Hopefully I won’t have to add:

to the list. My current tasks include researching schools and their active research and portfolio. Some of the answers above are mutually exclusive. I’ve pretty much decided a masters would be marginally useful and I would only get one abroad to make it a worthwhile experience and I’d do it the coming year. If I have a lot of PhD apps to do, I may hold off on apps for those until next year to make sure I get all the contacts, prepare properly for the test and visit the faculty members whom I’d like to be my advisors.