Hi there!
I found doing a PhD quite a niche experience with not many people in my personal life knowing exactly what I was up to. As PhDs are so individual, I also feel that we somehow get to the end (hopefully!) and get stuck into the next thing and eventually forget what it was like in detail. I have put together some tips and things I learnt along the way. Before I started, I wanted to prepare and read up as much as I could about what the process and experience would be like, but found very little available. So I have decided to put this together in case it is of help or comfort to anyone out there, googling at 2am “why am I doing a PhD and is it worth it”. I do believe preparing and being organised does help, even if PhD life is unpredictable and stressful.
- Be organised in your life and work
This was key for me and took practice. I had a 1 year old baby when I started, and I had been at home with her since she was born. The pandemic came and I was on my own schedule with no real routine. I worked out what tasks that my family and I needed to be done, and then one by one made a solution. Shopping, childcare drop-off, dinners etc. I am very lucky to have a helpful hands-on husband, so working through these before I started was very helpful. Sounds funny but I practised these new routines before I started to get used to them.
Ultimately, your PhD is the thesis you have to write. Think about how you are going to keep track of ideas, notes, lab book, papers etc. There are so many tools available, try some out and use them religiously. I am a fan of Ali Abdaal and found his productivity guides very handy. I used Notion and bullet journalling and it worked well for me.
Also, keep a very detailed track of accomplishments for your CV/interviews/job applications down the line. Random courses you did, conference presentations, extra-curricular things you participated in. Write down any names and contacts of people involved where relevant, what you did, what dates it was over etc. What you presented at conferences. Invaluable.
- Have a life outside of PhD
As a PhD is all consuming, it is so important to have other hobbies and activities scheduled outside of PhD life. It can be really difficult in the depths of overwhelm to start a hobby, but if you have something started that is ongoing it’s amazing. The tip I received was to try to do something that you see tangible progress in, so when PhD work feels stuck and not moving, you have a sense of small wins somewhere. Also. Exercise. Even going for a walk. Get out and away from the lab/office/your miserable text cursor blinking obnoxiously at you.
Think about work-life balance. Do you want the group chat pinging on your phone on the weekend? Can you set aside time that you will have a break? It may feel trivial but so important in the long run. Personally, I had a “rule” I managed to stick to overall that from when my daughter came home from nursery until after she was asleep for the night if I was watching her, I really tried not to do anything PhD work related. No checking Slack, no quickly finishing this or that.
- When the going gets tough
This is basically inevitable. Your experiments won’t work. A paper will get rejected. Your PI is away and everything feels like it’s crashing and burning. You suddenly find that you hate your topic and you never ever EVER want to see or hear about it again.
But. There are times when things are amazing (or just good lol). In those times, write yourself 4 bullet points about why you are doing the PhD, how you are worthy, how you want the end goal and how YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS!! PhD is a rollercoaster and you never know what is going to come next. Some days you sit in the office pretending to work when you have no idea what’s going on and feel like a fraud, the next you’ve been accepted to present at a conference and win a prize.
- When you’re in a rut
Now, these happen rather often in PhD land. As much as we intellectually know we can’t be brilliantly productive superstars 100% of the time, it is very hard to internalise it. It is NORMAL to have days where you stare blankly at the screen. Many days. Where you can’t even write a single sentence. Where you have no motivation or creativity. Or simply, you can’t progress due to needing someone else/equipment etc. What is also difficult is not comparing yourself to those around you. Every PhD student is in their own PhD land progressing and doing things completely differently. Obviously on the rutty days, it feels like everyone around you is smashing it. Try to lean into it and not resist. If you’re not feeling it, do the random admin that always seems to need to be done. Go for a walk. PhD time is also a time to develop breadth of knowledge, not just staying in your tweeny focus. Listen to an interesting podcast. Go to a lecture. Chat to other people at uni doing different things. Again, if like me you struggle to unrut from the rut, when you are not in it, write a list of things to do when in a rut. Instead of eating a sixth chocolate and staring at a blank screen questioning your life choices, do something else. Think of it like this: you are not going to be productive anyway. So there are 2 choices: wallow or do something else.
- Force breaks
Okay so this is an interesting one. It can be hard to book and plan leave. Sometimes you’re in the flow and don’t want to break it. Sometimes you don’t have a particular holiday or thing to do. But if you don’t have rest you will crash and burn. Try to book in leave/breaks at regular intervals, even if you are going away to conferences. These are not breaks. Especially as a parent, I eventually learned to take breaks during school term. I realised that I was only taking off when my daughter was off, but I really needed PhD and child free time.
- Protecting your mental health
The PhD experience is both amazing and difficult at the same time. It can be extremely draining and your whole self-worth tied up into your work. Your academic environment may not be supportive. You may feel incredibly alone academically and socially. I think it is so important to address issues early on and be honest with yourself and your supervisor. Most universities are supportive – reach out. However wonderful it is to have a PhD, it is not wonderful to sacrifice your mental health over it. A year on, I have forgotten how difficult some parts were. I want to add that I had a most wonderful supervisor who was fully supportive. She would encourage me to take breaks and look after myself. I truly couldn’t have asked for a better environment from her and the wider lab team. Even with all of this, I still had some rough patches. It is entirely normal and not just down to the PI/group you are doing your PhD in. Look after yourself.
- Celebrate wins!
Anything that feels like a win, celebrate! In the long trek of a PhD, take the time to enjoy when things work and are going well. Keep an ongoing list of wins. Pat yourself on the back. You are amazing and you can do this!
Would love to hear from you any tips and tricks that have helped you so do pop me a message! (there we go, another thing to do instead of staring at a blank screen)