The good and the bad thing about being a PhD student is that there is no one way to do things. PhD students face a lot of pressure to constantly be productive and to constantly be working but, in my experience, this isn't sustainable - and most importantly - it doesn't make me happy! Some grad students I know work long hours 5 days a week and then take weekends off. Some of them wake up at noon and work late into the night. Others have families at home and stick to a very strict 9-5 schedule. There's really no one right way to do it, but the lack of transparency when it comes to when and how much PhD students work can lead us into a deep dark pit of self-comparison.
For me, seeing how other PhD students, post-docs, and faculty spend their days has been extremely helpful in creating realistic expectations for my own productivity. So in an effort to try and shed some light on productivity in academia, here's a glimpse into one day in my life as a PhD student (in written and IGTV form!) - with hopefully many more to come as my schedule evolves and changes over the years!
6:00-6:30 am Wake-up! Since the beginning of quarantine, I've been trying to be better about listening to my body so I don't set any alarms and I let my brain wake up when it wants to which tends to be between 6 and 6:30 because I'm a natural early bird! The first thing I do in the morning is feed my cats and make coffee. Some of the phd students in my cohort don't drink coffee so it's clearly possible to be a fully functioning grad student without caffeine - but this isn't a reality for me 🙂
6:30-7:00 am Journaling. I've started journaling first thing in the morning because I've found that it helps to curb my anxiety a lot if I've reflected on my own insecurities and given myself a pep talk at the start of the day.
7:15 am Workout. Since quarantine started, I've been working out mostly in the mornings because that’s when my motivation to workout is highest. If it’s past noon, you can usually kiss my chances of working out goodbye haha :)
8:30 am Time to get to work! I usually tackle my emails first, but this changes depending on the day. My days are a mix of research, teaching, and all the admin in between. On this particular day, I was running a study and approving payments to participants.
I know some academics who designate certain days to do teaching and some to do research but I prefer to have it all mixed together because I have a tendency to get easily bored by doing one task all day! I use the pomodoro method with my pomodoro timer (working in 20-25 minute intervals) to keep myself on track.
9:45 am I had meetings and office hours this day so I got ready for the day. 9:45 might seem a bit late to get ready for the day but I typically prefer to schedule my meetings for later in the day because I am most productive in the morning and want to be able to tackle projects during that protected morning time.
10:00 am Continuing work by preparing lectures and grading student submissions.
2:20 pm Decided to do a bit of decluttering around the house. I have really been taking advantage of this time at home to declutter and try to create an ideal space for my life. Shoes were my target today. For someone who doesn't wear heels often, I own a lot of heels :P I'm sure many of you can relate!
2:40 pm Back to work creating more notes for my lecture. My standing desk is one of my favorite tools for productivity in the middle of the day. To try to combat boredom during the workday I take breaks, switch between standing and sitting, and will switch spots throughout my apartment.
3:30 pm My lecture notes are prepped and ready to go so I recorded my video lecture with my iPad. This semester I'm teaching a hybrid format class where all of my lectures are online videos.
6:00 pm Wine time! I like to wrap up all of my work by around 6 pm and spend time with my fiance in the evenings. He works until around 5 pm and time is a precious resource so I try to make the most of the time we have together in the evenings.
6:30 pm Tonight's activity: making an amazing apple crisp because FALL!
9:00 pm Bedtime!
As you can see, I generally follow an 8:30-6:00 schedule from Monday through Friday but the flip side of this is that I usually work half days on the weekends. The great thing about pursuing an academic career is the flexibility you have to work when and where you want, but oftentimes this means a lot of responsibilities that don't always neatly fall into a 40 hour workweek. Because I work on most weekends though, I usually give myself some leniency on weekday afternoons if I'm feeling burnt out or unmotivated. This is just the way I prefer to work and it may not work for everyone!
This year, I'm a dissertator, meaning I no longer have to take my own classes. This has meant I have a lot more control of my own schedule because I no longer have exams or coursework of my own to complete. I now have more teaching responsibilities and need to focus on research more, but for me, this is a welcome change because I truly enjoy the teaching process whereas I didn't enjoy going to classes quite as much! If you're curious about my days before I was a dissertator, check out my instagram day in the life highlights!
Thanks so much for following along with my day in the PhD life! If you have any questions about PhD life, let me know in the comments - I’d love to create more posts or videos to shed more light on what life is like as a PhD student!
