[The Proposition]: ‘How you live your day is how you live your life’

For PhD candidates, their thesis propositions are an opportunity to publicly express their professional and personal convictions about science and society. In this feature they explain their most thought-provoking proposition. This time, a proposition from Jing Jin, who graduated with a PhD in Toxicology on 9 November.

‘Every day, time is limited, so we need to treasure it. How you treat your time is how you treat your life. I learned a lot from my supervisor, who is super-efficient. When we did an experiment, she would remind me to write down the introduction and methods. That made it easy to finalize the report after the experiment.

She also taught me to find a direction in my work: have your goal clearly in mind and follow your plans for the day. My goal during my PhD study was to learn more, because I want to be a good scientist to contribute to the world. If I were to spend a lot of time playing games, I would feel relaxed but find my work unfinished at the end of the day. Then I wouldn’t be able to make my dream come true. It’s not that my life is all about work, it’s about having the right work-life balance.

I rely on a few tips. First, the two-minute law: if you decide to do something, start doing it within two minutes. Second, develop good thinking habits: most people are good at working diligently if the work is practical, but thinking diligently is harder. Reminding yourself of your end goal helps to clear your mind. Finally, when I am tempted to play, I tell myself first to finish work, and then you’ll enjoy playing more afterwards.’

Also read:

[The Proposition] ‘Change in attitude regarding the environment starts with the education of the youngest generations.’

Limelight

[The proposition] ‘The Dutch school system would benefit from switching from numerical scores to binary assessments’