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Work/Life Balance in a Clinical Psych program

• Thread starter sesileet
• Start date Aug 2, 2017
• Tags clinical psych
• Aug 2, 2017

BuckeyePsych

Full member.

sesileet said: I am interested in pursuing a doctorate in clinical psychology (Phd or Psyd) and wanted to find out from those currently in a program or those who have graduated what the work/life balance looks like during the program? On average, how much time do you have per week to spend time with family/friends or engage in activities outside of classes/studying/practicum? And how much sleep do you tend to get on average? How does that compare from year to year in the program? I am thinking very seriously about pursuing a doctorate in clinical psych but have a partner and two young children. My only hesitation about proceeding with the application process at this point is my concern about not being able to spend meaningful time with my family and missing out on the next 5-7 years of my children's lives. I have a previous masters degree so I am familiar with the demands of graduate school but the stories I have been hearing about clinical psych doctorate programs seem to go above and beyond what I am used to- it is giving me pause. Thoughts? Click to expand...

singasongofjoy

• Aug 3, 2017

It will indeed vary by program- and within programs, may vary significantly among advisers. There were folks in my lab who had kids, but they had partners who didn't work or had very flexible work schedules (not sure how they swung it financially- either pre-school savings, or loans). My adviser was certainly much more time-demanding than most plus really pushed students to be ready to apply for internship 4th year. I felt I could barely manage having pets, and work/life balance was interesting... had to really think outside the box to combine social time with other obligations. However, when I got to internship I (and my other lab mates)after talking with the other interns I realized that the experience was on the far end of the bell-curve (and work/life balance during internship was, for me, more manageable than any other job I've ever had; I hardly knew what to do with myself when I was regularly heading home at 5:45pm). So programs really vary. It will be more manageable if you're willing to stretch out the time you're on campus to 5 or 6 years rather than trying to be ready for internship in 4 years. It will probably be a good bit more than the demands of the average master's program, but you're really going to have to find out from students during interviews about the culture of the program and adviser-- and how flexible you are able to be with scheduling your hours (how much flexibility do you have over scheduling your own clients, practicum/TA/research lab hours, working from home vs being on campus, etc). Also, you'll learn along the way what you really have to say yes to, and what opportunities/expectations are more optional.  

foreverbull

Psychologist.

I came from counseling psychology (scientist-practitioner), but I don't imagine it was that far off of clinical, although most counseling students didn't have assistantships in research labs. It looked something like this: Per Week: ~20 hours practicum ~20 hours assistantship ~10 hours course attendance (avg. 3 classes per semester) ~10-20 hours coursework/research (not including commute time) So my average weeks were anywhere from 60-70 hours, sometimes up to 80 in a very busy week, sometimes less. Near the end, I had less coursework to focus on dissertation and internship apps. Generally, I devoted Sunday to coursework/research and gave myself Saturdays to rest/socialize. Depending on what you do for your assistantship, you may be lucky enough to have some downtime to squeeze in some course reading, or you may not. There will be downtimes between semesters when you can relax more and take a break, so your time commitment will vary greatly by courses, practicum, and research requirements at any given moment. At my practica, we didn't counsel over the summer semesters, but it will vary by program and practicum site. As singasongofjoy says, really get a sense of time demands and work/life balance from current students (you can ask if they do classes and/or practicum over the summer, etc.). Graduate programs are harder for folks with small children, but I knew people who got through it, although their partners had to do more of the childcare. You simply won't be home much of the time. A friend of mine spent a lot of time doing homework at the library so that when she was home, she was present and spending time with her family. It's doable, but it will be harder while you're in it, for sure. It is a sacrifice, so you have to make sure it's going to be worth it for you and your family in the long run.  

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Discover more about what it's like to be a postgraduate student at surrey., maintaining a work-life balance during your phd.

Being a PhD student can be tough at times. One of the main reasons for this is the pressure in academia to ‘publish or perish’. But it doesn’t have to be this way. I think that by pushing back on the culture of overwork in academia, we can do great research while maintaining our mental wellbeing.

Making space for rest

It’s taken me a few years to fully appreciate how important it is to set clear work boundaries. This has of course been more challenging given the impact of the pandemic and the fact we are working from home more. I find it much easier to ‘switch off’ from work when I’ve had to do my commute home.

I recently made a change to start working in a room that isn’t my bedroom and it’s made such a difference. I now have a much clearer workspace at home which helps me transition into rest time at the end of the day and at the weekends. This means that there’s only one room in the house that I associate with work now which allows me to get ‘in the zone’ and to make that work-life division a bit clearer—work happens in the home office and nowhere else at home.

Communicating boundaries

Communication with your supervisor is one of the key aspects of a successful PhD and work boundaries are something that comes into this too. You may sometimes have to work on the weekends if you have an experiment to do and equipment booked, but I always try to keep my weekends as work-free as I can.

One of the best ways to keep this time as rest time is to not look at or respond to work emails. I use a website blocking app to prevent me from being able to access my emails over the weekend as it’s hard for me to resist the urge to ‘just check it’ in my downtime. My supervisor knows that unless I’m booked in for lab time, I’m not available over the weekend. This helps me truly disconnect for those two days so I can come to my work the next week fully refreshed and ready to go.

Make time for yourself

At the end of the day, the key output of a PhD is the researcher that you become. It may seem like your publications and thesis are the most important thing but to me, it’s all about training to be a good researcher so that I can go on to have a research-focused career. So, it makes no sense to me to complete my PhD but at the expense of my mental wellbeing. I suffer from a few mental illnesses and have done since my teenage years, so I was aware going into my PhD that this was something I needed to be careful about managing. There have been a couple of blips, but on the whole, my mental health is currently better than it has been in many, many years.

Resting when I need to and not overworking is a significant factor in maintaining this. Over the years, it’s become clear that I can’t work to a high standard when I’m in a mental health ‘slump’ and that making time for myself can prevent that. I try to make sure that I use my weekends and evenings to talk to friends and family as well as indulging in my hobbies. My hobbies tend to be fairly relaxing which helps me recharge after a long day of research.

Getting the right balance

Balance is what it all comes down to. I think there is something to the saying ‘work hard, play hard’—by giving it my all during the workday and allowing space for rest outside of that, I’ve been able to cultivate a productive PhD work pattern. This will vary depending on the individual, so I’d encourage you to experiment with what work patterns work best for you. For me, it’s a 9-5ish workday but you may find that working later in the day maximises your productivity. By finding your own work methods, you can thrive as a PGR.

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Is becoming a physician-scientist worth sacrificing work-life balance?

Around Thanksgiving, the ceiling light that illuminates most of my apartment burned out.

I still haven't replaced it. Instead, I use the flashlight app on my phone to get dressed every morning; and I'm constantly tripping over my shoes, backpack and other miscellaneous, floor-dwelling items whenever I'm home. All in all, it's not a particularly dignified scenario.

Changing light bulbs isn't hard. The problem is that this particular light bulb is encased in a ceiling fixture that is incredibly difficult to open. Over the past three months, my building's maintenance staff and I have tried -- unsuccessfully -- to change the bulb in at least four different ways. Eventually, I just kind of gave up.

That process -- scheduling appointments with maintenance during regular hours, following up via phone or email, and reshuffling my research, coursework and other MD/PhD training responsibilities -- made something as simple as changing a light bulb feel like a "project." I worried that this project was whittling too much time away from my perpetually-impacted backlog of to-dos, something that every physician-scientist-in-training carries with them in some form or another. So, I remain in the dark.

This light bulb debacle made me think of a perspective piece (co-authored by Stanford Medicine's own PJ Utz , MD, and Brian Kobilka , MD) that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine a few months ago. In it, the authors note that the proportion of physician-scientists in the medical workforce today is less than a third of what it was in the 1980s. Furthermore, they make the case that this is mainly a result of physician-scientist trainees discontinuing their pursuit of increasingly competitive, seemingly "unattainable" careers that combine research and clinical care.

As someone currently in the middle of my own physician-scientist training, I can admit that sometimes the idea of juggling research, clinical responsibilities and just being a person seems close to impossible in the long-term.

In my life as an MD/PhD student, I'm responsible for a miniature version of the balancing act that most academic physician-scientists navigate every day. I don't run my own lab, but I do manage several scientific projects for my PhD research -- including applying for grants, making sense of data and writing papers for publication.

Likewise, I'm not a practicing physician yet, but I stay involved with patients through volunteer work and some nonprofit health care advocacy . Here and there, I also do a bit of teaching, taking classes and other miscellaneous projects for the hospital and school of medicine.

Combined, all of this amounts to about 80 hours per week that I spend on career-related stuff. By my estimates, this is about average for MD/PhD students, and a bit less than average for fully-trained physician-scientists, whose patient-related commitments are much larger than mine.

I think the reason that I -- and so many others on the physician-scientist path -- work so much is simple: clinical and biomedical research problems are some of the most interesting and important in all of science, so working to solve them generates an incredible sense of purpose.

But I've also recently realized that, because that sense of purpose is so important to me, I've kind of let it swallow up other, equally-important areas of my life. Sure, I do some of the coolest work in the world, but I also don't date, exercise or travel as much as I'd like to. I often flake out on social time with friends to make another "really important deadline" or because, on a trainee's income, my leisure budget is pretty limited. And, of course, the constant crunch on my time means that basic life-management tasks -- like replacing light bulbs -- can live on my to-do list for weeks or even months at a time.

Now more than ever, I've started to feel the tension between the intense commitment required to follow my physician-scientist dreams and my fear that doing so will seriously encroach on my physical, emotional and interpersonal well-being. For the first time, I'm doubting my preparedness for the path ahead.

In my last conversation with my apartment's maintenance staff, they explained that the light in my room is probably jammed shut, which means that the only option left for changing the bulb is to break it open.

There's something appealing about the brute-force approach to any problem, but I'm not sure that an equally simple solution exists for the flickering confidence I've started to feel about the future.

For now, the light in my apartment still isn't on. But hopefully, it will be soon.

Stanford Medicine Unplugged is a forum for students to chronicle their experiences in medical school. The student-penned entries appear on Scope once a week during the academic year; the entire blog series can be found in the Stanford Medicine Unplugged  category . 

Tim Keyes is an MD/PhD student in Stanford's Medical Scientist Training Program. He likes microglia, snowmobiles, pop music written for teenage girls, and going on terrible first dates.   Follow him on Twitter at @timothykeyes

Photo by Rodion Kutsaev

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6 Work-Life Balance Tips for PhD Students

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6 Work-life Balance Tips for PhD Students

“failure may make you miserable but i’m not sure success will make you happy” – chris williamson (host of the modern wisdom podcast).

I think balance in anything is always good however when it comes to obtaining work-life balance achieving it is going to depend on your individual needs and circumstances.

On the surface, the term is self-explanatory and sounds great. Especially when it can reduce symptoms of fatigue, help lower stress levels and increase our work and life satisfaction.

Who wouldn’t want to achieve a good, healthy, and sustainable harmony between their career and the rest of their life?

Exactly! …Supervisors!

JK of course😉

But in all seriousness, while we all know what work-life balance is it can be quite difficult to achieve so with that said here are 6 tips that will hopefully help you in achieving said balance and making sure to prioritize all the things you deem important!

Ultimately this list will probably contain some things you don’t care about at all or things that are of vital importance to you. Feel free to pick and choose which tips resonate with you and try them out. The goal after all is to get closer to a balanced state for us and everyone’s definition of that might differ.

Here are 6 tips to help you get closer to your ideal work-life balance

Tip #1. start saying no more often   .

You won’t have this option for everything but it’s important to start exercising your “no muscles” before they atrophy and you are spread too thin. Maybe this means that some experiments will take longer or you will have to pass up going to a conference here and there but in the long run prioritizing your mental health and your health is more important. 

This is one of the things I struggle with a lot myself as I’m quite a people pleaser and I often feel like I’m letting people down if I say no but sometimes you just have to. For my fellow people-pleasers out there, It helps to think of it as you want to give people your best and you can only do that if you are focused, energized, and happy. If you are unfocused, tired, and depressed then you aren’t going to be much help to the latest person asking you for something anyway so you’re better off just being direct and honest with no. In the end, it’s the best thing you can do for both you and them.

Tip #2. Schedule regular breaks        

The best of both worlds, you get to be productive and still take breaks, all while eliminating the feeling of guilt associated with procrastination! I like this one because it’s easy to do and there are ways of doing it while still being very productive. The Pomodoro technique is one such method and it involves setting a timer and focussing on work for 25 mins then taking a 5 min break and rinse and repeat. 

I use it myself for my writing sessions or for doing stuff related to the podcast and it works while taking the stress off of having to make a ton of progress when you start something. By scheduling regular breaks we get to still make progress in a way that accounts for us being human and needing breaks every once in a while. While on these breaks make sure to do something that you enjoy and that energizes you, whether that’s going for a short walk or getting a cup of coffee, or talking with a colleague, doesn’t matter just do you.

Tip #3. Take care of your health

Your health is your number one asset in life. As long as you are healthy you have options but as soon as you aren’t those options evaporate quickly. Now just to be clear here I’m not suggesting you get a gym membership and go 3-5x week or start running marathons but just to put your health at the forefront of your mind and your schedule. Whatever that looks like for you is fine, especially at the beginning when exercising or eating healthy sucks the most. Some low-cost, high-leverage things you can start doing to take better care of your health include prioritizing getting enough sleep every night, drinking more water, going out for more walks, and reducing junk food consumption. You’d be surprised at how effective doing the simple things consistently over time is compared to doing hard things rarely. Here is a quote I love that explains this well.

“It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.”- Charlie Munger

P.S. I am not a registered physician so my advice is not medical advice at all but if you somehow manage to fail at drinking water and getting enough sleep then you have no one but yourself to blame for that.

Tip #4. Making time for family and friends

While it might often seem like time is scarce and it probably is, you do have it in your power to block off time for the things like friends and family. An example of this could be that every Friday evening is Dungeons and Dragons night with your friends ( Yes I’m nerdy) and you won’t miss that for any work-related event whether that’s a conference or anything else. Time blocking isn’t free of course as it ties in quite well with saying no. You’re just choosing to say no to everything that conflicts with your predefined time with friends and family.

Tip #5. Setting healthy boundaries between work and life

Boundaries are important, especially in academia where work never ends and there is constantly some new paper to read, experiment to do, or project to finish. Having clearly defined boundaries helps you focus your attention better and be actively engaged with either your work or your relationships. A good example of doing this well is not responding to work emails during the weekend or after working hours. Another often used tip for setting boundaries, especially on holidays is to enable the automatic response to emails saying you are on holiday and cannot / will not respond to emails for the duration of your holiday.

Tip #6. Start practicing self-compassion/mindfulness

I’m not saying this to add one more thing to your to-do list but rather to help you clear your mind and reflect and accept the situation you’re in and the emotions you are feeling. Let’s face it, life is hard, and doing a PhD doesn’t make it any easier. Not everything is going to always go our way and we need to accept that and be ready for that both mentally and emotionally. 

Having said this, you don’t need to start journaling and meditating for 1hr a day from now of course. Instead, test some meditating for 5-10 mins a day or journaling how your day went or what you are grateful for. The way I think of these things is that our mind needs a moment to unload all the work and life-related things we have going on and just relax for a second. Sort of like running a diagnostic check on your computer and closing background apps that are slowing it down. Overall it’s good for your performance and mental health to have a moment of introspection whatever form that takes for you.

So those were the 6 tips for trying to achieve work-life balance. Important to note that these are not strict requirements but instead just suggestions made by a fellow PhD on the interwebs just trying to help and figuring things out as they go along. In the end, how you choose to approach work-life balance is going to depend primarily on your circumstances, needs, values so while there is no universal correct way of doing it there is a correct way for you.

Further reading

Thank you for reading and if you haven’t started your PhD journey yet, but are interested in some tips for that then feel free to check out our Tips for Future PhDs blog series. Part 1 focuses on whether doing a PhD is actually a good idea or not. Part 2 is full of advice on finding a PhD position that works best for you. Part 3 has advice on the actual application process and tips for that. 

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PhD Work-Life Balance: 5 Tips to Help Students Manage the PhD Workload

The journey toward acquiring a doctoral degree is extremely rewarding, yet, it is perhaps one of the most challenging of all academic journeys. Every young PhD student begins this journey with a lot of enthusiasm and curiosity, harboring a dream of contributing to science and society through a dedicated work plan for PhD. However, on this long journey as a student pursues their PhD, work-life balance goes haywire.

On striving to achieve a PhD work-life balance , students often find themselves perplexed. Eventually the stressors of the PhD workload may create a dent in their dreams as the rough edges of the journey become apparent. Many students take a long time to acknowledge these ‘expectation v/s reality’ issues, and this in turn leads to anxiety, affecting their productivity as well as well-being.

Despite having a work plan for PhD research, it is hard for students, at least in the initial stages, to reconcile with the fact that their work plan for PhD is never as fool proof as the one they envisioned on paper. Experiments may fail, results aren’t always ‘perfect’, and timelines can go haywire if standardization protocols get prolonged. Even after acknowledging these issues, there is the constant pressure of meeting mentor expectations, which can hamper the students’ lifestyle and overall PhD work-life balance. It may lead to long work hours, including night shifts and working over weekends.

For students  living away from their home country , maintaining a PhD work-life balance comes with an added challenge of acclimatizing to new cultures. At times, these challenges even adversely affect their mental health giving rise to anxiety issues, burnout, or even imposter syndrome, all of which can hamper their work plan for PhD research and, in turn, their productivity. Although mental health issues are undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges faced by PhD students during their doctoral journey, the impact of poor mental health is unfortunately a largely overlooked topic in academia. 1

While the need of striking a PhD work-life balance is understood by most students, implementing it can be tough, largely due to the limited availability of resources that can guide students toward creating and maintaining an effective work plan for PhD research.

The work plan for PhD varies for each student as it’s tailored to their needs. So, creating a standard schedule sample to manage PhD workload is not advisable. However, here are some tips and advice for PhD students to make this process of creating an optimal PhD student lifestyle for themselves easier and more enjoyable. 2,3

Table of Contents

1. Manage time effectively

To understand how to achieve a PhD work-life balance, students need to consciously identify the time and energy leakages occurring throughout the day . This will help them in identifying the patterns in which they are spending time. Tasks requiring similar mental capabilities can be grouped together during the day, thereby minimizing decision fatigue. Similarly, initiating collaborations and rejecting additional responsibilities can save a considerable amount of time leading to an improved execution of the PhD work plan.

2. Establish a routine

The doctoral journey is a bumpy ride with unpredictable twists and turns. This is the main cause of anxiety in many students since, as human beings, we are wired to function optimally within a regulated and controlled system. While factors such as the PhD workload and work hours cannot be optimized beyond a certain point, the time outside the lab can be managed with more ease. By dedicating sufficient time toward household chores and unwinding activities, and creating a PhD work-life balance, students can develop a sense of security through a sustainable and predictable daily routine. Having a work plan for PhD is good but having a leisure plan is better to help you maintain a healthy PhD student lifestyle that can, in turn, boost productivity at work.

3. Invest in mental and physical well-being

To get the right work plan for PhD, research, identify, acknowledge, and then tackle the stressors that hamper physical and mental well-being. Engaging in physical exercises, thought-journaling, and (if needed) seeking advice from a therapist, preferably someone experienced in advising PhD students, can be some ways to achieve a lifestyle based on PhD work-life balance.

4. Indulge in a hobby

The  anxiety of managing the PhD workload can be balanced by pursuing a hobby where the mind is free to explore without any limitations. This can, in turn, lead to enhanced creativity and innovation in ideas at work and help achieve a sustainable PhD work-life balance. An improved PhD student lifestyle can help one flourish.

5. Connect regularly with friends and family

It is impossible for friends and family members to empathize completely with the problems faced during the doctoral journey, especially if they do not share the same love for research. But it is essential to connect with them regularly, as they can provide an objective and impartial lens to work-related problems. This can help in resolving the problems altogether or make the problems seem totally insignificant. Either way, it can help tackle the anxiety associated with failures in executing the work plan for PhD research.

By now it may be clear that in the journey of attaining the right PhD work-life balance, students should make a series of conscious choices and lifestyle changes that need to be made every single day. Exercising these choices is not an easy task, but can be extremely rewarding in terms of reducing anxiety and burnout-related issues, as well as to improve productivity and well-being in the long run.

• Mental health of graduate students sorely overlooked. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01751-z.
• Bartlett, M. J., Arslan, F. N., Bankston, A. & Sarabipour, S. Ten simple rules to improve academic work–life balance.  PLOS Comput. Biol.   17 , e1009124 (2021).
• Self-care for the scientist.  https://www.apa.org  https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2015/09/matters.

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The Cognitive Sciences Graduate Student Corner

at UC Irvine

Achieve work-life balance in grad school

A good work-life balance contributes to your overall mental and physical health. Since graduate students are six times more likely to experience depression or anxiety than the general population, achieving a good work-life balance should be one of your top priorities.

Working Longer ≠ Working Better

The stereotypical grad student is overworked and doesn’t have time for anything but their research. But this stereotype is based on a flawed idea. Working longer doesn’t mean you’re working better. Are you really doing your best work after 12 straight hours on the same task? Is there really any benefit to starting a new project at 8 pm rather than waiting until the next morning?

Working effectively and efficiently is key to achieving a better work-life balance. It’s also the biggest mindset change required for most grad students. To work effectively and efficiently, you need to minimize any unnecessary extra time spent on a task. An easy way to do this is to make a plan before you begin a new project so it doesn’t take longer than it has to. Before starting a project, think through all the steps, determine if you have all the resources you will need, and figure out how much time you should set aside for each step. Things may not go entirely according to your plan, but it’s better to spend a little more time learning proper technique then to waste a day because you have to order a reagent you didn’t know you would need. If you plan, you minimize your chances of working late to compensate for time lost earlier in the day.

Being selective about your work goes hand-in-hand with planning. Say you need to learn about a new topic. Is it better to spend the entire day reading every single article you can find about the subject or instead spend eight hours reading a few of the most-referenced articles and book chapters, then spending your evening doing something else? Which do you think will give you a deeper understanding of the topic? Cramming will mean you spend the whole day working and end up with only a cursory knowledge of the subject. You’ll learn more from a close reading of a few key articles, plus you’ll have some time to actually process what you’ve read.

Set Your Hours

Academia is rarely a 9 to 5 job. While this often gets construed as a justification for working nights and weekends, use it to your advantage to set your work hours at the time when you are most productive. If you are a morning person, consider starting your work a few hours earlier. If you do your best thinking in the evening, shift your day so you can relax in the morning then do the bulk of your work during your most productive time. Of course, if you work in a lab or shared office, check with your supervisor first to make sure they are okay with you working different hours.

Once you set your work hours, stick to them. When you’re done for the day, move all tasks still in progress to tomorrow’s to-do list. Having set hours means you can enjoy your nights and weekends, but also gives you the flexibility to work a bit longer if you need to. There are only so many hours in a day and if you already work for most of then, how will you find any extra time when there’s a deadline approaching? And on that note…

Getting enough sleep isn’t just a way to achieve work-life balance, it contributes to your overall health. You can’t give 100% at work if you’re overtired. Sleep also affects your long-term memory making it even more important to get your eight hours every night.

In addition to getting a full night’s sleep, work-life balance also includes taking a proper lunch break and even a dinner break if you must work late. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, if you don’t eat lunch you are going to crash later in the day. Secondly, a lunch break gives you a chance to take a break and socialize with the people you work with. Getting to know your fellow grad students helps foster a friendly work environment, which will make your job a lot more enjoyable.

Forming these good habits in grad school will help you maintain a great work-life balance as you progress in your academic career.

Source: academicpositions.be

Work Life Balance in Graduate School

By Luke Wink-Moran

Photo by   Pixel-Shot

Deadlines, classes, and work all sometimes feel a higher priority than resting or spending time with friends and family. But according to UArizona experts, unbalanced priorities can be harmful to your health and compromise your professional success.

“Time away from work is incredibly important,” says Dr. David Sbarra, a professor in the Department of Psychology where he directs the Laboratory for Social Connectedness and Health. “People misunderstand this key point all of the time and just try to take on more and more work.”

According to Dr. Sbarra, students who take on too much work risk placing themselves in a state of chronic stress, which can lead to sleep disruptions and create “a psychological environment in our body that makes us more susceptible to disease.” Dr. Sbarra explained that sleep disruptions can also lead to an increased risk of adverse events like car accidents and chronic illness.

Graduate students should be aware of the risks of chronic stress because, according to Dr. Leslie Ralph, a psychologist who works in the University of Arizona’s CAPS department, “Research on graduate students does show that they experience a much higher level of distress than the general population. Studies on graduate and professional students also shows that quality of life and general well-being are significant protective factors in their success. In other words, having a low quality of life and general well-being can put students at risk for failing.”

So the case for finding work-life balance becomes clear: a well-balanced life benefits not only students’ mental health, but their performance in school.

When asked why some graduate students might have a hard time finding a work-life balance, and what she might like to say to them, Dr. Ralph said, “Many times, grad students have high (or even unrealistic) expectations for themselves, might feel like an “imposter,” or be afraid of disappointing others. It can sometimes feel like it isn’t safe to feel good, and it can be hard to remember that well-being involves so much more than academic success.”

For those students who want to take strides towards a healthier work-life balance, Dr. Sbarra shared this advice: “Setting and maintaining good boundaries are important to establishing work-life balance. I work best when I do not work too much. There’s irony in this statement: To work better, work smarter hours, not necessarily longer hours. For me, smarter hours means being well-rested.”

For more specific strategies that students, faculty, and staff can use to maintain a healthy work-life balance, Lourdes A. Rodríguez, Manager of Childcare and Family Resources at Life & Work Connections, offers the following suggestions:

Self-care:   Everything starts with recognizing the importance of caring for yourself. If you do not take the time and needed steps to stay physically and mentally healthy, you won’t be able to achieve your goals. 

Reasonable expectations : Thoroughly assess what you can and cannot do. Nobody is perfect; therefore, do not aim for perfection, but for “good enough.” This means you need to learn to say “no” sometimes.

            Planning: Good time management enables us to work smarter, not harder.

Adaptability: N o matter how much we plan, the unexpected can happen; therefore, it is important to accept changes and adapt as needed.

Boundaries : Establish clear guidelines for suitable behaviors and responsibilities. Often, expectations are implied or assumed. It’s helpful to be explicit about boundaries in order to benefit fully from the safeguards they allow.

Communication : This includes not only speaking, but active listening. Developing good communication skills helps us to clearly share our opinions, desires, and needs.

For more information, check out the CAPS graduate student groups and self-help resources in the following links:

Self-Care Tips for Grad Students: https://caps.arizona.edu/self-care-tips-grad-students

Pathways to Wellness Personal Wellness Plan: https://caps.arizona.edu/pathwaystowellness

CAPS groups overview: https://caps.arizona.edu/groups-overview

A List of Resources for Graduate Students with Children https://grad.arizona.edu/diversityprograms/sites/default/files/uagc_page/final_students_who_are_parents_resources.pdf

• Career Advice

8 Tips for Balancing Grad School and Full-Time Work

By  Liz Wasden

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Every February, my graduate program welcomes newly admitted students to an open house event to sit in on classes, meet faculty and current students, network with other prospective students, and preview what life in the program will look like come the fall semester. This past February in particular, prospective part-time master’s and doctoral students asked me questions about balancing a full-time job on campus with graduate school.

Although I ponder this issue often as an academic adviser and doctoral student at the University of Maryland, College Park, my answer is never as thorough or comprehensive as I would like it to be. “How do you balance full-time work and graduate school?” is a hard question. The answer is subjective, personal and dynamic. Yet while I strongly believe that there is no one-size-fits-all, formulaic approach to succeeding at both work and grad school, I’d like to share eight strategies -- which I’ve discovered by trial and error, picked up from other students, or read about in op-ed pieces like this -- that have made my balancing act a bit steadier.

No. 1: Know the ebbs and flows of your work environment. Wherever you are working, analyze when you are busiest, both over the long haul and on a daily or weekly basis. If you don’t have a strong sense of the rhythm of your workload or are starting a new job, don’t hesitate to ask colleagues or your supervisor.

In advising, for example, my busiest times are those in the middle of the fall and spring semesters -- March through early May and October through early December. Thus, when I review the syllabus of each class, I set arbitrary deadlines for myself and carve out time to work on assignments during periods when I know I will have less hubbub at work. I have a document that maps out a yearly schedule of times when I am typically busy with tasks at work and times when I can focus more on assignments and readings.

No. 2: Work smarter, not harder. By that I mean: take advantage of the tools and resources that are available to you, approach assignments strategically, and work throughout the semester rather than a few weeks before the assignment is due.

For instance, in my Google Drive, I have a “Graduate School” folder, in which I create a subfolder for each class I take. Within those subfolders, I create a separate document titled for each forthcoming assignment I will have that semester and its due date -- for example, “Sept. 24 Policy Brief” or “Dec. 10 Literature Review” or “May 11 Research Paper.” To each document, I add the assignment’s prompt and any initial thoughts I have as to what topic I may want to explore for the assignment, and what theories, conceptual frameworks, researchers or literature could be relevant. Throughout the semester, I add quotes, sources and ideas to these assignment documents. By the time my draft deadline begins creeping up, I have a significant amount of content to work with -- sometimes even a complete draft.

Another helpful tool is a citation manager . You can upload and organize articles by class, topic area or assignment and within each one, highlight relevant quotes and take notes. In addition, my calendar and my to-do list have been my constant companions throughout graduate school. I have a Google calendar associated with my work email where I keep track of meetings and student appointments (this calendar is shared with my coworkers) and a calendar attached to my personal email, where I keep track of class deadlines and block off chunks of time to complete readings and assignments.

Similarly, Evernote is an online to-do list that allows you to create “notebooks” within which you can create notes using different templates (weekly schedule, to-do list and so forth). I have a notebook called “Work,” with reminders and training notes to be turned into training documents; one for “Travel,” with a note for each trip and vacation; and one for “Grad School,” with a note for each month of the semester with a separate section for each class. One of the most helpful functions of Evernote is that you can attach photos or files and link URLs to your notes. I like to link my Google assignment documents next to each to-do item for easier access.

No. 3: Work your classwork into your professional work, and vice versa. One of the most rewarding aspects of working full-time while completing graduate school is being able to put theory into practice and bringing real-world examples and issues to class discussions. Take advantage of your anecdotal evidence and professional experience to guide your writing and research. Use assignments to develop projects or policies you may actually be interested in addressing at work, to learn about a job you might be working toward in the future, or to explore a topic you are passionate about.

In my class on student leadership development, for example, we were asked to design a program to teach students about leadership development theories. I used the opportunity to create a class with an emphasis on building leadership skills and efficacy in underrepresented minority students. While the class itself never actually took place, I communicated several of the student development frameworks and ideas to our program’s faculty members, who then implemented them into their existing courses.

You can also incorporate themes and ideas you learn in class into your work. In every class, I try to think critically and intentionally about how class content is represented in my everyday tasks. The perspectives I gained from my class on college access and choice have made me a better adviser -- one who is more empathetic to the barriers students face when beginning or transferring to college and trying to complete it. Allow the barriers between your practice and learning to become more fluid. Your experience will not only help you in your graduate studies but also make you a more well-rounded professional.

No. 4: Reflect deeply after each class. What about this class did you enjoy? What aspects challenged you? What do you want to know more about? Such reflection can help guide your curriculum (if you have more flexibility as a doc student) as well as tell you more about what kind of worker you are and help you set goals based on what you like.

After each semester wraps up, take some time to think about what you learned and how the course content contributed to your growth as a student and as a professional. This has been especially helpful for me as I think about my intended dissertation topic and methods. At the end of each semester, once the dust has settled, I write down which aspects of the class were challenging for me or came more easily to me, which topics I found really interesting and engaging, and which topics left me somewhat uninspired. Not only has the amalgamation of these reflections helped me assess where I need to improve or where there may be holes in my coursework, it has also given me a default skeleton cover letter and teaching philosophy statement.

As you reflect on course content, think also about the research methods in the articles you read throughout the semester. I read an article in my Leadership in Higher Education course and was so struck by the textual analysis the researchers conducted that I decided to take a class on the topic the following semester.

No. 5: Create small wins or achievements to help motivate you. Midsemester is prime time for a slump in motivation. I usually hit a wall around week nine, and one of the best ways to motivate myself to keep going has been to plan things to look forward to or to reward myself after small achievements. Organizational theory tells us that small goals or achievements are effective tools for motivating employees, and the same goes for overscheduled students.

For instance, I might plan an “out of office” day, or arrange a weekend getaway to a nearby city, or make reservations at a restaurant with actual metal cutlery and a friendly, calming ambience. It can be incredibly difficult to balance work, grad school and time with family and friends, but using planned downtime or outings with loved ones as a way to motivate myself has been extremely helpful for completing assignments when I’m feeling overwhelmed or burned out. I also have weekly reserved time for relaxing. Every Friday evening after I’ve finished work for the day, I stay away from my computer and assignments and take time to recuperate.

No. 6: Collaborate with different people. In your professional life and on future research projects, you will have to work in concert with a multitude of people. The best place to start adapting to different work styles and learning to collaborate efficiently with others -- while the stakes are low and mistakes are encouraged -- is in graduate school.

For both class and work projects, try not to select the same co-worker or friend in your cohort for every project. Instead, branch out! You are cheating yourself if you work with the same people project after project. While it is important to build rapport with other students who may share similar research interests, and a strong support system is vital for surviving graduate school, you can learn so much from working with different colleagues. As an added benefit, others in your classes and cohort are probably working in multiple departments on the campus, giving you the opportunity to expand your network for future work-related needs.

No. 7: Be strategic about what and how you read. It took me years to accept that it simply would not be possible to read all the weekly required readings for my classes and work 40-plus hours a week. The advice I’ll share here is the same I give to the freshman students I teach in a one-credit “introduction to the university” course: read selectively and strategically. When reading for understanding or to participate in class discussions, the most informative pieces of a research study are usually the abstract, the first paragraph of the introduction, the first paragraph of the literature review, the first sentences of the methodology section, the discussion section and the conclusion. For crafting a discussion post, I read those same sections but pay particular attention to the introduction, discussion and conclusion, and I note several quotes that either boil down the main points of the study or contribute distinctly to the topic at hand. When taking down quotes, I always add an in-text citation in my notes to save time later when I post a discussion thread or write a paper.

For an annotated bibliography or a literature review, I typically spend more time reading and taking notes from an article than I do when reading for understanding alone. This is where tools like Google documents and citation managers are helpful. You can highlight and take notes within citation managers, and start adding to your future assignments in Google documents as you read, giving you a jumping-off point when you sit down to complete the presentation or paper.

No. 8: Ask your coworkers and professors about their grad school experiences. Many of the tips I’ve picked up and the strategies I’ve learned have originated from conversations with my professors and co-workers. Not only have I learned good ways to balance graduate school and work life, but I’ve also heard stories of tactics to avoid. For example, a co-worker told me that to finish their dissertation, they lived off protein bars for several months, writing from noon to midnight and sleeping from 2 a.m. to 11 a.m. -- a schedule I’m not sure I would ever recover from.

In my experience, professors and co-workers are happy to share their wisdom and to reminisce about their graduate school days. In addition to breaking the ice, if you are in a new position or program, or creating an opportunity for bonding, discussing grad school is also an opportunity to share some context about your professional development and continuing education. That may open opportunities to get involved in new creative projects at work.

In conclusion, what does balancing work and grad school look like to you? Does it mean completing all stipulated tasks and assignments, earning a 4.0 GPA, conducting original research, publishing at regular intervals in top periodicals, and being promoted within your organization during your time in your graduate program? My goal each semester has been (as advisery as this may sound) to do my best. Sometimes that has meant that I didn’t get the grade I had hoped for or didn’t attend the University Senate meeting I had wanted to attend. Other times, it has meant earning a promotion at work, serving as a teaching assistant for a favorite former class and presenting at conferences. I have tried to give myself grace throughout my graduate program to alleviate some of the pressure that comes with trying to do it all. Do not compare yourself to other graduate students -- this is your journey.

As you prepare to enter a graduate program this fall or to continue your graduate studies, start thinking about what strategies you will adapt from your undergraduate experience or the office to graduate school. Of all the tips listed above, the key to balancing academics and work has been planning ahead and staying organized. But always be sure to keep a pulse on your mental and physical health. Even the most effective strategies will not be successful if you don’t take care of yourself first.

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Maintaining Work-Life Balance During a PhD

• Katie Baker
• July 31, 2024

After the painstaking process of drafting your research proposal, finding the best university to suit your research needs and enduring the anxiety of the application process, you’re finally a doctoral student staring down the barrel of a multi-year academic marathon.  

Many new PhD students make the mistake of treating it as more of a sprint when they embark on their PhD journey, which can last up to four years for full-time students or seven years for part-time students and become overwhelmed, which highlights the importance of keeping a healthy pace, not jumping the gun, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

This article will highlight the necessity of ensuring you’re not burning the candle at both ends, provide actionable tips to avoid burnout and offer support suggestions if you feel you can’t cope with the pressures of your academic life. It is important to remember that there is no one-size-fits-all answer on how you should approach your daily, weekly, or even annual schedule. You may find that in the beginning, it is a process of trial and error as you figure out the most effective and productive routine to make the process less of a chore and more of a gratifying pursuit.

The Importance of Maintaining Work-Life Balance During a PhD

Many PhD students struggle to find the balance between academic success and overall well-being, as PhD programs offer degrees of flexibility which are scarcely seen in other walks of academic life.

Unlike taught degrees, with PhDs, there are no lectures, seminars, exams, or essays to plan academic life around; this relative freedom can often lead to blurred lines between work and life and students feeling as though they’re not progressing at the pace they should be as there is still mountains of work to be done by the time you submit your thesis. 

Though it is hard to strike an optimal balance between life’s demands, it isn’t impossible to achieve and maintain a healthy work-life balance by setting boundaries, finding effective ways to manage stress and prioritising.

How to Maintain a Work-Life Balance During a PhD

How to Set Work-Life Boundaries 

Even if your PhD is your number one priority, it is crucial to set boundaries between your academic and your personal life. Your weekly schedule should always make time for friends and family, engaging in hobbies and taking regular breaks. To set clear boundaries and ensure your time as a PhD student is rewarding, set aside time to focus on your well-being between your study and writing sessions.

Discover Why Prioritisation Is Key 

Maintaining a work-life balance during a PhD is more than time management; it is also about managing energy and nurturing the mind as your knowledge advances. You can’t pour from an empty intellectual cup; even if grabbing a coffee with your friends, heading to the gym, or practising mindfulness meditation doesn’t get more words on a page or help you to make a breakthrough with your research, it can be beneficial in the long run. When creating a prioritised schedule, allocate specific blocks of time to your academic tasks and personal activities.

Set Aside Time for Stress Management 

During your time as a PhD student, it is crucial to remind yourself that self-care isn’t a luxury; it is a necessity which keeps you orientated towards laying a foundation of good mental and physical health. Whichever stress management technique works for you and provides you with the most respite, always make time for it within your weekly routine. Whether it is venting to your friends, going for a walk, or taking the time to listen to your body and mind before responding with kindness during mindfulness meditation, ensure you have enough stress-eliminating activities in your diary. Never skip on the self-care fundamentals by ensuring you get enough sleep and exercise, and that you follow a diet which gives you the mental energy to tackle your academic workload.

Change Your Perception of Productivity

If you solely measure productivity in terms of work output, you may want to rethink how you perceive productivity, as it is so much more than a measure of hours at the helm; it is about navigating your tasks and schedule with maximum efficiency. A great way to ensure optimal efficiency is by using techniques, such as the Pomodoro Technique, which recommends following 25-minute stints of work with a five-minute break. You might also want to try setting realistic goals and coming up with rewarding ways to celebrate reaching them. This will boost your morale and anchor a sense of achievement. 

Know the Signs of Burnout and How to Counteract Them 

The most common signs of burnout include feelings of reduced accomplishment, cynicism, irritability, exhaustion, detachment, feeling overwhelmed or fuelled with self-doubt and being more prone to procrastination. In minor cases of burnout, providing enough time for replenishing leisure activities is usually enough to counter the warning signs. In more severe cases of burnout, which leaves you feeling you can’t cope with the stress, communicate this with your PhD supervisor or seek mental health support. 

How and When to Seek Help

In 2021, Nature Journal announced anxiety and depression are ‘the norm’ for UK PhD students. In the same year, a band of UK universities, including the University of Sussex, revealed that 42% of PhD students surveyed self-reported mental health issues . Rather than accepting poor mental health as par for the course, it is crucial for students to seek support. Whether that be from a UK counselling service or one of the numerous helplines and organisations dedicated to supporting students.

If you need help cultivating a lifestyle which facilitates academic success without compromising your health or happiness, reach out to your university’s support services, such as wellness programmes or student counselling. Additionally, the charity Student Minds and The National Union of Students (NUS) offer guidance and advice, which is tailor-made for postgraduate students. The British Psychological Society also provides avenues for support for students looking to maintain their mental health during their doctoral studies.

Final Thoughts

By valuing self-care, knowing your limits when it comes to staying productive without overexerting yourself and ensuring there is enough time for rest, relaxation, socialising, and other enjoyable pursuits which leave you energised and academically inspired, it is entirely possible to negate the PhD process with your well-being intact. Always remember that researching and writing your PhD is a journey, it is not just about the destination, as much as your eye wants to remain on the doctoral title prize.

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• CAREER COLUMN
• 06 November 2018

Twenty things I wish I’d known when I started my PhD

• Lucy A. Taylor 0

Lucy A. Taylor earned her zoology PhD from the University of Oxford, UK. She is now a postdoctoral researcher at Save the Elephants in Nairobi, Kenya, and a visiting researcher in the Department of Zoology at Oxford.

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Starting a PhD can be tough. Looking back, there are many things I wish I’d known at the beginning. Here, I have curated a list of advice from current PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from the Department of Zoology at my institution, the University of Oxford, UK, to aid new graduate students.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07332-x

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged. You can get in touch with the editor at [email protected].

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Discussion forum for current, past, and future students of any discipline completing post-graduate studies - taught or research.

Can you have consistent work/life balance during PhD?

I (25F) have one PhD interview scheduled for next month at a top research institute for biological and biomedical sciences and I’m terrified.. both of getting rejected and of getting accepted.

I’m terrified of getting rejected because I don’t really know what else to do with my life. I’ve always had this goal to do a PhD eventually so I could land higher, leadership positions in industry.

I’m terrified of getting accepted due to what a PhD entails. I am terrified that I’ll be wasting the rest of my 20s. I love my work/life balance right now. I love getting off work around 4/5PM. I’m a gym rat, I love working out at least 2 hours a day (4-5 days/week). I just started climbing this year, and I love it and want to spend more time doing so. I love doing weekend trips, going hiking or swimming/skiing (season dependent), I love turning my brain off after work, and spending time for myself (gym, cooking, relaxing), or quality time with friends. I see my friends and family almost every day.

Currently, I work at Harvard Med School (for two years, since graduating undergrad), and I know I’m a diligent worker. I have 5 co-authorships (within those, two in preparation), including one Nature co-author. While I like research, I don’t have a desire to sacrifice my mental health and personal life due to a PhD. I cannot see myself working 60-80 hours a week, and because I don’t care for academia I hate the thought of having to waste research time for teaching and taking classes.

I wish it is the norm for PhDs to just focus on research on a regular schedule (8-5ish, more if needed occasionally), and allowing to lead a wonderful personal life. I know, however, that is not the norm.

I have a huge fear of going to grad school, because honestly I’m not that passionate or that much of a hard worker. I’ll get things done, but I don’t have a desire to push my physical and mental health for this. If I get admitted to this program, I’d be moving from Boston (where I have a huge support system amongst family and friends), to The Triangle in NC (which I know nothing about, but NC doesn’t seem that interesting).

I know this is program and professor dependent as well, but even though my current PI at Harvard is probably one of the most understanding and wonderful and helpful PIs who genuinely cares about the grad students (and everyone in her lab), everyone still consistently works their asses off, and just trudging along to hit the finish line.

TLDR: Can you have a life during grad school? Can you relax? I’m also single but would like to date in grad school, is that possible? (Most of the grad students I know have been in long term relationships before starting, or are engaged). Can you consistently work out? Do you have to live and breathe science?

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Current graduate students offer tips and resources for taking care of yourself in graduate school, having a life outside of your research, and doing well at the human aspects of being a scientist, too.

One size does not fit all. There will be times in graduate school where you’ll feel like you should emulate that brain on a stick. But everything that makes you a complex, complete human being also makes you a better scientist. Being human isn’t a “distraction,” it’s one of your key assets.

Here are some tips and resources for taking care of yourself in graduate school, for having a life outside of your research, and for doing well at the human aspects of being a scientist, too.

1)  Find - or create - support networks. Not only can support come in many shapes and sizes it can be found in unexpected places. Your fellow grad students are a great place to start (they actually do understand what you’re going through!). There will be plenty of times when you will need someone else to remind you which end is up. The U of M is a huge place and there’s likely to be a network that fits your needs. Look into things with the “diversity” label -- this is a great way to find people who care about supporting the community of scientists. Some of it is identity-specific, but some of it is for everyone.

Here are a few of our science-specific favorites:

Association of Multicultural Scientists specifically focuses on grad students in the biological sciences, no less. They host a series of incredible workshops (open to all, regardless of race), with topics ranging from networking skills, to starting a lab, to non-academic career options. If you only join one mailing list, this is the one!

Graduate Women in Science - Xi Chapter is an interdisciplinary society of scientists who encourage and support women to enter and achieve success in science through full participation in their scientific research and its applications; in the development and advancement of women; in the integration careers, personal goals, and society's needs; and by professional networking and mutual inspiration. They have monthly seminars and networking opportunities.

Minnesota Queer Science is primarily for GLBTQ scientists, engineers, and other STEM folks. QSci hosts brown-bag social lunches and other events throughout the school year to build community and visibility. Members have also organized panel discussions on campus, and done outreach (with demos!) to local high schools.

Student Counseling Services hosts thesis-writing groups and grad-student-specific groups, as well as the typical individual consultations.

A listing of more graduate-student community organizations and resources can be found online .

2)  Find mentors in addition to your research advisor. There are a lot of aspects to being a professional scientist, and a lot of different good ways to go about it. Get up the nerve to talk with faculty about things besides research. Job hunt? Public outreach? Being a scientist with kids? Being out as a GLBTQ scientist? Navigating big conferences? Starting up a lab? Being a mentor yourself? The list is endless ... Having multiple mentors is a great safety net.

3)  Expect to have some struggles in grad school -- you’re in good company. Some days it will seems like graduate school is designed to be rough on you, and your choice to attend school is a crazy one. You are asking questions and doing things that nobody’s ever thought possible. It won’t always be easy. It’s normal to feel that you don’t belong here sometimes, but the things that make you different also help you do science in a way that hasn’t been done before (and that’s the whole point, right?). Remember that you’re not alone; fellow graduate students and professors have had these feelings, too.

In addition to your fellow graduate students, there are some good web resources for insights on graduate school and science. Ph.D. Comics is a sanity-saver! For more in-depth discussions, check out the blogs at Scientopia -- “Prof-Like Substance” is a biology prof and a great writer, for example. There’s also a very insighful blog carnival with many different takes on “impostor syndrome,” that all-too-common feeling that you’re just not good enough to be doing science.

4)  Get out and do something different. Take a look at some of your role models and other scientists in your departments. Most of them maintain hobbies and interests outside of research that renew and recharge them and allow them to be great scientists. Athletic pursuits and the arts are common pastimes, but the sky’s the limit! Especially good are things that give you mental downtime and/or a change of scenery. For example, if your work is primarily in the lab, getting out into nature can give you a whole new perspective.

5)  Schedule Sleep!!!! How much sleep do you need to feel good? Some individuals work well with four hours while others need nine. Naturally in graduate school there will be times when you will be short on sleep because of a project or experiment. Get the sleep you need when you can. Not only will you feel refreshed and ready to do research but your body can fight off illnesses easier. You can get more work done in forty well-rested hours than sixty bleary-eyed ones.

6)  Communicate clearly, early, and often. Talk to your advisor about how you plan to make graduate school life and your personal life work together. Graduate work is not like undergraduate work. You will be expected to be more proactive and independent. This transition is difficult for some students and advisors worry about the adjustment. Ease their fears by being up front about issues like work hours and time off. Be well, do amazing work, and remember to have fun!

Written by Jo Heuschele ([email protected]).

123 Snyder Hall 1475 Gortner Ave St. Paul , MN 55108

3-104 MCB 420 Washington Ave. S.E. Minneapolis , MN 55455 United States

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Is it true that PhD students need to work 10-12 hours a day every day to be productive?

I hear a lot of people brag or complain about how many hours they have to work for their PhD. Is this the norm? And if so is this really a wise choice to make? Do students really 'work' during this period of time (as would be expected in a corporate office), or do many also spend their time goofing around?

I've read that it's only possible to do 4 hours of deeply creative work everyday. Since energy often depletes over the day, I've personally found that outside of a small number of hours in a day, the rest of my time is spent doing mechanical tasks or straining myself in vain to think about a problem.

• working-time
• work-life-balance

• 38 During course work, that's not unheard of (but not 7 days a week, 5 or 6 maybe). I would probably dismiss your friends' chatter as macho bravado though: wrong statements to this sort seem to give some people a kick, and a sense of tougher-than-you. –  gnometorule Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 5:00
• 12 I've heard that if you can put in 5-6 productive hours a day, 5-6 days a week, for 5-6 years, you'll have enough for a PhD in most fields. The key is productive hours though, most people have a hard time getting 6 productive hours in an 8-hour work day. –  Roger Fan Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 5:59
• 16 Related: Is it normal for an advisor to expect >80 hour workweeks from PhD students, and threaten them with dismissal? –  ff524 Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 8:13
• 8 But in my experience it is not the norm to work so many hours. Several people at my department (in the UK) have recently had successful PhDs (finished and gone on to Postdoc jobs) having worked normal 8x5 hour weeks most of the time. –  user2390246 Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 9:06
• 26 Looking busy is not the same thing as working. Looking idle is not the same thing as not working. I solve some of my toughest problems when I'm running, walking the dog, and playing games (when my mind is relaxed). If I found myself in an environment that demanded that I look busy for 12 hours a day, I would do my best to get out of it. –  Jim2B Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 14:24

8 Answers 8

The answer is no .

There are a lot of factors in play. With my work, a lot of it is creative so it is hard to say when I am working or not.

Do people expect students to work that many hours? Maybe, but it isn't healthy (and maybe not legal).

Do people really work the entire time they are at work? Probably not. Your productivity certainly goes down the longer you work. Whether people goof around or not isn't specific to Academia and can happen anywhere (I don't find goofing around to be a negative thing).

I too have read several studies about the limited number of hours that people have for mentally demanding tasks. In fact, I read a study about programmers that said they were lucky to get 1-2 hours of solid work done in a day. This info can help you organize your day so that you work on difficult tasks in the morning and then mechanical tasks in the afternoon. Also, studies have shown that taking breaks and going on walks can help improve your productivity.

There isn't a cookie cutter answer for everyone. It depends on yourself, the type of work, your advisor, and your coworkers.

• 25 I agree, it's hard to say when exactly I am working. I like this photo a lot: mathematician at work . Though I usually prefer to do my "work" (the creative part, anyway) during the night. When particularly productive/stubborn, I can stay up until late morning. –  tomasz Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 8:05
• 16 It is important to emphasize this can be very field-dependent. In some fields that are based on lab work, you may actually have to spend long hours doing technical non-creative work. However, this still does not mean you necessarily work the whole time - often there will be down-time while waiting for the experiment to run. –  Bitwise Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 13:22
• 11 A good example of not working while being as work, is the fact that a large portion of people will be reading this while at work. –  Dragonrage Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 17:55
• 5 I don't agree with the programmer 1-2 hours of productivity. I work two jobs as a software developer and I am capable of being fully productive for about 4 hours after a full day of classes, and 6 hours if I don't have class the day that I'm programming. Perhaps I'm different from most, but I would find that only being truly productive for 1-2 hours per day would run all of my projects into the ground, and I would subsequently be fired. Then again, for a lot of people productive is subjective. I suppose that as long as you're getting results and meeting deadlines, then it doesn't matter! –  Chris Cirefice Commented Mar 4, 2016 at 13:58
• 2 "I would say in any given week I do about 15 minutes of actual work" - Peter Gibbons –  corsiKa Commented Mar 5, 2016 at 0:12

Most people who brag about how many hours they work are inefficient. Because they are inefficient, they feel a need to point out how many hours they work - rather than pointing to the quality of work. Keep this in mind.

Some PhD programs will allow you to be more isolated from non-PhD related work than others. If you have to teach, for example, that might take a considerable portion of your week - preparation, class, grading, etc. This might cause you to have to work many more hours if you want to make progress on your dissertation than someone who does not have to teach.

If you are unlucky and have your "paid research" different than your dissertation research the same thing can happen - you have to split your time into different buckets. The quality of your advisor and their expectations thus has a big effect here, too.

How quickly you want to graduate can affect this too.

That being said, how you work affects how efficient you are.

• Sitting at a desk for 12 hours straight is most often bad.
• Working 12 hours, taking 10 minute exercise breaks every hour? Much less bad.
• Do you sit aimlessly without tasks?
• Do you have a system to keep track of what you need to do?
• Do you manage your energy (doing high energy tasks when you have energy, low energy when you don't) or do you just blindly do tasks?
• If you have a high energy task you are doing great at, do you keep that momentum going?
• Conversely if you feel burned out, do you just take a break? Or keep going anyways?
• Some people rock 5am-7am. Some people rock 1am-3am. Some people are afternoon people (my prime time is about 4-6pm - I can accomplish insane amounts in this time compared to the rest of the day). Figure out when your times are.
• An hour with no distractions during writing might be better than 4 with continuous interruptions.
• Read this article and apply it ruthlessly to your life. You are a maker, your advisor is probably a manager.

You will likely find that the better you work, the less you have to work. But simultaneously realize the more you could work (so if your goal is more X then it's great).

The how, when, and what for when we work dramatically affects our ability to work tons but also whether or not we have to.

• 3 The first line is not really true. Some people have to work huge hours because they have no choice. It's "work all the time, or you wont get your PhD" right up until the day before they get their certificate. To go through hell and then be labelled inefficient it the definition of adding insult to injury. –  Wetlab Walter Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 15:25
• 11 @J.J how many of those people brag about their hours? My experience is people who are forced to work many hours generally don't brag about it. If anything, they lament it. –  enderland Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 15:29
• 1 Ah, true. I rescind my downvote :) (could you just edit the answer slightly so i can) –  Wetlab Walter Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 15:31
• 1 @J.J I added something I wanted to add anyways :) –  enderland Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 15:33
• I'll take the folks who brag about what they actually did than how many hours they worked. –  corsiKa Commented Mar 5, 2016 at 0:13

My experiences suggest the answer is: possibly . Or perhaps more accurately sometimes .

A lot depends on the field you're in. I studied for a PhD in life science, where a lot of time at the lab bench was required. This is skilled work, but it's not "creative" nor does it involve much mental effort. So it's certainly possible to be productive at it for longer than four hour stretches.

In addition I often had to go in at the weekends to observe the results of my experiments. Cells don't grow to a useful 9-5 weekday schedule, unfortunately! I imagine other areas of science will impose similar time pressures.

I treated my PhD as though it were a job. Although I did work longer than 8 hours a day and I did work weekends when necessary, I viewed this as an annoying imposition and tried to minimize it. Other students and postdocs in the lab did longer hours and were more productive.

When it came time to write up my thesis, I discovred I simply did not have enough material to make it worthwhile. Ultimately I was forced to apply for a lesser research degree (an MPhil) and when it came to the crunch, I was not even able to obtain that with the evidence I'd gathered. Part of this is unquestionably down to lack of bench-hours.

I cannot speak about non-practical subjects, but even there I would imagine the amount of reading, learning and documentary research required would be significant, and would not involve creative mental effort. But my experience suggests that while ten hours a day, seven days a week is likely excessive, a successful research degree does involve time and effort well beyond that required for a regular highly-skilled job.

• 13 This attitude is unfortunately prevalent in many "lab" fields, in which students are often used as cheap technicians rather than getting a proper PhD education. –  jakebeal Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 11:59
• 1 @jakebeal That may be so - I only have the experience of the one institution. But if that's the case here, how do you explain the lack of thesis material? –  Bob Tway Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 12:00
• 17 I don't know particulars of what you worked on and how and in what context. Things I have seen happen elsewhere, however, include: 1) "good thesis" equated with "publish in Nature, Science, or Cell" which is too high a bar, 2) students working only as directed, and on risky or long-term projects, rather than allowed to help scope and de-risk their own research program, 3) lack of lab techs and automation such that students are required to work very inefficiently (e.g., students shouldn't run the mouse colony), 4) "saving up" for big publications, leaving students in danger of scooping. –  jakebeal Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 12:08
• @jakebeal Interesting, thanks. I was never much good at lab politics to follow this sort of stuff. Sounds like I may have been a victim of a mixture of 2, 3 and my own laziness. –  Bob Tway Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 12:35
• 5 In addition to what @jakebeal said, I would certainly include lack of supervision. If your results don't look like they would help you achieve your goal, it is your supervisor's task to identify this early on, and steer you in a more productive direction. (Personally, I have yet to meet a supervisor who actually had the time to fulfill his tasks properly, but maybe it's just me and/or bad luck.) –  tripleee Commented Mar 4, 2016 at 12:09

I would like to present how I think about my productivity as a PhD (note: it's Computer Science & Political Science). It might help getting an understanding about the hours and numbers.

My work is divided into "Thinking" and into "Doing".

"Doing" is the stuff that you can work on for 8 hours per day. Dull research assistant jobs involving filling out excel sheets, having to write the literature review, reading literature for taking notes and getting background, office hours, teaching and preparing teaching. Writing emails, applications, funding requests, finishing off papers, going to conferences. "Doing" is the stuff that I can plan and that usually has an end in sight.

"Thinking" is the hard work of which might not happen on a daily basis at all. It involves actually sketching out and developing my models and my hypothesis, reading difficult literature with challenging methods/theory that is crucial to my own work, thinking about how to convert theory into a computer program. "Thinking" is the stuff that happens when I read a completely unrelated book, when I am cooking, in the shower or on the train. I can plan to try, but I cannot plan to succeed. I cannot say "On Thursday I will have my theoretical argument". I can say "On Thursday I will work on my argument doing x and y. No promises".

It is the second category that makes it so difficult to break down a PhD into simple numbers. Sometimes it takes a day to make huge progress, other times (most of the time) you grind on a seemingly simple problem for weeks, even months.

• 2 I have a very relevant personal anecdote: about a year ago, I was working on a paper. I had been pondering for over two weeks about a particular area, and wasn't able to make any progress whatsoever. I was effectively spending hours looking at sheets of paper, scribbling nonsense just not to stare at blank sheets of paper. –  tomasz Commented Mar 6, 2016 at 0:50
• 5 Then I went to visit my parents, anxious to leave the work unfinished. We went to visit some relatives, and well, I got more than a bit tipsy. However, on the way back, I had a veritable flurry of the ideas. As you can probably guess, when I sobered up and considered it, it turned out, the ideas were not quite right. However, after a few weeks of polishing them (which was mostly doing at that point), the stuff I came up with during the one-hour car ride ( thinking ) turned into about a fourth of the entire paper. –  tomasz Commented Mar 6, 2016 at 0:51

Just to add to what is around:

Dr Hugh Kearns, famous speaker and researcher in "high performance psychology", has a very interesting course that is given to PhD students around the world, "The Seven Secrets of Highly Successful Research Student", with research that has been published in Nature .

I was lucky enough to have the chance to go to this workshop, and one of the secrets that all successful PhD student share is " Treat it like a job ".

He mentioned (as conclusions of his research), that if you do a PhD and work (but really work, not procrastinate) 8h a day, 5 days a week, thats enough to have a successful PhD.

So the answer is no! Just, treat it like a job.

I'd be careful with social comparison. While it can be helpful to see how other fare, the work time alone is a really bad measure for a couple of reasons:

• often based on subjective impressions (not, e.g., time studies with automated measuring)
• often no differentiation between "being there" and "actively working"
• ignores discipline
• ignores difficulty of topic
• ignores state of the PhD thesis (usually there are ups and downs)
• ignores time to think (incubation phase, time where you do something else)
• claims are sometimes used for ... strategic reasons
• ignores efficiency of the work ("Don't count the days, make the days count.")
• some work is difficult to classify -- could be PhD work or not (e.g., teaching, doing stuff your adviser wants you to do that might or might not be relevant to your work)
• some PhD students are exploited to do irrelevant work (costing them time to do their PhD thesis)

In short, the PhD is not a prison sentence (although at times it might feel like it). Time doesn't cut it.

Instead, I would recommend to focus on what is needed to do a successful PhD (look at those PhDs that came before you, esp. those in the same department/with same adviser). Find out what people need to be successful in your discipline (likely: publications, publications, publications). Much more useful than time alone.

P.S.: Regarding creative work, yes, you need ideas, lots of them. But that's why you need time off work. And not all work is creative -- usually there is a lot of routine work involved.

It really should not be the norm. Like Austin already pointed out, there is no universal answer to that. When I did my PhD (in computational chemistry), I also had a commitment to look after students as a teaching assistant. This was certainly my main work during the semester and not a lot of research could be done while simultaneously preparing the next day with the students, grading protocols, discussing related things with the supervisor. When you are finally at the point where you can do the research for your PhD, you may as well do not consider it as work any more. There are plenty of ways, how you can boost your own productivity. If the environment is right, co-workers, supervisors, friends, equipment, then you should be able to find your way of getting the most out of it. I personally prefer staying long at my workplace, while goofing around (primarily on the network). I like the quieter hours during the evening, where I can concentrate better. But that is certainly my own choice, so I might end up staying longer than 10 hours, but I would neither complain nor brag about it.

In any case, it should not be a requirement and it is certainly different for any individual.

Ideally, a PhD student should work 0 hours a day. If you do the work you love, you won't work a day in your life.

Of course, most people have to overcome tough obstacles in the beginning of their scientific careers, but it is what you make out of it. I personally enjoyed the hardships because I learned a lot from every difficult problem I had to solve. I spent almost every hour I was awake and sometimes even dreamed at night thinking about my research, but not because I wanted to get it over with or get a degree to show off or even start making real money quicker. I just wanted to know how things work, to know the truth.

But even though you might not feel like you are working, others will. Friends and family will get much less of you when you spend weeks in the lab or in front of computer.

I've seen peers for whom PhD program was a toil. Most of them dropped out. They didn't seem to be spending too much time working on it either. I guess the key is what everyone says: pick the right topic. If you do something you are passionate about, the time will fly and you will wish it would just freeze so you can keep working on what you do forever until you find what you are looking for.

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Work-Life Balance

Doing a research degree may sometimes feel that is taking over every hour of your day and every day of your week. If this starts to happen, you need to actively make a change, to avoid ‘burn-out’ and keep a good physical and mental wellbeing.

It is important you know:

• All students are encouraged to take their holiday leave -  Research degree student leave policy [pdf] . Requests for holiday leave should be made with your supervisor in good time, and at a time which is appropriate to your research, noting that your funder may have specific requirements.
• Time Management for your Doctorate course
• Becoming an Effective Researcher course
• Book a coaching session to explore how you can better manage your time.
• Managing time advice for doctoral students
• Work-life balance advice at Student Support Zone
• Time management and prioritisation