Thank you both very much, you've definitely made me feel a bit better. And slowly, I am getting in the grip of some things around the lab and about my project, it's very minor and it's still a slow process, but I'm slowly learning to rejoice about any small positive progress that I make.

Hi everyone.

So I've just started my PhD two weeks ago and I've been feeling very lost and depressed... I was somehow expecting I would arrive to the lab, have a few days of adjustment and reading and I'll be ready to single-handledly do this thing and take full control over my project but, basically, now I have a feeling that I'm still very lost about a lot of things, that most of the suggestions and analyses are being suggested and done/demonstrated by my supervisor or the main postdoc in my lab and that, regarding my project, basically everyone here knows what to, when to do it and how to do it, while I'm threading in the dark and simply doing what other people tell me to do without always fully understanding each step. I've been trying to catch up to their level of knowledge and practical experience both in general and regarding the topic of my project by doing a lot of reading and as much practical work as I can at the moment, but I've been in a process of moving to another country, I haven't had as much free time outside of work as I thought I would and perhaps I just haven't been reading enough, maybe that's the reason why I'm so slow with catching up on all the theory, at least?

In short, I wanted to ask if any of you had a similar experience feeling so lost and inadequate at the start of your PhD and what is the best way of coping with this and of getting better at what I do?

Thank you very much in advance to anyone who answers.