Earlier this semester, a few senior graduate students started to organize a research working group in order to provide a space to informally discuss research progress, get experience talking to people not directly in their research areas about their work, troubleshoot programming issues, and support one another to make weekly progress. As the semester developed, the focus of the group tended towards research accountability. Group members recorded long term goals related to professional milestones; for many members this was related to dates by which they would like to pass candidacy, defend their dissertation, finish projects or have work submitted to a journal. Members also chose a process-oriented method to track their weekly progress not tied to their goals like the amount of time spent working on research, the number of intervals of a specific time worked, etc. The choice to track progress by focusing on the process of getting work done is based on the principle that it leads to an easier way to measure success and get self-motivated rather than focusing on long-term goals which can lead to procrastination or feeling overwhelmed. Week to week, the students in the working group discuss how successful their previous week was, discuss any particularly good or bad things that happened throughout the week, and reflect on their progress towards their goal.

Please see below for thoughts about the group from some of the members.

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