A CS PhD’s Occupational Therapy Journey — (1) Stress Management
This article is part of a blog series. You can find the table of content in the preface here [ Preface Link ]. My intended audience is PhD students, so “deadline” in this article refers to a paper deadline. But the general philosophy should be applicable to your other deadlines as well!
In this article, we will discuss the actions you can take depending on what stress level you’re at during a deadline season. We will cover two interactive exercises to help you figure out what works the best for *you* :) If you’re drawing a blank, don’t worry, I will share my examples to help you brainstorm your own solutions!
Chapter 1: During that deadline season — Stress Management
Worksheet link: https://github.com/felicitia/OT-Resoruces/blob/main/StressManagement.pdf
The content below is based on the worksheet above. As mentioned in the Preface of this blog series, the worksheets are obtained in my Occupational Therapy (OT) sessions during my PhD that I benefited a lot from. So here you go!
I will walk you through part of the worksheet that I think is most beneficial during the deadline season. I will also give some tips on the exercises. Feel free to check out the rest of the worksheet to learn more about stress management.
During the deadline season, there’s no time to lose! :) Let’s dive right into it!
Let’s start with Page 2, Figure 1: the relationship between stress and performance (copied below).
Figure 1 should be self-explanatory. It shows how our performance is affected by our stress level. Stress is not always bad. “Low stress” and “high stress” can definitely hinder our performance, but “optimal stress” is “good stress” that can help us achieve our peak performance. We love good stress!
So our goal is to reach the peak performance and maintain it. The very first step is to be aware of where you are in this diagram so that you know what actions you should take to reach your peak performance (we’ll discuss what actions to take in Exercise #2).
Exercise #1. Identify where you are in Figure 1
Please pause here and reflect on where you are in Figure 1 :) If you’re not sure, here are some examples to help you. If you already know, skip it and jump to Exercise #2.
- Low Stress examples:
procrastinating on stuff that’s not related to the deadline during your working hours, such as reading this article ;) If you’re at your peak, you wouldn’t have the time to browse the Internet and find this article because your mind should be laser-focused on your deadline. Other examples include browsing social media, initiating a chit chat with friends/family that’s not related to the deadline, doing errands that can wait after the deadline. Basically, anything that’s not related to the deadline AND can wait after the deadline is a sign to show you’re in the “Low Stress” side. Or, you just have some mysterious confidence that you have more time than you need before the deadline.
Notes 📜:
a) I emphasized on “during your working hours” because I’m only talking about work, so make sure you’re maintaining the work-life balance that fits your own priorities :) For example, some people’s “working hours” are strictly 9–5 and wouldn’t miss a single family dinner, and some people work late nights and enjoy pulling all-nighters every now and then. Know thyself :)
b) Some relaxing activities (e.g., taking a walk, meditation) are related to the deadline as long as they help boost your productivity. They are also recommended! We’re not robots after all… - Optimum Stress examples:
A fancy way of saying this is “in the zone” or “in the flow”. BTW, have you watched the Disney movie soul? You’ll know what I’m talking about :) Some signs include being laser-focused on the deadline and not being easily distracted, walking faster than normal like when you go to the bathroom (and yes, you might forget to go until you really have to lol), being clear on what exactly you need to do, getting scared easily when someone taps you on the shoulder (since you’re so focused on your work. great job!), etc. And yes, you might forget time and even meals… In that case, you may want to set reminders to make sure you’re still eating well :) We need energy during the deadline! And don’t forget to stretch or at least stand up every hour or so.
For those productivity-tool addicts like me, I usually use pomodoro technique to track my time and minimize distractions when I work (my favorite app is Forest! My favorite device is Timeular). But when I’m at my peak, I always forget to track my time or one hour of pomodoro passes too quickly that I don’t even notice it. So now I don’t use any productivity tools during the deadline season when I know I’m already at my peak. Be fluid. Things change all the time. Adapt to your current phase :) - High Stress examples:
The key difference from “High Stress” and “Optimum Stress” is how you feel. The signs can be quite similar, such as walking fast. But are you feeling productive and accomplished? — That’s Optimum Stress. Or, are you feeling anxious and overwhelmed? — That’s High Stress. Besides your feelings, some signs of “High Stress” include thinking about what you need to do over and over again without actually doing it, worrying about not being able to make the deadline (and sometimes feeling it’s the end of the world… No it’s not!), easily distracted and cannot fully focus on your tasks, and of course, crying and having mental breakdowns (don’t ask me how I know it…).
Notes 📜:
In the worksheet, Page 3 Stress Signals: What does stress feel like for you? has more examples.
Exercise 2. Take actions accordingly. You can do it!!!
Now that you know where you are, let’s take some actions accordingly! You can do it!! Note that where you are can change, so make sure to check in with yourself often and adapt accordingly.
As already noted in the Preface of this series, I believe everyone is unique and there’s no “one size fits all” solution. But don’t be disappointed, I’ll give you some examples to help you brainstorm the best solutions for *you*. Feel free to steal my solutions to see if it works for you. Please make sure to make notes for yourself so that you know what exactly you need to do next time when you have a deadline! ;)
- Low Stress — What to do?
Low Stress usually is caused by “mysterious confidence”, especially when you don’t have a concrete executable plan. Ah human psychology… Here’s the harsh truth of the day to encourage you to think differently. Hopefully, it will add some positive stress to you. If not, these thought patterns and solutions are your starting points to brainstorm your unique magic cure. Pause here, and think about what might work for you. Make notes of your own cure and you’ll benefit from it in the long run!
Harsh truth of the day:
a) Humans suck at time estimate! Things always take longer than you think :) The general rule of thumb is that things take 3 times longer. But if you’re obsessed with time tracking like me, you’ll know your magic number. For me, things usually take 1.79X longer than my estimate on average.
b) If you are still too chill, think about your experience during your last deadline(s). Did you under-estimate how much time and efforts were needed? Did you have to cram under high stress in the end? Did you like that and do you want to experience it again this time? You’re not gonna become a productivity guru overnight, so your current deadline is likely to repeat your past deadline experience if you don’t make a change consciously. If your past deadline experiences were very pleasant, then why are you reading this article? Seriously, go do something else and you don’t need this! Oh, and please DM me your deadline secret! 🙂
c) There’s always more to do than you think! Even if you have a plan, you are not going to anticipate everything you’ll need to do. Remember we’re talking about paper deadlines, and every paper is novel by definition. So you’re doing something new for sure and there’s always some unknown (the fun part of research, isn’t it? ;)). Budget more time to prepare for the unknown. It could also be rewriting some sections, and we all know how time-consuming that can be.
Potential actions:
a) You can add positive stress by leveraging your collaborators! Update people on what the plan is and what you’re working on for accountability. I’ve always been working in a team and it really helps! People have expectations for you and social pressure is a great thing to boost productivity during the deadline.
b) Set internal deadlines. This is even better to combine with a) so that everyone is on the same page and can hold each other accountable. Another benefit of internal deadlines is that it can bring awareness to where you are at. If you constantly fall behind the schedule, maybe this deadline is not the best fit. If you’re always ahead of the schedule, try setting the final deadline 1 week earlier so that you can send draft to get more feedback and make the paper stronger! There’s always more to do to improve the paper! 😉
c) If your plan seems very easy to accomplish (again, I believe that’s your mysterious confidence’s doing 😂 If you don’t suffer from a deadline, I don’t think you’d read this article until here…), your plan is likely to be too high level and you’re not considering all the necessary steps. Try to break it down to smaller and more concrete steps. It will help you estimate the time more accurately. - Optimum Stress — What to do?
Enjoy! You’re the best!! 👏 Don’t forget to eat and sleep well though. Also, make sure to take breaks to avoid burning out. WE ARE NOT ROBOTS!
Notes 📜:
Again, everyone is unique and it really helps to know your own body. I have some rules for myself to (try to) stay healthy during the deadline season. For example, I don’t stay up late (and usually no work after dinner) until the last 2 weeks before the deadline. Experiment with yourself and figure out what works the best for *you* :) - High Stress — What to do?
At the end of the worksheet, “Stress-busters” has some examples of relaxing activities to help you calm down. Again, experiment and figure out your unique magic cure and take notes! Then next time you’ll know what would work for you exactly :) There are also tons of resources for relaxing activities online and I won’t repeat. Instead, I’ll step back and talk about some thought patterns that really helped me to rethink the deadline. This could be a starting point for you to brainstorm your own thought patterns.
A side note📜:
The reason I talk a lot about thought patterns is that there’s an inertia of our thoughts (yes, inertia does not only live in Newton’s laws. Or, maybe Newton’s laws work for our mind too? 🤔). So negative thinking (which happens a lot during the deadline) can snowball if you don’t intentionally replace those thoughts with new thoughts. Thoughts are VERY powerful to lead your actions. Otherwise, no matter what actions you know you should take, you might just “not feel like it” if you’re trapped in the negative thought patterns. So arm yourself with positive thought patterns in case you fall into the trap and you’ll know exactly how to get out of it!
Thought patterns:
a) This is NOT the end of the world! What’s the worst that can happen? The worse-case scenario (i.e., not submitting this paper) is really not that bad at all… Think about your “life view” (we’ll talk more about “life view” in the Chapter 2 of this series), and you might not even remember this one little deadline later in your life.
b) There will always be another deadline that you can catch. Just do your best to see how it goes! Submitting or not does not define success or failure, but your progress does. :) Remember, anyone can submit a paper at anytime… Your goal is not to simply submit a paper, but to show the world proudly the cool stuff you’ve worked on! If it’s not ready for this deadline, it will be ready for another deadline. Take advantage of the productivity boost that deadline kindly offered to us, but don’t stress out too much if you can’t submit in the end. Look at all the big progress you’ve made so far! Aren’t you grateful for the deadline? :)
c) Think about your past experience and magic has happened before right? ;) So don’t give up too easily until you know for sure you can’t make it. Deadline has magical psychological effect on us, and you never know what will happen until you try!
d) One thing at a time. It can be very overwhelming to think about everything that you need to do. You only need to think about it in the planning phase, but once the planning is done, forget about the whole thing and just do it! Change to the executing mode and only focus on one task at a time! You only need to do this one task for now. You can do it!!
e) Treat deadline as the means not the end. It is your friend, trying to give you a push to boost your productivity. All the progress you make during the deadline is for your own benefits. Even if you can’t submit in the end, all the progress means less work for your next deadline!
f) Sometimes I treat deadline as an experiment. Sure, it can be miserable, but it’s just one small “data point” in my experiments. What I’m more interested in is why is it miserable and figure out what I can do better next time. So don’t worry if you mess it up. PhD program is new to everyone and it’s nothing like your previous programs, so of course we might mess up sometimes. We’re just collecting “data points” and learn from the progress. We’re researchers. I’m sure you know individual “data points” don’t matter as much as the conclusion you draw in the end. The important part of an experiment is to interpret your data points and figure out your conclusion. You might have new discovery about yourself! :)
That’s it! Those are what worked for me in the past, now, what’s *your* solutions? I highly suggest taking notes because humans forget things all the time and we need constant reminders. Especially when we have a deadline, our mind can be very cloudy, and it’s easy to get trapped in negative thinking. Summarize your own magic cure and that’s your manual to crack the deadline season! YOU CAN DO IT!! 💪🥳👏
Bonus Tips!
How to relax after the deadline is over? 🛀
If you’re still in deadline mode, look away! Go do your thing and you can come back here after your deadline :)
You’d be surprised about how hard relaxing can be after the deadline 😂 After the deadline, there’s always an inertia where you know you should rest and relax (and you so deserve it!!), but you simply can’t because of all the tension that’s been built up. Your mind is not used to relaxing mode yet and it keeps telling you “I’ve gotta do something”. So here are some possible ways to ease into it… It may not work for everyone, so please share your tips too and other people may find it helpful! :)
- Body massage! 💆♀️ Honestly, this is the most effective solution I found for myself that has an immediate impact on me
- Go out to enjoy the beautiful nature (e.g., beach day, anyone? 🏖)
- Have a good meal (although sometimes I don’t have a good appetite after the deadline 😂)
- Catch up with friends or family on non-research topics to take your mind off it
- Some people find intense workouts with lots of sweat helpful (not me though lol)
- Read your favorite book
- Take a bath
- Sometimes I still can’t relax and just feel “I gotta do something” and that’s OK! Then I pick up some light work to do (e.g., online errands), which doesn’t require much brain power or physical energy to move lol
What do you usually do after a deadline? Let us know! It gives the deadline people something to look forward to as well! 😉
