So, you have decided to do a PhD . . . now what? In this essay, the author provides some advice for beginning PhD students, basically sharing what he would tell his younger self. Doing a PhD is a transformative experience, but the process is challenging, not merely on an intellectual level but also psychologically. To overcome these challenges, one needs a certain mindset and a bag of tricks. The author offers some help for getting in the right mindset, and shares some of his own tricks for studying, research, and productivity in general.
Keywords:advice, graduate students, PhD, research
Koen Deconinck (e-mail: koen.deconinck1@gmail.com) is an affiliated researcher at the LICOS Cen- tre for Institutions and Economic Performance of the University of Leuven (KULeuven), Belgium