We have now established that a PhD provides plenty of opportunity to develop mastery and (in many cases) autonomy. Yet, these properties alone do not always ensure a remarkable and satisfying research career. In this second part of the book extract from Newport’s So Good They Can’t Ignore You, we look at an additional piece in the puzzle—having a “mission”—and summarize the book’s system of practices to develop both mastery and mission, which can be applied directly during the PhD. I conclude with some critiques of the book and a case study to test whether these ideas map to my own research career thus far.

A doctorate is typically the first step in a longer (academic or otherwise) research career. Many think of it as a grueling rite of passage one must endure to get the job they want later on. But are there ways we can do the PhD to set us up for a remarkable and satisfying career? Are there ways we can make the PhD journey itself feel like a “good job”? In the first part of this book extract, we draw lessons from Cal Newport’s book So Good They Can’t Ignore You, about “passion traps”, we look at properties of a good PhD job, focusing on mastery, control, and how to develop them for a more satisfying PhD (and beyond).

Have you ever wished for advice from this blog, tailored to your specific questions or situation? For getting a tl;dr of our blog posts on a certain topic? For an “A Happy PhD” podcast? In this post, I detail step-by-step an easy way of using AI to get information and advice tailored to your questions, about the blog’s very topics and contents.

Overwhelmed by your endless to-do list? Stressed because of the many PhD-related tasks you need to “go through”? As we discussed previously in the blog, you are not alone (and ask any already-doctors whether this feeling goes away after graduation). Lately, as I struggle with not-so-new-parenthood-unproductivity in my own research, I have been reminded several times of a mental reframe I first encountered in productivity writer Oliver Burkeman’s work. This simple metaphor helped me change my relationship with my to-do list, without hurting my productivity (more probably, the opposite).

We often come up with complicated and costly schemes to improve our lives (buy that new gadget, watch that new show everyone is talking about), when simpler zero-cost solutions may have better chances of actually having a positive impact. In another tiny post, I share a quick tip on how to enhance your lab/work-life by using natural spaces. This idea will also be familiar to long-time newsletter subscribers, as it was an early “newsletter exclusive”.

We all tend to delay difficult, uncertain or scary tasks unnecessarily… especially, those related to our thesis. How to avoid such procrastination? In this new kind of short post (so far only available to our newsletter subscribers), I share tiny practices or ideas that have had an outsized effect on my thinking or my research practice.