Your PhD is only one aspect of your life

Managing life outside of your PhD can be tricky, and it’s something that everyone will probably give different advice about. For me, there was a piece of advice I got before starting my PhD that has stuck with me and made my journey much more enjoyable. This advice was – you don’t have to be in the office/lab 24/7 – even if other people are! It’s better to spend less hours in the office and be productive during these hours, than to spend endless time there. This will give you more time to do fun things outside of uni, and this is so important for your mental health. Remember that your PhD is one aspect of your life, and you should be able to maintain other aspects at the same time.

Some examples of me doing fun things outside my PhD – social/creative/active – it’s all important!

In saying this, flexibility is also super important. A PhD is a longggg process – and different stages of your candidature will look very different. It can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you need to be busy all day everyday and super productive all the time. The truth is that your workload will likely fluctuate throughout your candidature. Sometimes you’ll be running back-to-back experiments, or getting ready for a conference, or trying to write up a paper under a deadline. At these points, you’ll need to put in extra hours, and maybe make some sacrifices in other areas of your life to accommodate. At other times, it’s more of a steady jog to get little tasks done and keep the ball rolling for future experiments/chapters (of course her metaphor is about running, Sanna's a marathoner -Hannah). During these times, it’s important to recognise that you have time for other things, like being social, keeping up with hobbies, or whatever makes you happy!

I have many photos like these in my camera roll from times where I’ve had LONG days in the lab!

For me, planning and scheduling are crucial for balancing my time. Day to day, this means planning out my workdays and making lists of things I need to get done. This means I don’t miss any important tasks but can also see when maybe there’s room for taking more breaks if I’m not feeling it. I also try to consciously plan my outside of work activities – like seeing friends, and maintaining hobbies. For example, I have semi recently taken up running, and this is one of my hobbies that I do really enjoy, but also sometimes find it hard to find motivation for. The main thing that keeps me on track with my program, is scheduling in the runs each week based on my work and social calendars. This way, I know that I physically have time during the week to get them done, and I am much more motivated to get each one done so that I stay on track. This approach helped me to run my first half marathon a few weeks ago! You can use the same strategy for other hobbies – planning your time doesn’t have to mean being super rigid and not having fun, in my experience it helps me fit more fun things in!  

Me with my cheer squad at my half marathon!