Thankfully I think egotistical bullying is not always the case; I've worked in research for a little while and my previous boss was always fair with her reviews. I did see her write bad comments for one paper though, that was for a direct competitor who had tried to scoop our work. Thankfully her bad comments were justified, in their hurry the competitor had taken a few shortcuts that substantially negated the value of the work.

Good luck with the rewrite!

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I have already had bad experiences with recording everything in a general lab book in the past (it makes going back to decipher things horribly difficult) but managing multiple books seems equally daunting. One other thing which is hard for records it that it's difficult to see clearly what aspect of some work will pan out to be useful and relevant in the future, but writing everything is almost as useless as writing too little. I think this will be particularly relevant in the early stages of a PhD.

I guess everyone will have to find a system to suit themselves but if there are any good tips on this let us know :)

What a great idea for a thread! It's nice to see something productive. I will explore those websites too.

In terms of keeping written records, do you find it easier to have separate books for different aspects of your work (i.e lab book, day-to-day To Do lists, computer work/analysis, notes on journals, notes from seminars, general ideas, notes from supervisory meeting etc)? - continued below...

:)
Thanks for the replies....

I know I've just started so it's not about wanting to know everything already.

This is about getting something quite fundamental wrong, or missing the point and that feeling of horror when you realise you thought you understood but you don't, at least not entirely..... when that happens in plain view of your esteemed and respected supervisors it's quite painful.

It's happened more than once already. Maybe I'm just way too sensitive. Maybe I'm just dense. It's very embarrassing though.

Granted I have only been doing a PhD for 7 weeks but I am having problems with feeling like an idiot.

Do you ever misunderstand things or get muddled in front of your supervisor? I have very good supervisors and I've got a few things wrong or missed the point in meetings and then I can't help but dwell these things for a long time, and get paranoid that they must regret hiring me.

Having come from a job where I'd been there long enough to know it all inside out I'm finding it hard. These thoughts are not productive but they keep popping back into my mind. It's hard to know if they're valid and I should be worried, or if everyone goes through these things and it's just because it's early days..

Any thoughts?