Backwards Design Template: Fill & Download for Free

Here are a few things. The list is not exhaustive.Your dissertation doesn't need to be perfect. It's not meant to be your biggest achievement. It's just a (good enough) long paper.Take care of the relationships you grow with your mentors, advisors and directors. They may become friends and collaborators for your entire career.You're probably good, or have potential, but that doesn't make you Jesus. Chill out, keep your head down and do your job the best you can. If you're great, show it, don't say it.As my director used to say to me “no te preocupes, ocúpate" (something along the lines of “don't sit and worry, just get it done”).Your job is just your job. And grad school is just one part of your life. Don't forget about everything else you are, your interests, and your people. Don't neglect them or yourself.Fields are small. Don't chitchat and gossip about a stranger in front of someone you just met at, say, a conference cocktail party. They might have gone to grad school together or happen to be friends or collaborators.Be careful at Q&As. You're a grad student, and that may be “your field of expertise" but you’re not there to judge anybody. Watch your tone, both, as you ask and as you answer. It may have implications.When you leave your lab you represent it. In the department, in the school, on campus, in conferences, on other campuses. You are your lab's ambassador. Be the best one you can be. Make everyone back home proud when they hear “Jane was amazing at the conference. Her presentation was awesome and she seems like a fantastic, young scholar.”Network. Network. Network. It pays off. Don't misrepresent your background or your achievements. Don't exaggerate because you want to impress. Anybody will be more impressed to find out about your accomplishments and to realize you were humble and down to earth.Don't be afraid to email a senior researcher from a different institution just to let them know about the deep influence of their work on your ideas. They work very hard and are often recognized, but a simple (two line!) message can brighten up their day….and you never know if this first impression may lead to something more.Focus, from as early on as you can, on your dissertation. Even before you take your exams, even before you start thinking about the proposal if you can. Begin to align readings, literature reviews, methodological design choices, analyses, etc with your dissertation. Pilot ideas through class projects. Identify what works and what doesn’t. Then, once you begin working on your dissertation, you’ll have a strong panoramic view of the area you’re interested in, and will anticipate pitfalls.Thank your department administrators if they help you. Acknowledge their hard work. If you’re on a visa and have an international advisor, do the same.Don’t be confrontational in the academic setting. Don’t be a trouble maker. Don’t argue with professors in front of other students. Be polite. You can stand your ground without looking like an entitled fool.Beware of toxic people. Toxic people are always negative, always complaining, always feel overworked and claim that the system is unfair to them. You will recognize them because they’ll never have anything nice to say about anyone, they never blame themselves for anything and they spread rumours. Their negativity will rub off on you. People may associate you with them. Identify them and move away. If that means you are left with no friends…well, that’s alright then.Keep track of all your powerpoints, presentations, handouts, lesson plans… create a dropbox folder called teaching materials and put it all in there. You might need many of those materials in the future.Start working on your CV the minute you arrive. Find a template you like, run it by your advisor, get their approval, and use it consistently. Shoot for adding 3–5 lines per semester. These may include conference presentations, publications, different forms of service, professional development, etc. Keep your CV growing. Be proactive. Picture what you want it to look like by the time you hit the job market and make the necessary arrangements to make it happen. In education we call this approach backwards design :)If you only speak English, fix that. Yes… I said it: “only”. One language is not enough. The world is multilingual. You aren’t. What are you going to do about it? There are plenty of free opportunities out there on every campus and town. I’m not saying you must become completely proficient in Czech in a semester… take 3 - 4 years, a couple of times a week, watch movies, travel to conferences if you can, find clubs and societies and go to their meetings… and you’ll see the difference.Set goals for after your PhD. If your goal is to be a professor, quite simply, it might not happen. At least not the way you envisioned it to happen. Regardless, respect yourself, respect your skills, and respect the time and effort you have invested. Don’t settle for a low-paying, temporary job at a school that doesn’t care about you. Find a plan b that will allow you to live the way you deserve. Start defining that plan b soon.Invest in things that make your life easier and better. A bigger computer screen, a comfy chair, good skin care products, healthy food, a gym membership. I know a PhD stipend doesn’t go very far, but cutting down on alcohol, eating out, and things like that works. Make good use of second hand products. Find out where in town to buy discounted stuff.If you are on a visa be aware of everything your type of visa involves. If you need a document to be able to travel out of the country for Christmas or for a conference, find out how and when to start the process. If you must return to your country of origin after you graduate, do it. Running into legal trouble may jeopardize all the efforts you've put into your degree.Seek help. Mental health a problem among academics. PhD students suffer from anxiety, depression and other mental problems more than other professional groups. Do not, by any means, think you are alone. You are not a failure. You are struggling and we all do. There are (usually) therapists and counselors on campus who are there for you.Meet - the - bloody - deadlines!!! You agreed to finish that draft by October 7; it’s October 16. Why haven't you contacted me yet to tell me you were going to be late (which I would haver been ok with)? Or to apologize for being late and to tell me when to expect the draft? or to ask for help because you haven't even started the draft because you're feeling overwhelmed with everything? Deadlines allow projects to move forward. They tell you when something must be done in order to move the project to the next stage. If you don’t meet them, the project will suffer, and your reputation will too.Enjoy the ride. This can be done. At least, some of the time. Some weeks are a little bit quieter. There’s less to grade, to teach, to write, to analyse. Use those days/weeks wisely. Go for walk, get a coffee, spend extra time with your dog, have an extra long bath, read a book or a magazine. Do whatever helps you decompress so that you can get back to work fresh.Don’t pack every bit of your calendar with new projects. Be smart. Consider how much you have on your plate right now and if you can actually get into more projects. Just because it's nice and shiny doesn't mean it's good for you right now. Be critical.Take good care of your credit history. You will soon transition into a world where you're not a student anymore. Do you best to look good in the eyes of bank and money people. Open a savings account. Activate the “keep the change option” on your debit card. You will be glad you did this.

Your question starts with coding, jumps to failure to design a page, and closes with learning to build a website.There are already a number of good suggestions posted here on HOW to use code to build a site and HOW to practice and improve your skills, but these fail to address the number one issue: you’re working backwards.HTML, CSS and CSS3 are tools used to create a web page. A web page is a component of a website design. Put it all together and you’re working backwards; design first, code last; not the other way around.First, design a website. This is separate from coding. A website design starts with a purpose, either personal or business. An example of a personal site would be something related to a hobby, like My Robots.My Robots has a Home page and separate sections for each robot, event pictures, DIY videos, and a blog. NOW you can start coding. Now all the reasons for page templates and CSS and reusable code become apparent. Now you can experiment with different navigation schemes and CSS styling and media calls.

I'm using it now. Funneling about six years of business through the various systems. Initially it stops you in your tracks because it forces you to literally put all of your marbles into individual"boxes". I had to deeply evaluate what I was doing.I had very detailed Visionary goals but thought that was too fanciful so I did a lot of Technician work---writing, producing, layouts, tech online work. I was also steeped in Management systems of trying to streamline.I've been do E Myth for 6 months now. I combined the Systems template with a Strategic Planning template that I use in consulting and have been carrying it around answering all of the questions. There are a thousand big and small things that I haven't considered that this is helping me pin down.Luckily in my videos, pb and eBook sales and affiliate profits I am able to print out detailed spreadsheets so I can see that originally where I fantasized about one or two hit products in doing well with a wide catalog. Critically I've started to see things in a twenty to thirty year time frame. I've also balled in Guy Kawasaki on social media development,which both updates and informs the E Myth, there's also a great 28 page e retail post here on how to look at your systems on and offline. I've had to start plotting more distribution channels, Dan Kennedy got me to create a newsletter and a reforming of how I use videos in multiple iterations.Now I have project binders by SKU and a production and marketing planning template plus time frame charting built so I can immediately see what's working and how to help it. I use Constant contact and Sendlane better because I think of them now as part of marketing. By giving direct divisions to tools I can now control products better.Right now I can see that a year of sieving my business through this will alter and enhance it. It's worth the time investment because I was going towards burnout un-mammoth Technicians production but not strategic Visionary production. It's like it gets you to break down your apple pie and then project to it being delivered to a hundred restaurants and supermarkets and then systematically makes you backward design to answer where you're going to get pie trays from. That specificity then catapults you to producing in grosses of a thousand at a time.