In my previous blog post on how you can set yourself up for success when you start your PhD, I mentioned creating a “user guide to me” document that I used as a bit of a crash course for my supervisor on what it would be like having me as a student. Given that I would have a long-term relationship with my supervisory team VS 4-6 week long placements with consultants during medical school who had to supervise many trainees and students, I wanted to start my PhD on the right foot and help my supervisor learn more about me given that I am also his first MBPhD student. I found the document a great way to quickly provide information about myself and in fact, my supervisor has a similar version on how he supervises students framed up in his office! 

A version of the user guide document is also used for dementia patients. The “This is me” document is used to provide information about anyone with communication difficulties so carers and healthcare professionals can provide person-centred care. 

I first came across the concept of a user guide on a LinkedIn post a few years ago, however I can’t find the post to be included here despite saving it at the time and referencing it when I first created my own version of the document, so if you know where to find the post please let me know so I can include the link! 

So, what should you include in your own user guide? I included the below in mine which you can reference: 

1. Other commitments to my time. While your PhD should be the priority, you might have other responsibilities e.g. a part-time job and leadership roles (I had quite a few related to medical school/other extracurriculars at the time). For me, the list of commitments was to highlight how I still had a link to medical school, though not as much now as I focus on the final year of my PhD. 
2. Specific needs with supervision. I have spent years of my life learning about myself and that knowledge was actually very useful for me to understand how I would work during my PhD. I won’t go into specifics here, but I mention things like my priorities both for research and life during the PhD, my career aspirations and times to check in on me e.g. around the holidays where I might not be spending that time with family.
3. My circumstances as an international student. For example, if I go home to see family the trip will be longer than for a British student since Malaysia is so far away and it isn’t worth the long journey there and back if I don’t stay for a bit longer. This means that I might take annual leave in a larger block of time instead of multiple shorter stints across the year. 

All in all, I think the user guide document is very versatile and what you include in your version of it is dependent on you as a person and what you think is important for your supervisor to know so they can support you to the best of their ability. The document only needs to be long enough to cover all the necessary points so give it a go! If you end up making your own version, let me know how you got on by commenting below. If you found this blog post helpful and would like to find out when future posts are released, you can subscribe to my blog below. 

Until the next post, 

Jean