7 Essential Books for Graduate and Ph.D. Students
When new graduate students ask me what they should do to “prepare”, I’m confident the right answer is nothing special. Move to your new city, relax, and enjoy your summer (where I am, late August is still “summer break”!). After nagging me about it for a while, I recommend they read. But what to read?
Book lists for grad students often focus on graduate school, writing dissertations, and PhDs. These are all important topics, but some of the best advice I’ve gotten has been in books that are outside of the narrow advice of graduate school and research
In this article, I’ve got seven of the best productivity, self-help, and well-being books for graduate students and new Ph.D. students that avoid the bluster of gurus in business and management writing. These are the best-of-the-best on my shelf, dog-eared, loaned out, and read multiples times over. They cover some content about learning/work, but I also included my favorites about well-being and money.
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Deep Work by Cal Newport.
In Deep Work, Cal Newport encourages the cultivation of “deep work” as practice. This is an unrelenting focus on the projects/work that matter most to your profession and creative endeavors. Newport combines carefully reasoned theories of how to work and succeed with pragmatic tips and strategies — for instance, using preplanned time-blocking to organize your schedule and stop working at 5:30 pm and how to reframe emails to elicit clearer responses. This all comes with a dash of cultural critique (one chapter is called “quit social media” which I have thoughts on but here we are 😊).
In graduate school, you will likely contend with large swathes of unstructured time. For Ph.D. students, you are training to become an expert in an area of research. How should you prioritize your day? Newport gives you plans on how to identify and focus on what truly matters in those time blocks — and carefully manage the rest.
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Getting Things Done by David Allen
How do you actually “get it all done”? Getting Things Done, or GTD by its adherents is a personal project management system to help you manage professional and personal tasks and projects. David Allen released this book in 2002, and its five-step system gives you the tools to manage professional and personal everything (Capture, Clarify, Organize, Reflect, Engage). I’ve used Getting Things Done for 5+ years, and the system simultaneously puts me at the helm of all my projects. A system like this clears my anxiety from remembering and chewing on hanging tasks, what Allen calls getting “a mind like water”.
Many systems promise more productivity– GTD addresses what you need to get on track and make progress. In PhDs, we often swim through murky waters of where to go next. GTD keeps everything fresh and provides concrete and specific tasks for working on projects.
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Ultralearning. By Scott Young.
I’ve spoken highly about this book in another post, but I’ll say it again — Scott Young wrote a great roadmap on how to teach yourself just about anything. Young combines personal experience with exemplary anecdotes and scientific research on how to be an “ultralearner”, someone who quickly picks up and works on a new topic. In the book, each chapter breaks down the ultralearning process into a series of skills, like how to retain lots of information and how to ask for and incorporate feedback. This book fills your learning toolkit on how to learn about an area quickly.
New graduate students will find Young’s book useful in supporting multiple methods and styles of learning. Graduate students and Ph.D. students need to read and retain lots of information and apply new techniques to problems. This book has discreet tips on doing this well.
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How to Write A Lot by Paul Silvia.
This book contains strategies for becoming a productive writer in academia. Paul Silvia’s advice was my first foray into productivity advice because of how short the book is — you can read it in an hour or two. You may have guessed from the title, but this book will help you write a lot more by volume — it won’t per se help you write more eloquently or be more published. However, Silvia argues that through the process of writing a lot and having the right incentives (like a writing group), the more likely it will be that you will succeed in those important products of writing. Silvia’s reframing around the writing process was instrumental in beginning to dismantle my perfectionism, and set the stage for my current practices of writing, like writing every workday first thing in the morning.
Graduate school requires a lot of writing, for both coursework as well as research if you’re a Ph.D. student. At some point, you have to just write it down, and Silvia’s advice helps get you there!
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The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women by Valerie Young
Imposter syndrome is a common struggle of graduate and Ph.D. students (especially women and BIPOC students) — the pervasive feelings of inadequacy and that you don’t deserve your success. Valerie Young’s book levels with imposter syndrome, what it is and how you may relate to it, and how to begin addressing it. This book is aimed at women, hence the title. However, the advice is gender-agnostic on how to address imposter syndrome. For example, I found the chapters of archetypes of imposters valuable because I identified my specific maladaptive behaviors (I’m a “superwoman” imposter).
For graduate students, imposter syndrome is SO common. We often don’t talk about how these feelings meaningfully hurt us and hold us back, especially because imposter syndrome may interfere directly with our work. This book offers good advice on engaging with and dispelling these feelings. To be clear, this book won’t replace therapy, but it will move you towards feeling better.
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Rest by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang.
If you’re convinced the hustle of 60–70 hour weeks for months on end makes you a better scholar, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang will prove you wrong. Pang clearly argues that people need rest to be more creative, strengthen memory, and make you a nicer person overall. Spoiler alert, we DESERVE breaks from work because work is not our entire life or identity. Pang argues for this with level-headed reads of the data and anecdotes. I enjoyed Pang’s take that you need rest across time dimensions of your life — day-to-day, weekly and monthly breaks through weekends, and extended breaks and holidays where you don’t work at all. Pan
For Ph.D. students, it can feel like pushing harder and longer will lead to more productivity. Take Pang’s advice — take weekends, long breaks, and real vacations which should be part of our collective behavior but so often get lost in the (false) pressure to succeed.
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I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi.
For my last recommendation, I’m going to offer a surprising one — one about personal finance. Money is something we don’t like to talk about in the academy, in part because it is uncomfortable to acknowledge major compensation gaps for graduate students. The title of this book may seem overzealous given graduate student salaries, but don’t get caught in the gusto. Ramit Sethi offers a 6 week, realistic, and no-nonsense approach to personal finances. This includes making and managing a “budget”, saving money, and automating expenses to cut down on stress. Sethi also addresses psychology and money, which can be a major barriers to making healthy financial decisions.
Although there is no graduate school-specific advice, I love Sethi’s blog and his candor about money. This approach forces you to get honest about money (it helped me immensely) and helped empower better decision-making and personal agency about my finances.
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There you have it — 7 books for PhD students you may not have seen before. I hope you enjoyed these recommendations, and if you are just starting grad school, good luck! Did I miss your favorite book or guide? Let me know on Twitter.
