This is a guide to having productive meetings with your research advisor
Developed by Helena Aparicio
When meeting with your advisor, there are several steps you can take that will help you make the most out of the meeting. Your time and your advisor’s time is precious. We are all busy and we all want to make progress.
Your advisor wants you to develop into an independent researcher. That means you are the one leading the conversation.
--Just show up for the meeting in the hope that your advisor will lead the conversation.
--Meeting without having anything new to show or repeat the same things you brought up the week before
--Meeting to show results on just the specific stuff your advisor told you to do in the last meeting. You should take intellectual ownership of your project and think beyond what your advisor comes up with in a given meeting. Your advisor is probably thinking about your project 1 or 2 hours a week. You, on the other hand, should be thinking about it a lot more. A good dynamic is one where you set the pace. A bad dynamic is one where you show up to the meeting with some or all of the ToDo's from the last meeting without having thought about their implications and new ideas on how to move forward.
--I have developed this analysis/implementation. I have partial results but there are a few areas where I cannot make progress.
--I have been reading a new body of literature and I think I have identified some new problems/gaps.
--I have a new idea for an experiment. I need help refining the design, etc.
--I have been working on a draft, but I am stuck with the organization, phrasing of certain ideas, etc.
--Send meeting agenda in advance of the meeting
--Prepare handouts, plots, and results tables
--Send email after meeting summarizing main points of the meeting and goals for next meeting
--Create a shared document where you spell out the ToDo’s and their due date.
Pin the document in your 1-on-1 advisor slack chat
--Create a shared document with mid and long term goals (conference abstract submission deadlines, deadlines for getting drafts to advisor/committee, exams, defenses, etc.)
Pin the document in your 1-on-1 advisor slack chat