By Jay Willink Wilde
A PhD is a major
life challenge, particularly when you are also trying to weave it alongside
work, family and an artistic practice.It
is all too easy to squeeze out times for catching up with friends and other
interests which allow us to relax and replenish our energy. Or, we try to get
by on not-quite-enough sleep. I think we all instinctively know (or have
experienced) that perpetually living an overly stressful and sleep-deprived
life leads to health and wellbeing problems which will eventually demand our
attention.
In our Time management for PhDs session at Congress
we looked at quick, practical strategies to keep work and research time within
boundaries and our work time as efficient as possible. The win here is that our
‘wasted time savings’ can be spent on regular time for ourselves, friends and
family. I found an excellent free resource from the vitae.ac.uk website, a downloadable
pdf called The Balanced Researcher by
Hugh Kearns and Maria Gardiner. I think its strengths are that the tips are
immensely practical, quick to implement and it is aimed specifically at
researchers. The authors have a good understanding of how much is involved in
an academic role or training, as well as the pressures. The strategies they
suggest have come from years of research and after working with thousands of
PhD students, post-docs and senior research staff. Kearns and Gardiner also
have a number of other excellent resources which I have gathered together in an
accompanying time management resource page.
One of the
suggestions which caught the imagination of the workshop participants was ‘Don’t check your email before lunchtime!’,
where you are advised to get on with the most important task on your list first
thing in the morning, before logging in anywhere and when your energy levels
are likely to be at their highest. You can then schedule some less ‘peak brain
power’ times later in the day for emailing. This simple trick alone is thought
to make your use of time 20% more efficient.
Finishing the
most challenging item on your list first (a participant reminded us of the book
Eat the Frog!) gives an important
psychological boost which means that the rest of the day seems easy by
comparison. Also, the simple task of making a prioritized list of what you need
to get done the next day before you leave work in the evening. The list can be
flexible, but if you don’t have any kind of plan then it increases the chance
that you will be blown off course very easily. A couple of participants were
recent converts to bullet journals and outlined how useful and flexible they
found them for organising the many facets of their work/study/home life in one
place. The tried-and-tested Pomodoro
Technique was also suggested as a simple, effective way of dividing work time
up into manageable chunks. Also, the vexed questions of how to avoid the draw
of social media and email had been solved by some using the Forest app which plants trees if you
keep away from your phone for a pre-set length of time.
Schedule time for
your research, as it may well be the thing that gets squeezed out by paid job
and childcare needs etc. You can be creative about this; one participant found
that she spent at least an hour on the bus every day and it’s where she finds
it easiest to read papers and other academic texts. It all counts! And to write
for small periods of time on a regular basis moves you forward quicker than
waiting for empty days just to sit and write. The Scrivener writing app came up a couple of times as very useful.
Have you thought
about scheduling holidays and breaks and smaller chunks of me-time in your schedule?
It is often seeing these rewards and breaks in your calendar which gives you
the much-needed sense of balance and means that they are taken seriously. Even
a 15-minute lunchtime walk around the block instead of yet another cup of
coffee can have a really positive impact on your energy levels and general
wellbeing.
Try one new time
management thing today. It’s worth knowing that the brain fights and resists
even positive change (think about how hard those new year’s resolutions are to
keep). So, to bypass your brain’s resistance to the unfamiliar, just decide on
one small thing and commit to it regularly. Hopefully, the improvements you’ll
experience will provide all the motivation to keep going.
Links
The Balanced
Researcher. Kearns, H and Gardiner, M. (2008). www.vitae.ac.uk
Scrivener app:
literatureandlatte.com
Take it from
someone who hates productivity hacks – the Pomodoro technique actually works. https://www.themuse.com/advice/take-it-from-someone-who-hates-productivity-hacksthe-pomodoro-technique-actually-works
Forest app: https://www.forestapp.cc/
All books
referenced can be found on the technē time management resource list.
