Have a plan (by Ian Sanders)
Once you have completed your proposal (and either defended it or had it externally examined), you are ready to start actually doing the research that you proposed. Typically your proposal document would have included a section on planning the research. What you presented in that section is, however, typically not detailed enough to really help you at this stage. So, redo your time plan! Make it very detailed! Include details that you did not include before, like times when you know you will not be working because you will be on holiday, etc. Once you have prepared this plan then try to stick to it but be prepared to revise it often!
The purpose of developing this plan is to really make you think about what you need to do and are going to do. The purpose of having this plan is to keep you working on your research. It is easy to let things slide as work and life make demands on you. That will happen but it is less likely to happen if you know that you should be doing your research and are reminded of this fact by the plan.
You may choose to show this new version of the plan to your supervisor but that is not always necessary. As a supervisor I would like to see it and often will require my students to produce such a plan as the first post-proposal exercise. For a PhD student it may only be a detailed plan for the coming year but it is still important to have such a plan.
Make notes (by Ian Sanders)
It is important to record what you do as you perform your experiments, make your measurements, have discussions with your supervisor, have discussions with other students, have flashes of inspiration, etc. Get used to making notes! You could carry a journal or log book around with you or you could make notes on your phone or tablet. Just make sure that you do make note! You cannot rely on your memory.
Keep records and make backups (by Ian Sanders)
more to come
a heading
more to come
a heading
more to come
a heading
more to come
a heading
more to come