PhD is like corporate project running for three years, and supervisor meetings are like client calls. You need to look at it seriously and deliver your best during those meeting. After all, you don't want to spoil your client relations, right. It depends on how you manage your meetings. There is a lot do before, during and after every meeting.

Before the PhD supervisor meeting

Prepare slides to discuss

You are expected to prepare the presentation to discuss during the PhD meeting. It may vary according to the supervisors. But whatever the preferred mode of communication, you should have points-to-discuss listed with you before. Sometimes supervisor meetings go stormy, and it is good to have points listed somewhere so that you don't any. Similarly, it is a handy reference. You can include the following things for the presentation.

• Things completed since the last meeting

• Status of the point of action

• Literature view done and significant findings

• Questions and Queries

Make sure that action-points discussed during last are complete

You should make sure that you are working on the agreed action points within decided timelines. It gives the wrong impression if you see that things are not moving in the right direction. It will be wrong to go every meeting empty-handed. You may miss accomplishing a few of those tasks. You are expected to give enough justification for the slippage.

Arrange for the projectors, computers, internet access

Make sure that everything is well-organized before the start of the meeting. It could be annoying for the professor to waste their time in arranging for all those things. Most importantly, you also lose the focus if things are not working on the eleventh hour. You need to look confident during your supervisor meetings. You already have cognitive-overload before the meetings. Its good to avoid such additional challenges.

During the PhD supervisor meeting

Keep something handy to take notes

Always take notes during the supervisor meetings. It is really important as there will be so many things which may lose after the meeting. Take notes properly and make sure that you elaborate those after the meeting. You are expected to prepare the Minutes of the meeting using those notes. Therefore, please make a point that you will connect it properly after the meeting.

Just don't listen. Defend your ideas

One of the roles of Supervisors is to critique your work. Therefore, always be prepared to listen to the critique. But that does not mean that you will continue to listen without responding to those critiques. It would be best if you can defend your ideas at the appropriate time and in a decent way.

Keep reiterative the agreed points

It is imperative to keep reiterating the points you both agreed on. It will be shaping your path ahead. PhD is like walking in the middle of no-where. Whenever you and supervisor agrees, it good marks that place with some visible flag. You should be in a position to tell where you started from and where you have reached. University assessment will be dependent on that.

Keep clarifying the disagreements

Disagreements are areas of future work. You will be working on it further and presenting it to your supervisor again. Keep it listed with you during the meeting. These are points that will be needed during your external meetings with advisers and evaluator. It is a good list of critical question. I suggest maintaining that entire list with you from now. Even though you will be defending your thesis at the end of the year or PhD. But its good to keep it listed from now.

Ask Questions and queries

I always believed that your engagement is reflected when you ask the right questions and at the right time. Therefore, I encourage researchers to ask questions during the Supervisor meetings. It will give them clarity about your thoughts. You will also get clarity about the point in the discussion. A supervisor may re-articulate that point for you. But be prepared for the good reading coming your way.

Decide the next meeting dates and agenda

Get into the habit of deciding the next meeting date and agenda, at the end of every meeting. It is a good practice, and it will allow you to focus your efforts on something. But make sure that deadlines are realistic. Don't just set for the sake of it. You are expected to finish those tasks before that. It will be unethical if you set the deadlines and do not achieve frequently.

After the PhD supervisor meeting

Share minutes-of-meeting (MoM) in the agreed template

Its always good to prepare MoMs the very same day and share it with the supervisors. We have a tool to take care of this with a straightforward template like Agenda, Researcher's comments, Supervisors comment, and Learning areas. If you don't have access to such a tool, then you can do it in Word file as well. But keep track of every meeting. It is crucial if you want to move ahead in the right direction without much of the hassle later.