Time management for PhDs

Author: Vanessa da Gama Oliveira (IG: @vgama)

SCG ID: 1806201904

PhD candidates need 48 hours in a day. We have so many things to do that sometimes we feel choky. We must do our labs/computer experiments or leave for fieldwork, process and analyze all the results we get, to write reports, to prepare presentations, to teach (in many programs), to attend lectures, to travel to conferences and to write and publish papers.

It doesn’t seem too much for one person? And I don’t even want to talk about what happens when we are writing and defending our thesis. We can go crazy!!

All these things to do and this fight against time can leave us stressed and ill. And along with the stress comes anxiety, demotivation and imposter syndrome. But what if you could organize your life, gaining time, confidence and tranquillity? Seems impossible.

I don’t think so. I want to tell you some tips. These are small things that I learned during my PhD, observing my routine and what works for me. These small things together make a lot of difference.

Define where, when and how much you will write/read

Have you already noticed that doesn’t matter in which part of the PhD we are, we always have computer work to do? So be it to write or to read, it’s important to separate some hours of our day to do this. I analyzed my own routine and habits.

For example, I am really more productive in writing at home in the morning. So, I’ve separated two hours every morning to stay in computer ate home. Of course, this number of hours have changed through my PhD. Sometimes I spend more or fewer hours at home, according to the balance “need to write/need to stay in the lab”.

You have to see where you produce more, if it is in the laboratory or at home, and also the period of the day you work better. And don’t be ashamed of telling your supervisor that you need some time to work at home. If you produce more and better, it’ll be good for everyone. If he/she isn’t agreeing with the idea, you can propose some short experience period (like one or two months) when you can adjust things together and see how this works.

Plan your routine and your experiments

Spend about 30 minutes every Monday planning your week.

It can be a simple list with what you have to do, but I prefer to divide this by days. In this way, you can think of each experiment to make, how much time they will take you, how they are interconnected. You can also put in this planning the meetings you have and things like send samples to certain analysis and pick up/analyze their results. Take ten or fifteen minutes every day to review all the planning, check what has been already done and what are missing. Maybe you are thinking it is a waste of time to stop and do all this planning. But believe me, it saves a lot of time. Thanks to planning we don’t stay lost in the lab, without knowing what we have to do.

For example: since I started to do these lists, it never happened again that I could not do an experiment because I had no free heating plate or because I forgot to reserve the reactor. This was always happening to me before start to planning weekly. And more: Put things in a list allows you to forget about them without guilt. It helps fight anxiety.

Where can you make your planning?

These notes can be handwritten (in a planner for example) or in a note app/computer program. I personally prefer to make my lab planning handwritten and use a note app to more general planning, like my thesis writing schedule or my general project schedule. I use OneNote and I can install this on my computer and the app on my cell phone. So, I have my notes with me everywhere. There are lots of good note programs and apps available. 

Take care of yourself

The last but not least important thing is we need to take time to ourselves. Sleep ate at least 7 hours every day, don’t miss meals because of work and drink enough water. Try to exercise a few days in the week. And take time on weekends to stay with our family, or friends or alone doing things we enjoy.

We all know that, during a PhD, there are moments when it is impossible to take the whole weekend to rest and relax. But we need to try and take at least some hours. Take a half-day to forget about PhD and enjoy life. It makes us happier, less anxious and incredibly more productive.

Tell us in the comments: how do you organize your time?