A fourth-year PhD student asks- 
I’m planning to graduate one year from now, and I know there’s a lot of things I need to do, like finish my research, write my dissertation, submit my paper, go to conferences, start networking, get my resume ready, apply for jobs. Where should I start? 

It is great that you’re looking to plan ahead and have a sense of what you want to accomplish. With only a year left, I recommend starting with when you want to graduate and planning backwards. A challenging part of planning at this point, is that many of the things you list can easily expand to fill as much time as you will give them. By planning backward starting with the absolutely necessary items (like finishing your research and writing your dissertation) you can budget your remaining time (or reevaluate how much time you actually need!). A few tips: 

• Your PI/advisor has a lot of influence on your timeline as you finish; you’ll generally be better off the more you communicate with them about your timeline. Look for opportunities to compromise. 
• The second most influential group is your thesis committee. Have you checked-in with them recently? Their insight can help you plan. 
• Networking tends to be more effective the earlier you start, but you don’t need to dedicate a ton of focused time to it. Consider just reserving something like 20 minutes every other week.
• When it comes to your job search, your goal is to stay informed/find out about any great opportunities, not survey the entire space of possible options at a given time. You’ll never stop searching if your goal to consider every possible option. 

-Ray Care, Program Director, Career Development Team for Researchers