Now that I’m three days out from being done with grad school (fr fr this time, no more extensions), my only real advice is: whenever you read anything, immediately write a 500 word summary of its argument with points about what you thought was useful.
There are only a few TT profs at my uni who really work on critical theory. The Marxists could be seated around a single table. I hope this failure of viewpoint diversity will be redressed.