you.

In my Ph.D. experience I didn’t have a true mentor until the end of my journey. But he also happened to be the Chairman of the Department so that made up for a lot. Still, I wish I would have had a mentor before it began and during most of the process. You need an overall approach and mindset when entering and trudging your way through a Doctoral program. My book will make sure you are not caught unaware. It is always better to know in advance.

Feel free to ask me questions. As I will post regularly, I will be happy to serve as a de facto mentor for you. Also, I would like this blog to be useful to you. So if you do read it, leave a message sometimes so I can know if I am being of service.

Bakari Akil II, PhD.

P.S. I also have a blog called “SUPER YOU!”  from my book “SUPER YOU! 101 Ways to Maximize your Potential.” It is all about quick strategies and mindsets that you can  use to set you on an immediate path to success.
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