Dear Ecologers, I am a fellow plant ecology PhD student, and I wanted to reach out to ECOLOG about a recent project I've been working on.
The scope of my project is to help grad students overcome the stress of grad school while increasing their wellbeing and overall productivity. If this sounds like you, then read below and check out www.habituapp.com. ----- I am currently a fourth year PhD student studying plant ecology <http://www.lukanegoita.weebly.com>, and I absolutely love what I do. My research allows me to spend time learning about the topics that interest me most. However, like most other graduate students I know, I've gone through some really challenging times, sometimes hitting rock bottom and feeling more overwhelmed, stressed, and anxious than any other time in my life (see this post by the Thesis Whisperer <https://thesiswhisperer.com/2012/05/08/the-valley-of-shit/>). In fact, grad students have been shown to suffer from greater levels of depression and other mental disorders than the broader public. <http://berkeleysciencereview.com/article/mind-grad-school/> In recent years, PhD dropout rates in the US have been as high as 50%. <http://chronicle.com/article/PhD-Attrition-How-Much-Is/140045/> While some of that may be for good reason, I'm sure that a portion of those students left school because they were never taught how to handle and alleviate the psychological stressors of grad school. Over the last 4 years of my PhD I've been developing a system to help me handle this stress and I was surprised by the simple solution that I found. Thus was born *HabitU <http://www.habituapp.com>.* I began implementing the system about 6 months ago, and the results have been very exciting. I was able to increase my wellbeing, productivity, motivation, and self-confidence in ways I couldn't foresee. The fact that I have the time to work on HabitU speaks for itself. Grad school is one of the most amazing opportunities to learn and make discoveries about the world we live in. There is no reason we shouldn't be able to make it a more enjoyable experience. I want to share my system by building a simple and easy to use mobile app. We are currently in the app development stage, but the more interest there is (i.e., the more of you sign-up <http://www.habituapp.com>), the more funding we can get to complete our first beta release. Please spread the word about HabitU to your colleagues and department to help make this happen. Sign up on www.HabitUapp.com to get the chance to try our beta release. Follow us on Twitter: @HabitUapp <http://habituapp.us13.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=f17c268f6087e9228fb41bc0c&id=8b19a2f425&e=a5e9eb5181> Thank you in advance! Luka Negoita PhD student -- Plant Ecology <http://www.lukanegoita.weebly.com> Founder, HabitU HabitUapp.com
