What makes a bad PhD student? Do YOU do these? 

The last point, perfectionism!! I'm at the beginning of my second PhD year, and I feel like perfectionism has held me back so many times already! I'm now learning to let go of things and be kinder to myself. Sometimes the biggest pressure we receive is from ourselves! Thank you for the wake up call 👏

i'm really struggling with apathy as a 3rd yr - i've not been burntout but it's the loneliness, feeling that i'm behind my peers that have jobs, being behind on data collection, and other things that have taken over as a negative mindset. I think something that will help is just remembering the WHY and finding something within my research that brings the passion back. Thanks for all your videos, i've been watching them for years and always come back when i feel like i need motivation, because it's almost like you are the only person who understands !!

Your videos have been such a big help, Andy. Thank you so much.

You speak the sad reality in a hopeful way, which means at the end of the video we realize our mistakes and feel motivated to correct them. Thank you!

Wise words. Especially about patience. Thank you Andy :)

Thank you for making videos on this topic. With your videos i feel like somebody is always there with me. Your tips are great and working for me. I feel lucky to have you at early stage of my PhD.

Very good points, especially the last one! I'm currently writing my research proposal for my PhD application in business administration. I have already struggled quite a bit with "perfectionism", the problem is, at least for me, to judge what is "good enough"

I wanna share my though about your channel (positive one!): I like the way you talk about stuff mostly because you're very modest. From PhD student's perspective it is very good to see a modest academic talking about all of these aspects in such a friendly way. Thank you for all your advices!

I really enjoy your videos. Thanks so much

Thank you and greetings from Finland

Andy out hear spitting out facts as always!

Thank you Andrew... Many realisations I had from your video and they are all true.... Keeping disciplne, patient and trying to let written works being far from perfection in time, are all I have faced right now. Great to find and watch your fab video. Thanks indeed. (^_^)

The problem with your channel is that I NEED to see all your videos at the same time 😅 They're all good advises and recommandations, and since I'm a 2nd year PhD student I need all of them in my head like NOW Normal people would spend the weekend on Netflix series while I'm trying to watch all the videos of Andy, is that called Addiction? 😂

I’m a month into my phd- and I’ve realised you don’t feel like you’re moving forward until you suddenly do. So u spend 90% of your time worrruing about not doing anything whilst doing a little a day

Thanks, Andy! Really sound advice, as ever!

Thanks a lot

I wrote a long comment but I think I accidentally deleted it before posting, doh! I was just trying to suggest, that in order to expand the content on this channel, it would be great if you could do the occasional online interview with other PhD students, and graduates. Your perspective is great, yet it could also be a good thing to also get the opinions, thoughts and perspectives of your peers. Thanks. 👍

Thank you for this video. I do like your channel very much. Currently, I am writing my last paper and I am about to submit my thesis. I have one very hardworking supervisor who helped me and gets money for my project. Another supervisor doesn't do much but tries to get as much credits from my work as possible. Usually, I had two of them as correspondence authors in my paper but now I want to add myself to this list. I know by university policy I have right to decide who will be a correspondence author, and being my supervisor doesn't automatically guarantee the place there. So, how do I slide my email address of correspondence into this paper and keep good relationship with my supervisors? I would appreciate your advise very much.

An insight video into online distance learning PhDs in the Covid era and options for charity external funding would be great. Do students need to stay on-campus for course work and research during a pandemic for nonlab sciences or most univ. does it online? Are full-time PhD and part-time work (for a company) (if you have external funding and not from the uni.) possible at the same time? Keep it up, a great channel!

Hi! I saw your first point about apathy, and was wondering if there is a way out of that mindset? I was faced with severe anxiety and depression when I started my phd during the pandemic, and have since then been finding it hard to get out of the rut of procrastination and not caring enough but also caring too much to the point that I keep moving my supervisor meetings out of fear.

Perfectionism is a subtle and cunning form or procrastination i noticed.

The first mistake, apathy, lack of motivation, is however no way to fix, if you don’t enjoy the things you are doing. The only way to fix is to find another thing I enjoy.

can changing a univ and starting a new PhD be the solution to some students who can't integrate in the research group they are in ?

You mentioned that by the end of your PhD you became a "different" person. By "different" do you mean good or bad person? 😅 just curious to know the change

The interesting thing is those apathetic students have scholarships and opportunities....

give me a shout if you're ever looking for anyone to demonstrate a bad PhD for your channel

Well, it's good that I'm finishing my PhD next week xd I've been horrible PhD student according to these points! Xd

Hmmm. First!

After watching your video… I believe I am definitely the bad PhD student. Horrible is a good word though 😁😂😂😂

It´s not apathy. It´s just clinical depression.

Disillusionment - Understanding that, despite the claims that the academy is better than human because it’s the way of the academy, your would-be colleagues are just as human as the rest of the species. You’ll discover that they exhibit the foibles of the human species as everyone else. You have to come to terms with that and do your work (study, lab work, literature reviews, etc.) or you’ll be miserable and a downer to your would-be colleagues, and to yourself, your friends outside the academy, neighbors, family, and so forth. Or you can flee as I did.

Two things. One, when does an explanation become a reason and when does it become an excuse? Two, you won't see us in the next video. We will see you lol unless you're referring to you youtube stats. I crack myself up sometimes. Lolol

Added to the list of What Makes a Bad PhD Student is: Feeling Overly Proud, Showing Off Too Much, & Lack of Humility (aka. Arrogance) That was my Sin when I was in the Chemistry PhD Program & my sins made my overall experience in the Chemistry PhD Program become a living hell. When I first got that Acceptance Letter to go to the PhD Program, I felt proud of myself. But I became "Too Proud". I "blow up" on Facebook/Instagram, showing off my Acceptance Letter, especially I used that method as a way to flirt women on Facebook/Instagram. Added to more problems, I took lots of selfies of me using fancy Chemistry Equipment (again, back then, I thought it was a method for me to flirt women on Facebook/Instagram). Then, trouble arise. My peers, who were my Facebook/Instagram Friends saw that toxic behavior of mine & they slowly lose respect for me. In addition, my advisor somehow also know about my behavior as well. All hell break lose from there, particularly a toxic relationship between me & my advisor developed... The good news was that I FINALLY completed my PhD Degree. But it was costly. It involves the Assistant Dean of Graduate Students to be involved to prevent escalation of conflicts between me & my advisor (as well as my surrounding peers at Chem. Dept). My lesson learn from my horrible experience in the PhD Program is: 1) Be Humble 2) Stop using my PhD as a Method to Flirt Women (especially seeking Women's Validation) on Facebook/Instagram. Women are NOT impressed at me anyways. I should learn to BE MYSELF more & STOP SEEKING OTHERS FOR VALIDATION.