PhD Life – Top Five Favourite Things

With teaching about to start, alongside the final year of my PhD studentship, I am acutely aware of the need to be organised. Here’s a quick rundown of my top five favourite things that are keeping me (relatively!) stress free and on track.

Trello – Possibly my favourite little project management tool in the history of, well, ever. This amazing website lets you create multiple “boards” with lists, file attachment options, colour coding, deadlines, and project sharing with other people. I use it for planning all kinds of things – holidays, my other websites/hobbies, and house/car kinda stuff. The mobile app is lovely too.

Google Calendar – I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that I could not live without Google Calendar. Not only do I shove all my non-work stuff in there, but I use it for all my teaching and marking related information, and PhD/research deadlines. I’m an Android girl through and through (my phone’s a Nexus 5, my tablet’s a Nexus 7) which adds an extra layer of lovely to this, especially now public transport information works properly and Google will tell me exactly when to leave the house for appointments and so on.

Moleskine Turntable – I got this last year, loved the format initially and now well… not so much love for the Turntable format, but still. My obsessive need to WRITE THINGS DOWN means this isn’t usually too far away from me. I think when I need to buy a new planner/diary, it’ll be one of the ones with a bigger notes page opposite the week to view. I use it less for scheduling, and more for notes and ticklists.

OneDrive – As was SkyDrive, and my current choice of file syncing loveliness. I feel I have a healthy (!?) level of paranoia when it comes to backups, and have several copies of my work across several different services. Online and offline. Don’t put all your eggs in one backup basket!

Coffee machine – Ahhh, the lovely new coffee machine. This was part of a wedding present from one of my closest friends (& his family) and is an absolute godsend. I can tell it a time to make me coffee in the morning before I go to bed, which makes getting up infinitely easier. Turns out the smell of fresh coffee can lure me away from my duvet. Who knew?

Other PhD types – what are the top five things you couldn’t be without?