PhD study planning in my bujo

Hello my lovelies!

Today I’m going to be giving a bit more detail about how I study for my PhD, which is a pretty niche thing to be talking about given that most people don’t make the mad decision to do a PhD in the first place! I will mainly be talking about how I use my bujo to organise my studying rather than the actual studying itself; so in fact this can apply to any kind of studying at uni level. Beware, here be cynicism…

Postgrad study

If you’ve been through undergraduate study, you’ll know that a lot of self-motivation and dedication is needed to do well. The same is true for postgrad study, whether that’s a Masters or a PhD. But during a PhD you’re essentially your own boss, and there will be no one telling you to go to lectures, do reading or complete things by a given time. By and large, you need to set your own deadlines.

You need a lot of self-control to do a PhD or you’ll end up sitting around in your PJs watching Netflix for 4 years. Now, noone’s perfect, and I’m certainly not, so this is where my bujo comes in. I need to be able to handle motivation in a way that works, and fast! I separate my daily and weekly tasks into Home and Academic, that way I know what’s more important (academic, obviously! Forget cleaning for a few years) I also rigourously schedule most hours of my day i.e. 7.30 am to around 9 pm when I finish work.

I write up everything I do as I go along and back everything up religiously. This saves me so much time when it comes to final write up and thesis wrangling! Plus my file names all have dates so it’s easy to find data and references when I need them in 3 years.

Time management

Time management really differs depending on your subject, and what your supervisor is like. Some supervisors demand 110% and force their PhD students to work 7am to 7pm 7 days a week. Some supervisors barely even come into the office themselves and instead sit around at home all day rolling in their stacks of tenure money. A sensible working day starts between 8 and 9am and finishes between 5 and 7pm. Hours like this can be flexible depending on your personal preference, how much travel time you need to factor in, whether you have a family to take care of, etc.

In your working day it’s perfectly acceptable to take tea breaks, long lunches (1 hour max though!) and breaks for departmental seminars and/or laughing at the new project student who accidentally set themselves on fire. I wish I didn’t have to say this, but as a PhD student, you will and probably should be working some weekends; maybe not in the office, but certainly writing up thesis chapters.

An example of my daily rapid logging, time tracking and a list of emails to reply to per day – busy busy!

In my bullet journal I use a time tracker to schedule the hours in my day and how long I plan to spend on certain tasks; this way I stay on track and don’t neglect things that I’ve been putting off. Keeping track of your time is essential if you don’t want it to run away from you!

Stay calm

If you’re reading this and you’re doing a PhD, I urge you: find something else to do other than your PhD. Get a hobby! Go to the gym, go for a walk, take up underwater basket weaving. Do not let your PhD take over your life. I always schedule in at least one socialising occasion every week (and frantic pints in the pub with your office mates do not count as socialising) so that I remain an acceptable member of society and don’t start gnawing on the ceiling.

I always schedule in some kind of social activity like a pub quiz every week!

There is a maximum limit to how much effort you can put into your PhD and you will find it at some point. Hopefully this will be during the ramping up period in third year rather than 2 months into first year followed by a breakdown. Make sure that you include some things in “Home” that are relaxing and enjoyable rather than sitting waist deep in data printouts and crying.

I hope this post has been helpful, let me know what you think in the comments!

Happy journaling!

Bee xxx