I am reading through all the supervision meeting reports I’ve made over the past two and a half years. It feels like reading another diary of my PhD journey, filled with lots of suggestions and feedback from my supervisors. This enriches my motivation to write chapter drafts.
In a meeting, I write notes, and immediately after that, I type, on my Evernote, the things we discussed and almost everything I can remember, like a personal diary. It helps to create a formal summary of the meeting, and also makes me calm and confident, like “I am on the right track, I am okay.” I’ve printed out the notes, and keep them on my desk with my research notebooks.
More and more, I feel that a PhD journey is not always stormy and that PhD students do have moments of achievement and relief from worries. This, recognising the small accomplishments, is the key to continuing to work on a long-term project for years.
That’s a great idea about making the supervisor meeting notes. I might start giving it a try!