phd thesis in time management

Time Management Resources for Graduate Students and Postdocs

Dissertation plan

Completing your dissertation can be overwhelming and stressful. It is a critical period of time to manage time effectively and execute your well-thought-out plans. In this section, we aim to provide some checkpoints or milestones that help you to complete your dissertation in a timely manner:

• Find out the requirements and deadlines set by the department and graduate school. Having the end goal in mind will help you plan your way to get there.
• Have the initial meeting with your advisor to discuss the goals of your dissertation and set up an overall timeline. For example, determine when to have the defense, when to send the dissertation to committee, when to send out the schedule poll to committee, etc.
• Create an outline of the dissertation with sections and subsections for each chapter according to the initial discussion, and map out deadlines for each section.
• Meet with your advisor to discuss and finalize the outline and roadmap, including what kind of format (by chapters or the whole dissertation) your advisor expects, and how to maintain the line of communication (face-to-face or email) and how often you should communicate, so that you can get support and feedback along the way.
• Reach out to your committee members to let them know your dissertation plan and schedule the defense date. Ask if they are willing to provide feedback on your drafts.
• Incorporate the feedback comments and edit your dissertation for submission to your committee for defense.

*You can create a timeline table to help you visualize your plan.

Execution plan:.

• On your daily schedule, block off a couple of hours when you are most effective for your dissertation writing. Having this specific time block will help you prioritize and fit other tasks around your writing. Stick to the schedule and treat it as your appointment with your advisor or doctor.
• Limit the distraction during your blocked writing time in order to fully concentrate.
• Set a daily goal. For example, writing 2 pages each day on chapter 1 or finishing the method session on chapter 2, etc.
• Find a place that you find yourself most productive and efficient, and write there.
• Monitor your progress by calendars and project management apps.
• You are not alone. Find someone who is also writing their dissertation to be your writing buddy to help encourage one another and keep each other on track.
• Work/life balance (refer to the work/life balance )

https://www.stcloudstate.edu/elhe/_files/documents/dissertation/time-management-tips.pdf

https://sph.umd.edu/sites/default/files/files/StrategiesDissertationCompletion3_8_07.pdf

• Taking Control of Your PhD: Time Management

Ania Gruszczynska holds a PhD in Sociology from Aston University and currently works in both project management and personal coaching. She knows what it takes to complete a PhD and is actively involved in supporting others to do so. In this series she’ll be explaining how new students can take control of their PhD projects.

So you may be considering a PhD. Or maybe you were recently successful in getting a place. Perhaps you’re now a couple of weeks or months in and trying to make sense of the experience, feeling both excited and overwhelmed.

This series of posts will look at ways in which you can ensure that you do get the best experience possible as a PhD student: taking immediate control of areas of key importance such as time management, supervision, your career and overall wellbeing.

We’ll kick off by looking at time management.

I must admit this was something really important for me, both during my time as a PhD student almost a decade ago, and when I started working with PhD students as a coach. In fact, time management is probably one of the key reasons why people decide to contact me, either to fix or improve their skills in that area.

So, in this post I’m going to outline six tools and techniques that you can apply and put into practice immediately to help you thrive rather than merely survive through the daily PhD grind.

Time management as a PhD student - typical problems

First of all, let’s think about the typical time management problems a PhD student might face.

You may have already experienced those really long days – or weeks! - where it seems you are incredibly busy, but don’t seem to have much to show for it. If you were to be completely honest, a lot of that work probably involves what we might call ‘PhD-lite’ tasks: some admin, some web-based research, somehow failing to make any progress on that piece of writing that you need to submit to your supervisor.

Cue another long day and some frantic last-minute catching up, until, very late in the evening, the writing gets done. You look at it and have to admit this might not be your finest work - and more time could yet be required for redrafting. Most importantly, it feels like the PhD is taking over your life and there is never enough time to get everything done.

Or maybe you haven’t started yet but find yourself wondering how on earth you’re going to juggle your PhD, part-time work and any family or caring responsibilities you may have?

Where do you start?

Obviously, it depends on your situation and your unique needs: whether your PhD is full or part-time; whether you have family or work obligations that weigh heavily on your time.

However, regardless of your situation you’ll face the same problems as every other PhD student: you have a finite amount of time available and you need to ‘budget it’ accordingly.

The following steps aim to address some key principles for good time management which you can then adapt to your situation.

Before you start, it is worth remembering that the key principle of time management isn’t to fill your day to the brim with PhD-related activities.

Think of it more as creating space and focus for the tasks you need to prioritise. That way you can devote quality time to your thesis and your research but maintain a good balance between that work and the rest of your life.

Step 1: assess your current situation and audit your working week

How are you spending your time at the moment?

You may be convinced that you spend 12 hours every day working, but, if you were to really track what happens in the course of those twelve hours, what would you find?

You might discover a number of distractions: social media, chatting to your fellow PhD students and so on - you know what your vices are!

Undertaking an audit of your working week can feel like a painful exercise- a bit like looking at your spending at the end of the week, pulling all those receipts together in one place and discovering that you are bleeding money on things that you don’t need or don’t even really enjoy that much.

But this doesn’t have to be the case – particularly if you go about things in the right way and it will be a really worthwhile use of your time.

I would really encourage you to spend at least 2-3 days tracking what you do. It doesn’t really matter whether you use a pen and paper template or an app, the aim of the exercise is to become aware of where your time goes and how much you devote to your key priorities.

Step 2: identify your priorities and map your way to them

Speaking of priorities, what are yours? What should you be focusing on?

Should the focus now be on producing your PhD applications to make sure you get a place by say January next year? Do you need to produce a draft of your literature review by the end of your first six months?

Time management is all about focus and investing your time where it matters.

An exercise I find really useful with my coachees, regardless of where they are in their PhD journey, is to get them to produce a long-term plan and plot out the entire three years (or six years for part-time students) of their PhD.

In the process they identify key milestones and work back from them. This plan will obviously need to be adapted later, but time management that starts without a plan is destined to fail.

Step 3: budget your time

Once you know what your current patterns and priorities are, now is the time to design a time budget that is realistic and takes into account your personal working preferences.

It may be worth revisiting what worked for you during previous degrees, but don’t be afraid to change things up. A PhD is a different challenge to a Bachelors degree – or even a Masters – and your own circumstances may well have changed.

Your goal is to identify the time you have available to work and to ensure that this is sufficient to meet your goals.

Step 4: identify distractions – and avoid them!

Remember, the key point is not to squeeze in as much as possible into your day, it is to ring-fence the time for the activities that matter and perhaps drop ones that stop you from achieving your goals (Facebook, looking right at you!).

Protect your uninterrupted time for focused work - research suggests that many people are unlikely to engage in highly complex, intellectual tasks (such as academic writing) for more than four hours per day, so make that time count.

Constant interruptions in the form of email notifications, social media etc. are also detrimental to your focus. Try to ring-fence your time for work related to your key priorities and do it in blocks of uninterrupted time of at least 60 to 90 minutes.

Once you completed your block of focused work for the day, you may now want to switch to tasks which are less demanding but still need doing, such as PhD-related admin and this is where it’s best to batch tasks rather than respond to them in an ad-hoc manner.

Step 5: be reflective and reward your own success

Remember the end-game, but don’t forget to reward yourself frequently and acknowledge the progress you are making.

If you do find yourself drifting off the schedule you created at the beginning of the week and succumbing to disruptions, gently bring yourself back on track and reflect on what may be stopping you from sticking to that schedule.

Are there things going on in your personal life that leave you overwhelmed? Do you need to start paying more attention to your health and wellbeing? Knowing that you do have a plan and are steadily working towards accomplishing your goals will help you regain momentum and will also help to silence that inner critic shouting that you must spend all your awake time working.

Step 6: know when you’re going to take a break

Make sure you build in the time for non-PhD related activities that will help re-energise you and give you a bit of time away from the screen.

Ideally, these should provide a chance for your body to move around, whether that involves yoga, running or just a walk in nature. Your brain and body will thank you for it and you may find yourself even more productive and able to do the work when you’re supposed to.

After all, a PhD is a marathon, not a sprint and anything the will help you maintain a healthy mind and body in the long run will pay off by allowing you to recharge your batteries and operate at your best.

Want More Updates & Advice?

Got questions about time management as a PhD student? You can keep up with Ania Gruszczynska on twitter . See our advice section for more information on an average PhD week and the typical stages of a doctorate .

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Thesis time management

How to wrestle your dissertation to the mat

The idea of time management is drilled into most students through their undergraduate years, but the focus on this skill seems to drop off in grad school. The irony is that most students need time management skills even more when they are looking at working on a thesis or dissertation.

Writing a thesis requires both short-term and long-term time management skills, because it is a lengthy project that does without external deadlines. “You see students who are excellent but they just never finish their thesis,” said Dr. Eviatar Zerubavel, author of The Clockwork Muse: a practical guide to writing theses, dissertations and books and director of graduate programs in sociology at Rutgers University.

Seeing students fail to complete was one of the things that led Dr. Zerubavel to write his book. In it, he uses the metaphor of the tortoise and the hare. “Hares get success early in their careers, but then they die,” he says. “There are a lot of different reasons students don’t finish, but managing time better would help.” Time management is about taking control of the writing process. More than that, it’s about recognizing that not all of your time should be taken up with your work and that how you allocate your time is important for your life, as well as your thesis.

Procrastination and Perfectionism

One of the major blocks to good time management is procrastination, and one of the major contributors to procrastination is perfectionism. While the two may seem like polar opposites, they are closely related.”People struggle with their feelings of success. They feel ambivalent and the part of them that feels uneasy about it tries to sabotage it by not meeting deadlines,” explained Zerubavel about the connection.

Maryann Kope, coordinator of learning services at the University of Guelph agrees. “People who are performance perfectionists, a lot of their self esteem is wrapped up in their academic performance,” she says. “There’s a fear of failure or of not excelling. By procrastinating they give themselves an emotional out. They can say, ‘I would have done better if I’d put more time into it.'”

Perfectionism can also be crippling in that students stop themselves from writing or from continuing to write by trying to achieve the perfect first draft. “I see so many students crippled by guilt or embarrassment who don’t permit themselves to write,” says Dr. Jane Freeman, director of the office of English language and writing support in the school of graduate studies at the University of Toronto. Freeman recommends students allow themselves to write a crummy first draft. This not only gets the writing going, it also gives you something to edit later and, says Dr. Freeman, “It’s way easier to edit than to produce.”

The Writing Life

Perhaps what is most daunting about writing a thesis is realizing that if you want to be an academic, this is a good introduction to the rest of your career. Writing proposals, grant applications, journal articles and books will be a significant part of your life from here on. Gaining the skills to be a productive and prolific writer is key to success as an academic. That means making writing part of everyday life. “To maintain productivity as an academic, you need to make the writing process more mundane,” says Dr. Freeman. “You need to discover how you are the most productive. Look at your own productivity. Really note what time of day and in what environment you work best .”

Once you know when you are most productive, and for how long, set yourself a schedule that makes us of that. If you write best in the morning, don’t sleep in – get up and write. If you write best at night, then don’t go out for dinner with friends – stay home and write. This doesn’t mean depriving yourself of sleep or a social life; it means setting your schedule to maximize your productivity.

But many students are hesitant to start writing until they’ve done more research, until they’ve done more thinking about the topic. Both Drs. Freeman and Zerubavel see this not only as a form of procrastination, but also as a misunderstanding of the writing process. “There’s an artificial separation between thinking and writing. The thinking happens when you write,” says Dr. Zerubavel. Dr. Freeman agrees. “Write before you’re ‘ready’ and the writing will help you get traction.”

But first, write an outline. Creating a detailed outline of your work will help you write a first draft that doesn’t need too much re-structuring. Stephen Sims, associate dean in the faculty of graduate studies at the University of Western Ontario, requires all of his students to write three outlines of their entire thesis. “Until we get to the third outline we don’t write a single sentence, it’s all point form. By the time you get to the third one, you’ve got the thesis mapped out. Then you have to do the hard work and write the sentences.”

Write-life balance

Time management is not just about getting your thesis finished; it’s about not destroying your life in the process. While you could give up all social contacts, stop sleeping regularly and let all your other obligations drop to complete your thesis, this is hardly a recipe for success in life. Managing your time well means making thoughtful choices about how you want to allocate your days. “This is not just about work, it’s about living,” says Zerubavel “You have to ask yourself how much time you want to allocate to this as opposed to other things in your life.”

Making choices and deciding how you want to spend your time is ultimately what time management is about. “Students need to think about intelligent procrastination, so that it’s an intentional decision to set work aside,” says Ms. Kope. These intentional decisions not only keep you on track and make sure that neither your thesis nor your life go off the rails, they also help you stop those potentially crippling feelings of guilt about either area getting ignored.

Productivity Management vs. Time Management

As great as time management sounds, it can also be a bit of a misnomer.

“It evokes efficiency and time and motion studies, which I abhor,” says Dr. Zerubavel. “The common way of thinking about time management is about speed, but the irony is that you can produce more if you’re going slow.”

While many experts recommend setting time goals for working on your thesis, both Drs. Zerubavel and Freeman suggest setting goals based on productivity instead.

When she was writing her own dissertation, Dr. Freeman had a three-pages-a-day rule for herself. While this number may seem unreasonably low, if you write each day it adds up quickly.

“I could not do anything but eat or go to the bathroom until I’d written three pages, and then I could do anything else. That rhythm allowed me to do a lot of other things. At the end of the month, when I had 60 pages, it was fairly painless to look at them and edit some out. So writing three pages a day helped me to be productive, to have a goal, to get over guilt and to have a better editing process. And it helped me to blast through my writer’s block.”

Productivity goals are also more tangible and ultimately more closely related to the task.

Another way of measuring productivity is to break the thesis into publishable chunks. Setting realistic, measurable goals is key, but so is learning from the times that you don’t meet those goals. “It’s not enough to beat yourself up or feel guilty when they don’t meet a goal. We suggest students examine and assess what happened. Life happens. But what you do want is to learn,” says Ms. Kope.

Learning to not let your thesis beat you up is also something you want and one of the easiest ways to do it is to manage your time, and your productivity, effectively.

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For me perfectionism and procrastination are the hardest parts of finishing anything. I think the procrastination sort of falls in line because of trying to make everything perfect. It really doesn’t help anything but it’s also a very hard thing to overcome and even realize you’re doing. But if you can do that then it’s good to find a happy medium.

Also great points on the productivity management vs. time management. I’ve never though of it that way but it’s true. I’ve kind of always thought of them as synonymous in my own personal definition though. But anyways, I HAVE to make a to-do list every day or else I will float around to different tasks and not get anything actually done. That’s a bit because of my ADD though. 🙂

Thumbs up if you came here while procrastinating 😀 Nevertheless, I find these advice helpful and I’ll also try to use them tomorrow.

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Five Time Management Tips for PhD Students

16 th August 2022

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Due to the limited contact time you’ll receive during your PhD, you’ll need to motivate yourself and organise your own time efficiently – that is if you don’t want to end up going into your final year with an entire thesis still to write. Time management isn’t easy. This little fact is probably something you learned while studying for your undergrad, and it will almost certainly have been reinforced over the course of your Master’s degree. When you’re studying for a PhD, time management is crucial. However, the good news is that there are plenty of effective time management techniques you can use to keep you on the right track. Have a read through the following to get you started… 

Time management tips

Find a routine.

If you don’t have a daily routine, it may be all too tempting to get into bad habits (like staying up until the early hours and then sleeping in until midday). Set yourself a time to wake up each day, and then do your best to stick to it. This will help you to save time when you might be tempted to dither around in the morning.

Keep a diary

Having a place where you can organise your thoughts, jot down to-do lists and keep a track of upcoming dates is always handy – buy yourself a diary and get into the habit of using it on a daily basis. Having a documented account of your goals can help to make you like you've steadily been achieving milestones, and we all know how satisfying it is to tick things off a list.

Create a 'work space'

Working and not working in the exact same space can make it difficult to disconnect when the time comes to relax, or make it hard to focus when you need to get back to studying. Whether it’s a desk in your room or your university’s library, having a designated place where you can go to work will help you separate your work time from your leisure time.

Setting yourself goals (such completing a chapter of your thesis or organising an academic conference by a certain date) is a great way to organise your time and keep motivated. If you're able to do so, allocate time to certain tasks so you don't get lost in a certain subject or cut short your time on an important assignment.

Give yourself a break

It’s also possible to overwork yourself. If you give yourself a start time of 9 o’clock each day, make sure you also have an end time. That way you’ll have something to work towards and a well-deserved break to look forward to at the end of the day. This is something you can also apply to your year as a whole – don’t be afraid to give yourself a week off every now and then!

Next: Read more about How to Manage Your Time As a Postgraduate Student

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Balancing Research and Writing: Time Management for Dissertations

Embarking on the journey of writing a dissertation is a significant academic undertaking. It requires not only substantial research but also the art of effective time management to strike a balance between research and writing. Many students face the challenge of allocating their time efficiently to ensure both aspects of the dissertation process are adequately addressed. In this article, we will explore valuable strategies to help you manage your time effectively and maintain equilibrium between research and writing, ultimately leading to a successful dissertation.

Create a Detailed Plan

The journey of writing a dissertation is akin to embarking on a long and challenging expedition. And like any explorer, your success depends on a detailed map and a well-thought-out plan. At the heart of effective time management for dissertations lies the creation of a comprehensive and meticulously organized plan.

Why a Detailed Plan Matters

Imagine setting off on an adventure without a clear destination or route in mind. It would be a recipe for confusion, frustration, and lost time. Similarly, approaching your dissertation without a detailed plan can lead to similar setbacks. Here's why a detailed plan is indispensable:

1. Clarity of Purpose: A detailed plan outlines every step of your dissertation journey. It clarifies your objectives, research questions, and the path you'll follow to reach your destination. This clarity of purpose ensures that you stay on track throughout the process.

2. Efficient Resource Allocation: Your dissertation journey involves the allocation of various resources, including time, research materials, and academic support. With a detailed plan, you can allocate these resources more efficiently, reducing waste and enhancing productivity.

3. Milestone Tracking: A plan breaks down your dissertation into manageable milestones. These milestones act as checkpoints, allowing you to monitor your progress and make necessary adjustments. They provide a sense of accomplishment as you complete each one, motivating you to move forward.

4. Time Management: One of the most critical aspects of dissertation writing is time management. A detailed plan enables you to allocate specific timeframes for each phase of your research and writing. It helps you make the most of your available time and minimizes procrastination.

5. Overcoming Challenges: The dissertation journey is riddled with challenges and obstacles. However, a well-structured plan anticipates potential roadblocks and includes strategies for overcoming them. This proactive approach empowers you to tackle challenges head-on.

Creating Your Detailed Plan

Here's a step-by-step guide to crafting a detailed plan for your dissertation:

1. Define Your Objectives: Start by clearly defining your research objectives and the primary question you aim to answer. This sets the overarching purpose of your dissertation.

2. Outline the Dissertation Structure: Sketch an outline of your dissertation's structure. Identify the major sections, chapters, and key components, such as the introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion.

3. Allocate Time: Allocate specific timeframes for each phase of your dissertation. Consider the time needed for research, data collection, analysis, writing, revisions, and proofreading. Be realistic in your time estimates.

4. Set Milestones: Within each phase, set achievable milestones. These can include completing a literature review, conducting interviews, analyzing data, or drafting chapters. Milestones provide tangible goals to work toward.

5. Create a Weekly Schedule: Develop a weekly schedule that incorporates your milestones and allocated timeframes. This schedule becomes your day-to-day guide, outlining what tasks to focus on during each study session.

6. Include Buffer Time: Recognize that unexpected delays or challenges can arise. To account for these, include buffer time in your plan. This cushion provides flexibility without derailing your overall progress.

7. Regularly Review and Adjust: Periodically review your plan and assess your progress. If you notice deviations or delays, adjust your schedule accordingly. Flexibility is key to effective planning.

8. Seek Feedback: Share your plan with your academic advisor or mentors. They can offer valuable insights and suggestions for refining your plan based on their experience and expertise.

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Prioritize tasks.

Effective time management in dissertation writing hinges on your ability to prioritize tasks. Prioritization involves identifying the most crucial activities and allocating your time and energy to them first. This strategic approach ensures that you tackle high-impact tasks efficiently and maintain focus on what truly matters in your research and writing journey.

Why Prioritization Is Essential

Prioritizing tasks may seem straightforward, but it's a skill that can significantly impact your dissertation's progress and quality. Here's why prioritization is crucial:

Optimal Resource Allocation: In the world of academia, resources such as time, research materials, and mental energy are limited. Prioritization ensures that these resources are allocated where they can make the most significant difference. It helps you avoid wasting time on less critical tasks.

Efficiency: Prioritization streamlines your workflow. By identifying and tackling the most important tasks first, you maximize your productivity. This efficiency minimizes the risk of time-consuming bottlenecks and delays in your dissertation process.

Maintaining Focus: Dissertation writing can be overwhelming, with numerous tasks vying for your attention. Prioritization keeps you on track by directing your focus to essential activities. It minimizes distractions and helps you stay committed to your research objectives.

Reducing Stress: A well-prioritized plan reduces stress and anxiety associated with the dissertation journey. When you know you're addressing critical tasks systematically, you gain confidence in your ability to complete the project successfully.

How to Prioritize Tasks Effectively

Prioritizing tasks involves more than simply ranking them based on importance. It requires a systematic approach that considers deadlines, dependencies, and the overall impact on your dissertation. Here's how to prioritize effectively:

Identify Critical Milestones: Start by identifying the key milestones in your dissertation project. These are the major accomplishments that mark significant progress, such as completing the literature review, data analysis, or drafting chapters.

Assess Dependencies: Determine which tasks are dependent on others. Some tasks must be completed before you can move on to the next stage. Ensure that these prerequisites are given priority to maintain a logical flow in your work.

Consider Deadlines: Take note of any deadlines, whether they are imposed by your institution, funding sources, or self-imposed. Tasks with impending deadlines should naturally move up the priority list.

Evaluate Impact: Assess the impact of each task on the overall quality of your dissertation. Tasks that significantly contribute to the research's validity, coherence, or originality should be high on your priority list.

Urgency vs. Importance: Distinguish between tasks that are urgent and those that are genuinely important. Urgent tasks demand immediate attention but may not always align with the overall importance of your project. Prioritize important tasks, even if they are not urgent.

Flexibility: Be open to adjusting your priorities as circumstances change. Unexpected challenges or opportunities may arise during your dissertation journey. Your ability to adapt your priorities will prove invaluable.

Regular Review: Periodically review and update your task priorities. As you progress through your dissertation, your understanding of what is essential may evolve. Regular reviews ensure that your plan remains aligned with your goals.

By prioritizing tasks systematically, you can optimize your time and effort throughout your dissertation writing process. This approach empowers you to focus on critical elements, maintain efficiency, and keep stress levels manageable. With a well-prioritized plan, you'll be better equipped to navigate the complex terrain of dissertation research and writing successfully.

Establish a Routine

In the world of academia, where the demands of research and writing can be overwhelming, the establishment of a well-defined routine is a powerful tool for effective time management. A routine not only brings structure to your day but also cultivates discipline, consistency, and productivity in your dissertation writing journey.

The Power of Routine

Routines are not just about daily habits; they are about creating a conducive environment for productivity. Here's why establishing a routine is essential:

Consistency: Routines instill consistency in your work. When you allocate specific times each day or week for research, writing, and other dissertation-related tasks, you create a predictable pattern that becomes a habit. Consistency reduces the likelihood of procrastination and keeps you on track.

Maximized Productivity: Routine helps you make the most of your productive hours. By setting aside dedicated time slots for focused work, you capitalize on your peak mental energy and creativity. This focused effort leads to higher productivity and more meaningful results.

Effective Time Allocation: A routine allows for efficient allocation of time. You can segment your day into periods for different tasks, such as research, data analysis, writing, and relaxation. This prevents one aspect of your dissertation from consuming all your time and energy.

Stress Reduction: Knowing what to expect each day reduces stress. With a routine in place, you can approach your work with a sense of calm and organization, rather than feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of tasks.

Creating Your Dissertation Routine

Establishing a routine tailored to your needs and preferences is a gradual process. Here are steps to help you get started:

1. Self-Assessment: Begin by understanding your personal work habits and preferences. Identify your most productive times of the day and your optimal working environment. This self-awareness will guide your routine.

2. Prioritize Tasks: Based on your self-assessment, determine which tasks are best suited for specific times of the day. For example, if you are most alert in the morning, reserve that time for demanding cognitive tasks like data analysis or critical writing.

3. Set Clear Goals: Define clear goals for each work session within your routine. Having specific objectives keeps you focused and ensures that you make steady progress.

4. Allocate Breaks: Don't forget to allocate short breaks within your routine. Brief pauses between work sessions help recharge your mental faculties and prevent burnout. Use this time to stretch, hydrate, or practice relaxation techniques.

5. Consistency is Key: Stick to your routine as closely as possible. Consistency is the cornerstone of a successful routine. Even if you encounter disruptions, aim to return to your routine as soon as possible.

6. Adapt and Evolve: Be flexible in adjusting your routine as needed. Life is unpredictable, and unforeseen circumstances may require alterations. Adapt your routine to accommodate changes while maintaining your core structure.

7. Track Your Progress: Keep a record of your accomplishments within your routine. Documenting your achievements provides a sense of accomplishment and motivates you to continue following your routine.

8. Seek Accountability: Share your routine with a trusted friend, family member, or mentor who can help hold you accountable. Regular check-ins or progress discussions can boost your commitment to your routine.

9. Self-Care: Remember to include self-care activities in your routine. A healthy routine should also incorporate time for relaxation, exercise, and personal well-being.

Creating and adhering to a routine is a personal journey. What works for one individual may not work for another. Experiment with different schedules and approaches until you find a routine that maximizes your productivity and supports your overall well-being during your dissertation writing process. Once established, your routine will serve as a reliable framework for efficient time management, helping you navigate the challenges of academic research and writing with confidence.

Use Time Management Tools

Effective time management is essential for the successful completion of your dissertation. To help you stay organized, focused, and on track, consider utilizing various time management tools and techniques. These tools can streamline your workflow, enhance productivity, and reduce the stress associated with managing a complex project like a dissertation.

Why Use Time Management Tools

Time management tools are designed to address specific challenges you may encounter during your dissertation journey. Here's why incorporating these tools into your routine can be highly beneficial:

Structure and Organization: Time management tools provide a structured approach to your work. They help you create a clear plan, prioritize tasks, and allocate time efficiently. This structured approach reduces confusion and enhances organization.

Efficiency: These tools are designed to streamline your workflow. They can automate repetitive tasks, track your progress, and send reminders for important deadlines. This automation minimizes the risk of oversight and boosts overall efficiency.

Focus: By breaking down your dissertation into smaller, manageable tasks, time management tools help you maintain focus. You can concentrate on one task at a time, reducing distractions and enhancing concentration.

Accountability: Many time management tools allow you to set goals and track your progress. This sense of accountability motivates you to stay committed to your dissertation timeline and milestones.

Common Time Management Tools

Several time management tools and techniques are readily available to assist you in your dissertation journey. Here are some commonly used ones:

Task Management Apps: Task management apps like Todoist, Trello, or Asana allow you to create to-do lists, set deadlines, and organize your tasks into categories. They are effective for daily and weekly planning.

Calendar Apps: Calendar apps such as Google Calendar or Apple Calendar help you schedule and track appointments, deadlines, and events. They can also send reminders to keep you on track.

Project Management Software: Tools like Microsoft Project or Monday.com are suitable for managing larger projects like dissertations. They enable you to create detailed project plans, allocate resources, and monitor progress.

Pomodoro Technique: This time management technique involves breaking your work into intervals (usually 25 minutes) followed by short breaks. Apps like Pomodone or Tomato Timer can assist you in implementing the Pomodoro Technique.

Reference Management Software: If your dissertation involves extensive research, reference management software like Zotero or EndNote can help you organize and cite your sources efficiently.

Note-Taking Apps: Apps like Evernote or OneNote are excellent for keeping track of research notes, ideas, and references. They offer organization features and synchronization across devices.

Goal-Setting Apps: Goal-setting apps such as Habitica or Strides help you set and track progress toward specific academic and personal goals, including those related to your dissertation.

Time Tracking Tools: Time tracking tools like Toggl or Clockify allow you to monitor how you spend your time. This can help you identify areas where you can increase productivity.

Mind Mapping Software: Mind mapping tools like MindMeister or XMind help you visualize complex ideas and concepts, making it easier to outline your dissertation structure.

Choosing the Right Tools

Set Realistic Goals

When embarking on the journey of writing a dissertation, setting realistic goals is a crucial aspect of effective time management. Dissertation writing is a complex and time-consuming process, and having well-defined goals can help you stay on track, manage your time efficiently, and maintain motivation throughout the project.

The Importance of Realistic Goals

Setting realistic goals is essential for several reasons:

Clarity and Focus: Clearly defined goals provide a sense of direction and purpose. They help you understand what you want to achieve in your dissertation and keep your focus on the most critical tasks.

Motivation: Achieving smaller, manageable goals along the way can boost your motivation. Each accomplishment serves as a reminder that you are making progress, which can be particularly encouraging during long and challenging phases of your dissertation.

Efficient Resource Allocation: Realistic goals allow you to allocate your time, energy, and resources effectively. You can plan your work around achievable milestones, making it easier to meet deadlines and complete your dissertation on time.

Reducing Overwhelm: Dissertation writing can be overwhelming, especially when looking at the project as a whole. Breaking it down into smaller, realistic goals makes it more manageable and less daunting.

Tips for Setting Realistic Goals

Here are some tips to help you set and achieve realistic goals during your dissertation journey:

Define Specific Objectives: Your goals should be specific and well-defined. Instead of setting a broad goal like "finish dissertation," break it down into smaller tasks such as "complete literature review by [date]" or "write the methodology section by [date]."

Use the SMART Criteria: SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Ensure that your goals meet these criteria. They should be clear, quantifiable, within reach, aligned with your dissertation's objectives, and have a deadline.

Prioritize Goals: Not all goals are of equal importance. Prioritize your goals based on their significance and the impact they have on your dissertation's progress. Focus on high-priority goals first.

Break Down Complex Tasks: If you have large and complex tasks within your dissertation, break them down into smaller, more manageable sub-goals. This approach makes the overall goal less intimidating.

Set Milestones: Create milestones throughout your dissertation timeline. These are major checkpoints that indicate significant progress. Milestones can help you gauge whether you are on track to meet your ultimate goal.

Be Flexible: While it's essential to set clear goals, be open to adjusting them as needed. Unexpected challenges or changes in your research may require adapting your goals to new circumstances.

Celebrate Achievements: When you accomplish a goal, celebrate it. Recognizing your achievements, no matter how small, reinforces your motivation and provides a sense of accomplishment.

Seek Feedback: Share your goals with mentors, advisors, or peers. They can offer valuable insights and help ensure that your goals are realistic and aligned with your dissertation's objectives.

Setting and achieving realistic goals is a dynamic process that evolves throughout your dissertation journey. It requires ongoing assessment, adaptation, and commitment. By breaking your dissertation into manageable milestones and consistently working toward these goals, you'll enhance your time management skills, maintain motivation, and increase the likelihood of successfully completing your dissertation within your desired timeframe.

Balancing research and writing is a skill that can greatly enhance your dissertation experience. By creating a well-structured plan, prioritizing tasks, establishing routines, and seeking support, you can efficiently manage your time and produce a high-quality dissertation. Remember that the dissertation process is not just about completing a document; it's also an opportunity for personal and academic growth. Effective time management will help you make the most of this transformative journey.

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November 1, 2017, by Agata

6 time management tips for PhD students!

We all know that phd is usually the very individual type of job and depends a lot on your own motivation and organizational skills. it is up to you how effectively you use the time you spend in the lab. often nobody is going to organize your time during phd and you need to figure out on your own how to stay productive., today, i want to share with you my 6 practical tips on time management i learned during my phd , use a calendar and have a schedule.

The good practice I found extremely helpful is having a calendar with tasks and aims I want to achieve during the entire month, week and day. This kind of calendar can have different forms. I personally created a table-calendar in Excel file where each sheet is dedicated for one month. I update this file on an everyday basis. Some people prefer to print out a monthly calendar and write manually what they need to do in the lab each day. A good tip for this practice is to put this printed sheet into a plastic sleeve and use a marker to write on the sleeve so you can easily delete and reschedule some tasks by just wiping it with a bit of ethanol.

Having my calendar has many advantages! It helps me to spot how effective I am every day, plan my experiments well in advance (especially when experiment takes more than two days to finish), to not forget about any started experiment (you know that, hm? ;D) and what the most important it helps me to stop postponing my tasks!

Another very necessary option is to include in your calendar your planned holidays! Seeing how many weeks/days you have left before leaving for holidays is incredible productivity booster! ?

Start your day with an easy task!

Updating your calendar at the end of each day also means that every day you will come to work with an already-created list of tasks for the day! In the morning, choose one easy and fast task to achieve, complete it and after you will feel you started the day in a productive way and it will bring you a positive energy for the rest of it! ?

Have some personal plans after work!

There is no better booster of your time management than having plans after work. If you know you need to leave office/lab at the certain time suddenly you productiveness increases significantly. PhD students without plans for the rest of the day very often tent to stay in the lab until very late hours, being tired and slow what may have very bad impact on their work-life balance and mental health. ☹

Multitasking is great (as long as you do not put too many tasks at the same time). We all know that lot of protocols have hours of incubations, cooling down, spinnings, freezings etc. Use these free 5, 15, 30 min of waiting in a productive way! Why not prepare some buffer that is running low, fill a couple of tip boxes or reply on that e-mail you postpone for a whole day? Ok, these are tasks for a couple of minutes. What if you have to wait for 1, 2, 3 h during the experiment? Here you go: why not start a new experiment or read an article or … wait for it… write a bit of your PhD thesis (try to start with materials and methods, you will be surprised how much you can write while waiting during incubations :D)! ?

Check the ‘real-time’ of completing your protocol!

I am sure you know this feeling: you just need to do that little ‘thing’ in the lab which will take you just 15 min … and after 45 min you realize you are not done with it yet? It is normal! Especially when you need to handle many samples. Tip for this: one day try to write down the time when you start a protocol and then write down the time you completed it. It will give you a ‘real-time’ you need to take to complete the protocol. In the future it will allow you to plan better your daily tasks without lying to yourself ‘I am done in 15 min’ ?

Use 2 min-rule!

A long time ago, during one of the workshops I learned this very simply 2-min method of time management: do not postpone any tasks which will take you less than 2 min to complete. What you should do is just completing it immediately when it appears. I practice this method almost all the time and I love it! Sometimes we get emails which really need a short reply but we tent to postpone it due to the trivial reasons. We are not aware that this behaviour slows down work of the person who sends us the email, as well as it can have a negative result for us. Moreover, multiple thinking about this 2-minute tasks is an unnecessary junk for our attention and takes more energy than is worth! Therefore, try to not postpone 2-min long tasks! ?

What are your tricks for better productivity? Please leave a comment! ?

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Managing your time as a researcher

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The demands of a PhD can often feel overwhelming, and it is not uncommon to hear of doctoral students being stressed and overworked. However, this does not have to be your experience. The PhD journey can also be an entirely manageable and pleasurable one if you plan well ahead of time.  

Below are six key steps for ensuring you get everything done on time, while enjoying your PhD.  

1. Accept that you cannot do everything

The first step is to understand and accept that there is no way you can possibly read everything you think you need to read, or do every experiment or piece of fieldwork that you think is essential. A PhD is a finite piece of work and you are not expected to create whole, perfect knowledge that will account for every eventuality. When you accept this and clearly define the parameters of your research, you will find that your reading list and research goals become much more manageable.

2. Establish key milestones  

Some universities schedule assessments (sometimes called progression points) for their doctoral students at specific times in their programme, for example at the end of each year or midway through the PhD. Speak to your supervisor or senior PhD colleagues in your department to find out approximately what needs to be done at each stage.  

For example, find out when you should be doing your fieldwork/data collection, performing analysis or writing your first chapter. Finding out these key points will clarify where you should be at each stage. You can then work backwards to decide what you need to be doing, and when, to meet those milestones.  

3. Break down your to-do list

Technically, what is expected of you in your PhD can be accomplished within the timeframe that you have. It seems like a huge amount of work, but you can begin to lighten the load for yourself by breaking down what needs to be done into smaller manageable chunks.  

Deal with tasks one stage at a time. For example, determine the tasks you need to do for your data collection/fieldwork and allocate specific periods of time for each task. You can then break down these tasks further into a monthly or weekly schedule. By doing this, you’ll feel more confident about what you can practically achieve on a day-to-day basis.

4. Steady wins the race

Know that you do not necessarily have to be working a crazy number of hours, all day every day, to do good research. Some academics recommend working approximately 40 hours a week, as you would for a normal job, but understand that each person has their own way of working and may require slightly more or less at different stages of the PhD.  

More important than trying to clock in a set number of working hours is to work steadily at a pace that suits you best. For example, you may accomplish more by working only four focused hours every weekday, than by trying to do everything at once or forcing yourself to work long hours at the last minute to meet a deadline.  

5. Be realistic

To ensure that you are able to work at a consistent, steady pace, be honest and realistic about your working habits and pace. If you know that it takes you a full day to write 500 words, don’t aim to write a 3000-word essay in two days! You will not only set yourself up to fail but will also create a tremendous amount of pressure on yourself. Your mental health will suffer and the PhD will become something you dread.  

Instead, when planning your working schedule, always give yourself more time than you think you need. This extra time can cover any unexpected issues that may arise and give you more space to work peacefully and steadily. If you finish ahead of time, give yourself some well-deserved time off!  

6. Find time for rest

Although this can often feel counterintuitive, taking time off is one of the best things you can do for yourself in the long term. Forcing yourself to keep working – whether it’s reading another journal or writing another few hundred words – may seem like you’re making progress, but if you are tired and burnt out, you may end up making mistakes or having to redo the work.  

Take a full, regular break from your PhD every evening or weekend to rest and recharge. You’ll find that when you’re rested, you will return to your work with clearer perspectives, more energy and ultimately will be able to accomplish more in less time.

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Planning the timeline and progress of your doctoral dissertation (or Masters/undergraduate thesis)

One of my PhD students lamented this week with me that she had a lot to juggle (taking children to and from schools and to and from activities, etc.) and that she needed a strategy to make her research move forward. I had been planning to write this blog post for a while, since this is the one question I get asked the most by doctoral students (“ how do I plan my unstructured time over the summer ” being the other one).

Do you have one like this but for dissertations? From how to pick your topic to how to plan your chapters or something similar? 🙂 — Mariana Miguélez (@Scherezadda) March 27, 2018

I had to rush to get this blog post done because my student is 2 years away from the deadline her university has imposed for her thesis defence, which is why I sat down with her last night to show her how I do things. I have two other PhD students at exactly the same stage (2 years to defense) so I figured I might as well finish this blog post.

While I’ve suggested that people read one (or more) of the books that I’ve digested myself (check my Writing a Doctoral Dissertation page), one of the main things I teach my students is how to apply backcasting techniques to develop a project plan . I was trained as a project manager, and I worked in that capacity for a number of years, so I understand exactly the kind of work that needs to be done to develop good project plans.

There are a few resources for students, which I mentioned on Twitter earlier today (October 5th, 2018), many of which are listed in the thread that will appear if you click anywhere on the tweet shown below. Thanks to everyone who responded to my query, though I think many of them were professors describing their own process, which is not the same as having a doctoral dissertation (ONE GOAL) to finish in X number of years. My students are doing theirs in the 3 papers’ model, which is a bit closer to the day-to-day life of a professor, but still, the trajectory is quite different. Anyhow, here are some recommendations (click on the tweet to expand the entire thread).

Everyone: one of my PhD students today asked me how to plan her day/week/month/time table. Can you tweet me your process before I tweet/thread mine? Thanks! (I'm off to dinner because I've already written 460 words). — Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) October 3, 2018

The core planning strategy I would thus recommend doctoral, masters and undergraduate students is to engage in a combination of Gantt Chart Design and project backcasting techniques .

The Gantt chart is a technique I learned in graduate school when I took project management courses. This is a hypothetical Gantt chart for my doctoral student, covering about 15 months.

What I suggested to her was to use backcasting techniques to plan backwards from her goal (PhD thesis defense) to intermediate goals. This post explains how I backcast a project https://t.co/wAmyejeoa0 since her dissertation is a 3-papers one, I suggested she uses that model. — Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) October 5, 2018

For Gantt Chart templates, you can see Dr. Emma Sheppard’s here.

Project planning for research students https://t.co/ku7shfB5uL excellent template by @DrESheppard which may be of interest to students from undergrad, Masters and PhD levels. pic.twitter.com/ujQVlYocH7 — Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) September 3, 2018

Here is another resource that you can use to create Gantt Charts.

To do Gantt charts you can use Excel or Microsoft Project (which is how I learned to do them), or Visio (which has been bought by the evil company and is now Microsoft Visio). I liked this detailed approach that uses connectors between milestones and tasks https://t.co/xVjNmM1q7c — Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) October 5, 2018

Hugh Kearns and Maria Gardiner have lots of resources on their site, and have published books on this as well.

I just realised @ithinkwell and @ithinkwellHugh have excellent FREE templates on their website https://t.co/Q859jNiM6Q for PhD students to plan their trajectories, etc. #PhDChat (thanks, Maria and Hugh!) — Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) October 5, 2018

Dr. Patrick Dunleavy’s book “ Authoring a PhD ” is incredible and really does help students who are planning their PhD process. I recommend it to my own doctoral students.

And of course I would be remiss if I forgot to recommend Dr. Ellie Mackin Roberts (my coauthor for a forthcoming book on research planning) and her website. Ellie has A TON of downloadable printables for you to plan your own research. She is fantastic.

Both for doctoral students AND for post-PhD folks, my coauthor Dr. @EllieMackin has an entire website for research planning https://t.co/unXMqmaf2Z she offers FREE downloadable printable templates that you can use to plan your own research. — Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) October 5, 2018

In the end, the process I recommended to my students and that I do myself is – set a target defense date and then work backwards and plan tasks, activities, and intermediate goals. For example, I have asked my students to plan submission dates for their 3 papers (to be sent to journals) and then schedule fieldwork and data analysis accordingly. This process has worked well, and I hope my description of the process will help my students and others!

In a subsequent blog post I’ll describe how to go from long-term goals (submit paper X by Y date) to daily tasks. That blog post will definitely apply to doctoral students and post-PhD folks.

If you liked this blog post, you may also be interested in my Resources for Graduate Students page, and on my reading notes of books I’ve read on how to do a doctoral degree.

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Tips for Completing Your PhD Thesis on Time

Completing a PhD course is undoubtedly one of the most fulfilling pursuits for academics. Recently, however, a new term arose: ABD (“All but Dissertation”). ABD refers to students who have completed their coursework and passed the exam, but have yet to complete and defend their theses. Indeed, ABD students are more common than previously thought. The PhD Completion Project revealed that the ten-year cumulative completion rate for PhD students ranges from 64% (engineering) to 49% (humanities). While not all students advance to the doctoral writing stage before dropping out, a significant portion do, based on these numbers. Leaving graduate school without finishing your thesis has psychological and occupational consequences. Completing your thesis on time is, therefore, essential for career advancement and personal growth.

Overcoming a Time Crunch

Being pressed for time will likely happen, especially if you are holding down a part-time job during your doctoral studies. The pressure to finish is greatest during the last year of your PhD and this is usually the time when conflicts and tensions arise. There are tips that can help you finish your PhD on time , even when you’re pressed for it.

• Prepare an action plan for your last year. This will help you optimize the time that you have left and avoid feeling overwhelmed by all the things that you have to do.
• Clarify your priorities. Ask yourself what you intend to finish first and stick to it. It may be helpful to break down your priorities into smaller and simpler tasks.
• “The truth can wait.” That is, it is vital to start writing your doctoral thesis once you have your data, even if more can be done.
• Know all the rules and regulations of the university. Prepare a list of all the documents and papers that you will need before you need them. This will help you avoid pitfalls in your last year.
• Familiarize yourself with software. Producing scientific documents entails the use of specific programs, such as LaTeX. While the program may not be as easy to understand as other editors, there are marked advantages such as ease in publication and faster manipulation of images.
• Pay attention to your career. While you may think that this is not the best time to think about your career , it is. Your career should follow suit after your doctoral studies, and focusing on what lies ahead will help you frame the current situation.

Key Tasks for Finishing Your PhD on Time

Finishing your PhD thesis on time is not as daunting as it sounds. Although many students will be pressed for time, completing your study is possible with a little ingenuity from your part.

• First, ensure that you meet all the PhD requirements set by your institution. Never presume anything without double-checking with your institution and your supervisor. This can save you from a lot of wasted time and stress.
• Keep a good perspective. Your peers are unlikely to read your thesis , but they are likely to read journals and articles resulting from it.
• Contrary to what most people say, your introduction should be written last. Breaking your thesis into defined stages is important for success. On that same note, your conclusion also should be written last.
• Get familiar with project management applications, such as Trello.
• Buy your own laser printer. This will save you from having to rush elsewhere to have your drafts printed. It will save you time and money as well.
• Get feedback on the entire thesis—from start to finish. Getting feedback for individual chapters is fine, but you should aim to get feedback on the entire work.
• “Begin with the end in mind.” Make sure you know when your doctoral studies are supposed to end, and when your work will be considered as done.

Planning and Writing Your Thesis

Breaking down your tasks into manageable blocks is one way to ensure that you actually finish the entire thing. There are plenty of techniques to help you along the way, such as the 25-minute Pomodoro for academic writing. Undoubtedly, writing your thesis is at least as hard as performing the actual study, but it is never impossible. With the right tools at your disposal and a positive mindset, you can finish your PhD on time. Below is a checklist of things that you need to do to get to graduation day.

• Draft your proposal and research design
• Acquire IRB consent
• Pilot study
• Gather data and information for your study
• Analyze your data
• Write, write, and write some more . Ideally, aim to write for a minimum of 30 minutes a day
• Defend your thesis

Completing your PhD paper on time is definitely possible. Knowing the tips and tricks of the trade can help you to get on your way towards a life in academia.

Thanks for the very useful article to complete the Ph.D. thesis before the deadline. The doctorate course is very difficult for the student so the student could not able to complete the work on time. But your article helps to finish the article to complete the work for the students.

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Time Management & Productivity Tools For PhD Students : “What works for you?”

Here are a few possible time management and productivity tools for PhD students:

• Task management software (e.g. Trello, Asana)
• To-do list apps (e.g. Todoist, Any.do)
• Pomodoro technique apps (e.g. Focus To-Do, Tomato Timer)
• Calendar and scheduling tools (e.g. Google Calendar, Fantastical)
• Mind mapping and brainstorming software (e.g. MindNode, XMind)
• Time tracking software (e.g. Toggl, RescueTime)
• Distraction-blocking apps (e.g. Freedom, StayFocusd)
• Goal setting and habit tracking apps (e.g. Strides, Habits)

These tools can help PhD students stay organized, focused, and productive as they navigate their studies and research. By using a combination of these tools, PhD students can create a personalized workflow that helps them manage their time effectively and achieve their goals.

Useful Task management Software PhD student

Task Management Software: Streamlining Your To-Do List

As a PhD student, managing multiple projects and tasks can be overwhelming. From conducting research, to writing papers, to participating in class, there’s always something on your plate. To stay organized and productive, it’s crucial to have a system for managing your tasks. And that’s where task management software comes in.

Task management software, such as Trello and Asana, provide a simple and efficient way to keep track of your to-do list and keep your projects organized. Whether you’re working on a team or just trying to stay on top of your personal tasks, these tools are essential for staying productive and getting things done.

Trello is a visual task management tool that allows you to create boards for different projects and organize tasks into cards. You can add due dates, labels, attachments, and even collaborate with team members in real-time. The drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to rearrange tasks and prioritize your work.

Asana, on the other hand, is a more comprehensive task management platform that also allows you to manage projects and collaborate with team members. You can create tasks, set due dates, assign tasks to team members, and track the progress of your projects. With Asana, you can also create custom workflows and integrate with other productivity tools, such as Google Drive and Slack.

Whether you’re using Trello or Asana, task management software offers a range of benefits for PhD students:

• Keep track of your tasks: No more losing track of what you need to do! With task management software, you can see all of your tasks in one place, making it easy to prioritize and stay on top of your work.
• Collaborate with team members: If you’re working on a project with others, task management software makes it easy to collaborate and share updates.
• Set deadlines and reminders: Keep your projects on track by setting deadlines and reminders. You can also set recurring tasks to help you stay on top of your work.
• Prioritize your work: With task management software, you can see all of your tasks in one place and prioritize your work based on importance and deadline.
• Track your progress: Seeing the progress you’ve made on a task or project can be motivating and help you stay on track. With task management software, you can see what you’ve accomplished and what still needs to be done.

In conclusion, task management software is a crucial tool for PhD students looking to stay organized and productive. Whether you’re working on a team or just trying to manage your personal tasks, Trello and Asana offer an easy and efficient way to keep your projects organized and get things done.

Top 10 task management softwares

Here are the top 10 task management software:

• Asana – a comprehensive task management platform that allows you to manage projects, collaborate with team members, and set deadlines.
• Trello – a visual task management tool that allows you to organize tasks into cards and boards.
• Todoist – a to-do list app that allows you to manage your tasks and projects, set deadlines, and collaborate with team members.
• Wunderlist – a to-do list app that allows you to create tasks, set reminders, and collaborate with team members.
• Any.do – a to-do list app that allows you to manage your tasks, set reminders, and prioritize your work.
• ClickUp – a task management tool that allows you to manage tasks, projects, and team work in one place.
• Monday.com – a project management tool that allows you to manage tasks, projects, and team work, and visualize progress.
• Smartsheet – a task management and collaboration tool that allows you to manage tasks, projects, and team work in a spreadsheet-like interface.
• Todo Cloud – a to-do list app that allows you to manage your tasks, set reminders, and prioritize your work.
• Airtable – a task management tool that combines the features of a spreadsheet with a database to allow you to manage tasks, projects, and team work.

These task management software tools can help you stay organized, prioritize your work, and manage projects effectively. By using a combination of these tools, you can create a personalized workflow that helps you get things done and achieve your goals.

Top 10 Time Management Tools

Here are the top 10 time management software:

• Toggl – a simple time tracking tool that allows you to track time spent on tasks, projects, and clients.
• RescueTime – a time management software that tracks the time you spend on different applications and websites to help you understand how you’re using your time.
• Focus To-Do – a Pomodoro technique app that helps you stay focused and get things done.
• Google Calendar – a calendar and scheduling tool that integrates with other Google apps, such as Gmail and Google Drive.
• Remember the Milk – a to-do list app that allows you to manage your tasks and projects, set reminders, and prioritize your work.

These time management software tools can help you stay organized, prioritize your work, and get things done. By using a combination of these tools, you can create a personalized workflow that helps you manage your time effectively and achieve your goals.

Top 10 Pomodoro technique apps

Here are the top 10 Pomodoro technique apps:

• Forest – a gamified Pomodoro technique app that allows you to track your focus and grow virtual trees.
• PomoDone – a Pomodoro technique app that integrates with other task management tools, such as Trello and Todoist.
• Tomato Timer – a simple Pomodoro technique app that allows you to set timers for focus and breaks.
• Toggl Focus – a Pomodoro technique app that helps you stay focused and track your time spent on different tasks.
• Be Focused – a Pomodoro technique app that allows you to set timers for focus and breaks, and track your progress.
• Pomodoro Time Pro – a Pomodoro technique app that allows you to set timers for focus and breaks, and track your progress.
• Focus Keeper – a Pomodoro technique app that allows you to set timers for focus and breaks, and track your progress.
• Focus – a Pomodoro technique app that allows you to set timers for focus and breaks, and track your progress.
• Marinara Timer – a simple Pomodoro technique app that allows you to set timers for focus and breaks.

These Pomodoro technique apps can help you stay focused and get things done, by using the Pomodoro technique to break your work into focused work sessions and breaks. By using a combination of these apps, you can create a personalized Pomodoro technique workflow that helps you achieve your goals.

Top 10 Calendar and scheduling tools

Here are the top 10 calendar and scheduling tools:

• Google Calendar – a free online calendar that allows you to schedule appointments, set reminders, and share calendars with others.
• Microsoft Outlook Calendar – an email and calendar app that allows you to schedule appointments, set reminders, and view multiple calendars.
• Apple Calendar – a free calendar app that comes pre-installed on Apple devices and allows you to schedule appointments, set reminders, and view multiple calendars.
• Fantastical – a paid calendar app for Apple devices that allows you to schedule appointments, set reminders, and view multiple calendars.
• Calendly – a scheduling tool that allows you to schedule appointments and meetings with others, and integrates with other tools such as Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook Calendar.
• Acuity Scheduling – an appointment scheduling tool that allows you to schedule appointments, set reminders, and manage your calendar.
• Simplybook.me – an appointment scheduling tool that allows you to schedule appointments, set reminders, and manage your calendar.
• ScheduleOnce – an appointment scheduling tool that allows you to schedule appointments, set reminders, and manage your calendar.
• Setmore – an appointment scheduling tool that allows you to schedule appointments, set reminders, and manage your calendar.
• Square Appointments – an appointment scheduling tool that allows you to schedule appointments, set reminders, and manage your calendar.

These calendar and scheduling tools can help you stay organized and manage your schedule effectively. By using a combination of these tools, you can create a personalized calendar and scheduling workflow that helps you achieve your goals.

Top 10 Mind Mapping and Brainstorming Software

Here are the top 10 mind mapping and brainstorming software:

• Xmind – a mind mapping tool that allows you to create and share mind maps, brainstorm ideas, and manage projects.
• MindNode – a mind mapping tool that allows you to create and share mind maps, brainstorm ideas, and manage projects.
• Coggle – a collaborative mind mapping tool that allows you to create and share mind maps, brainstorm ideas, and manage projects with others.
• MindMeister – a collaborative mind mapping tool that allows you to create and share mind maps, brainstorm ideas, and manage projects with others.
• Ayoa – a mind mapping tool that allows you to create and share mind maps, brainstorm ideas, and manage projects, and also includes a task management feature.
• MindMup – a free mind mapping tool that allows you to create and share mind maps, brainstorm ideas, and manage projects.
• Scapple – a mind mapping tool that allows you to create and share mind maps, brainstorm ideas, and manage projects.
• iMindMap – a mind mapping tool that allows you to create and share mind maps, brainstorm ideas, and manage projects.
• The Brain – a mind mapping tool that allows you to create and share mind maps, brainstorm ideas, and manage projects.
• Bubbl.us – a free mind mapping tool that allows you to create and share mind maps, brainstorm ideas, and manage projects.

These mind mapping and brainstorming software can help you generate ideas, organize your thoughts, and manage projects effectively. By using a combination of these software, you can create a personalized mind mapping and brainstorming workflow that helps you achieve your goals.

Top 10 Time Tracking Software

Here are the top 10 time tracking software:

• Toggl – a simple time tracking tool that allows you to track time on projects and tasks, generate reports, and integrate with other tools.
• Harvest – a time tracking and invoicing tool that allows you to track time on projects and tasks, generate invoices, and integrate with other tools.
• Clockify – a free time tracking tool that allows you to track time on projects and tasks, generate reports, and integrate with other tools.
• RescueTime – a time tracking tool that runs in the background of your computer and tracks your productivity, helping you understand how you spend your time.
• Everhour – a time tracking tool that allows you to track time on projects and tasks, generate reports, and integrate with other tools.
• TimeCamp – a time tracking tool that allows you to track time on projects and tasks, generate reports, and integrate with other tools.
• Time Doctor – a time tracking tool that allows you to track time on projects and tasks, generate reports, and integrate with other tools.
• Paymo – a time tracking and project management tool that allows you to track time on projects and tasks, manage projects, and generate invoices.
• Tick – a time tracking tool that allows you to track time on projects and tasks, generate reports, and integrate with other tools.
• Hours – a time tracking tool that allows you to track time on projects and tasks, generate reports, and integrate with other tools.

These time tracking software can help you manage your time effectively, understand how you spend your time, and improve your productivity. By using a combination of these software, you can create a personalized time tracking workflow that helps you achieve your goals.

Top 10 Distraction-Blocking Apps

Here are the top 10 distraction-blocking apps:

• Forest – an app that allows you to plant virtual trees, which grow over time as you stay focused, and help you build a forest of your achievements.
• Cold Turkey – an app that blocks distractions for a set amount of time, helping you focus and get more done.
• Freedom – an app that blocks distractions for a set amount of time, helping you focus and get more done.
• StayFocusd – a browser extension that blocks distracting websites, allowing you to stay focused on your work.
• Cold Turkey Blocker – an app that blocks distractions for a set amount of time, helping you focus and get more done.
• SelfControl – a Mac app that blocks distracting websites, allowing you to stay focused on your work.
• Anti-Social – an app that blocks social media websites, allowing you to stay focused on your work.
• RescueTime – an app that tracks your activity, giving you insights into how you spend your time and helps you limit distractions.
• Hocus Focus – a Mac app that hides inactive windows, allowing you to stay focused on your work.
• Focus To-Do – an app that combines the Pomodoro Technique with task management, helping you stay focused and get more done.

These distraction-blocking apps can help you stay focused, limit distractions, and improve your productivity. By using a combination of these apps, you can create a personalized distraction-blocking workflow that helps you achieve your goals.

Top 10 Goal Setting and Habit Tracking Apps

Here are the top 10 goal setting and habit tracking apps:

• Strides – a goal tracking app that helps you set and track your goals, habits, and to-dos, with detailed reports and charts.
• Goals.com – an app that helps you set and track your goals, with detailed reports and charts, and a focus on goal setting as a process.
• Coach.me – an app that helps you set and track your habits, with a focus on community and coaching, and a database of over 300 habits.
• Habitica – a gamified habit tracking app that helps you set and track your habits, with a focus on gamification and a database of over 750 habits.
• Todoist – a task management app that helps you set and track your goals and tasks, with a focus on project and task management.
• Asana – a project management app that helps you set and track your goals and tasks, with a focus on project and task management.
• Evernote – a note taking app that helps you set and track your goals and tasks, with a focus on note taking and organization.
• Google Keep – a note taking app that helps you set and track your goals and tasks, with a focus on note taking and organization.
• Wunderlist – a task management app that helps you set and track your goals and tasks, with a focus on project and task management.
• Trello – a project management app that helps you set and track your goals and tasks, with a focus on project and task management.

These goal setting and habit tracking apps can help you set and track your goals and habits, improve your productivity, and build better habits. By using a combination of these apps, you can create a personalized goal setting and habit tracking workflow that helps you achieve your goals and build better habits.

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Finish Your Thesis

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Five Time Management Strategies You Must Learn to Finish Your Thesis

September 6, 2019 by Dora Farkas, PhD Leave a Comment

Time Management Isn’t Only About Checking Things Off

I always thought that getting your PhD was only about better time management

One morning I stood up from my desk around 10 am after spending an hour dutifully answering all the emails in my inbox.

Collaborators, students in the class I was teaching, friends, and family members all decided to ask me for favors of various sizes that morning.

At the time, the word “No” was hardly in my vocabulary, so I replied to all the questions and made notes of all the favors I would do later in the week for others.

I went to the office to get a glass of water and to get mentally ready for analyzing data for my thesis research the rest of the day.

But, as soon as I filled my cup, my lab mate walked in and put a tray of home-made fudge brownies on the table next to the water cooler.

“I made these for my sister’s birthday party yesterday,” she said. “They are soooo awesome, you have to try one before they disappear.”

She was right. I hadn’t had a fudge brownie that exquisite in a long time.

I had to find out her secret recipe. It would be a great way to surprise the students in the class I was teaching.

Before I knew it, it was 10:30 and I was still in the office talking to my labmate about fudge brownies.

“I’ve got to go,” I said glancing at my watch, remembering that I had to send my data analysis to my supervisor by the end of the day so we could discuss the next steps in my thesis research.

I sat down at my computer, and I decided to “check my email quickly” in case anyone had any questions about the emails I sent earlier.

As I expected, more emails populated my inbox.

Most of them were from my students who were getting ready to present their final projects at the end of the semester.

I wanted to make sure that they had all the information and support they needed and I replied to their emails in as much detail as possible.

By the time I answered their emails it was almost 12 noon.

Lunchtime already?

I hadn’t made a dent in my data analysis, which I had to send to my supervisor by the end of the day.

I wasn’t particularly hungry, but I went outside to the Chinese food truck to get my lunch before the line took up the entire block (it was the best food truck on campus).

I got lucky, there were only a handful people ahead of me.

But, all I could think of while waiting was “Where did my morning go?”

Why is Time Management so Tough in Graduate School?

On my first day of graduate school I remember asking my supervisor “What are the typical work hours here?”

“There are no set work hours,” he replied. “You manage your own time. But, as you can see everyone gets their work done.”

At the time this sounded like an ideal workplace. Setting my own work-hours?

It was a liberating thought after four years of college, where I was juggling classes, studying for exams, doing problem sets, and working part-time in a Chemistry lab.

I had heard stories of students who took 9 or 10 years to get their PhDs (the average for my department was 6 years), and I decided that I would do everything possible to get my PhD in the shortest amount of time possible.

I showed up punctually at 9 am every morning, and (after checking my email) I either studied for one of my courses or set up my experiment for the day.

While I was taking courses for the first 2 years, I also wanted to generate data as quickly as possible.

I stayed at lab sometimes until 9 or 10 pm , and I worked on Saturdays too.

But, my data was inconsistent, and I did the what seemed to be the most logical strategy at the time: I worked even longer hours and on Sundays too.

Like many other graduate student, I was burnt out by the end of my first year. 

I worked as many hours as I could, but I also went through periods of low energy where I was just a “warm body” at work.

I was physically in the lab, but I couldn’t focus because I was mentally exhausted.

In retrospect, my lack of focus makes complete sense.

Think about it.

How can you stay sharp if you never give yourself a break?

How do you know if you are on the right track if you don’t get consistent feedback?

When “are you allowed” to take time off if there are no set hours?

I learned the hard way that in an unstructured environment, like graduate school, y ou have to be your own boss.

And, you’ll be the toughest boss you’ll ever have.

When you are your own boss, it is very tough to get a realistic perspective of where you are in your thesis research.

Just to be on the safe side to make as much progress as possible, most graduate students work very long hours 6 or 7 days a week.

This ruthless schedule leads inevitably to physical and mental exhaustion.

At this point you may feel too fatigued to work.

You might miss a deadline, and feel like you disappointed your supervisor.

Then, when you have a surge of energy or motivation you start working again, but without structure or feedback you may fall back into the same schedule where you drive yourself to the point of exhaustion.

This pattern can become a vicious cycle, which leaves you more frustrated each time you go through it.

Eventually, you may conclude that you are “not smart enough” for graduate school because so much time has passed by without any measurable progress.

In an unstructured and competitive environment like graduate school, how do you manage your time?

How can you stay focused throughout the day so that you make consistent progress on your thesis?

1. Put structure into your days

I remember feeling incredibly relieved after I passed my qualifying exams.

With no more classes or exams to study for, I would have so much time to do my research.

But, during my celebration party one of the senior students shook my hand and said: “Congratulations on passing your exam! Easy part is over!”

At the time I thought she was kidding and we had a good laugh together.

But a few months later I understood exactly what she was talking about.

I had too much time on my hands, and no one told me what to do or how to manage my time.

Sometimes I spent 10 hours in front of the computer, but I had little to show for my time at the end of the day.

To make matters worse, I developed chronic back pain from sitting so much.

I realized it was not a good idea to work all the time and I decided to go swimming several times a week.

While I felt a little guilty initially for “leaving the lab”, the commitment to go swimming put structure into my days.

I knew I would have less time at work, and I was forced to prioritize during the rest of the day.

You can also put structure into your days by blocking out time for exercise, hobbies, and time with your family and this will make you more productive on the long run.

2. Make your thesis your #1 priority when you are at work

Like 99% of the population, I used to start my days by checking my email.

As a consequence of “dutifully” responding to everyone’s request, sometimes my entire morning went by without any measurable progress on my thesis.

I was also part of several collaborations that were “interesting”, but I knew they would not become part of my thesis.

These collaborations took time and energy away from my own thesis, and sometimes I didn’t even gain additional skills to expand my expertise.

While my supervisor encouraged these collaborations, I didn’t have to do them.

I joined these collaborations because I wanted to seem like a “good” graduate student in hopes that this image would help me graduate sooner.

It didn’t.

My thesis committee didn’t care about my side projects. They only gave me the green light to defend when I had enough data for my own thesis.

Yes, your supervisor may ask you to do side-projects and sometimes you have to do them.

But, just shifting your mindset and making your thesis your #1 priority at work will help you to discover ways to make progress, even if you have other projects to work on.

If you have a choice, be wise about which side-projects to take on (choose ones that will expand your skill set), and how much time you will commit to them so you don’t jeopardize your own thesis.

3. You are a human being, so treat yourself like one

Most graduate students who fall behind their timelines are not slackers.

On the contrary, most graduate students are diligent and ambitious and aspire to be professors.

To “motivate” themselves to work harder, many students compare themselves to senior students who have published several papers or (worse) tenured professors.

As a consequence of constantly comparing themselves to more successful people in their fields, students may put so much pressure on themselves, that they feel like they don’t “deserve” a break.

While it is inspiring to look up to role models in your field, just keep in mind that their success did not happen overnight.

It takes months (or, more typically years) to gather enough data to put together a publication, and then it takes several more months for each publication to go through the review and editing process.

It is impossible to sustain a high level of productivity for years if you constantly work to the point of exhaustion.

So, go a little easy on yourself and take regular breaks so you can stay focused.

Remember having recess time at school? Recess is just as important to learning as classroom time.

On the days when we didn’t have outside recess at my school (due to bad weather), the kids were restless and weren’t able to focus for the second part of the day.

Adults also need recess.

If you want to be productive, you need breaks during the day and get your body moving whether you are 5 or 105 or any age in between.

4. Develop a system to track your progress

Now you know that you need to put structure into your days, make your thesis your #1 priority, and take regular breaks.

But, how do you know whether you are on track with your thesis so you can actually enjoy your breaks and not feel guilty about not being at work?

If you want to develop a productive time management strategy so you can graduate on time, you need to have a system to track your progress.

In other words, you need to set long-term (1 year), mid-term (3-6 months) and short-term milestones (next month).

The best way to develop these milestones is to start with the big picture:

What are the main goals of your thesis? (do your best to answer this question if you are still early in your program)

Where do you need to be 1 year from now to be on track with these goals?

What do you need to achieve in the next 1 month, 3 months, or 6 months to make progress?

Make sure that you and your supervisor are on the same page regarding these timelines and milestones.

Also, keep in mind that research is unpredictable (as is life) so you will need to modify these timelines as you make progress.

When you have a system where you can set goals and track your progress towards a finished thesis, you will feel more confident and it will be easier to manage your time during the day and take breaks when you need them.

5. Join a support and accountability group

The number one advice from PhDs to current graduate students is to “join a support and accountability group.”

Even if you have your goals written down and your day planned out, it is very tough to stay motivated on your own.

Writing a thesis can be isolating and frustrating, and without an accountability system many students put off writing indefinitely or just quit graduate school.

Don’t let this happen to you.

You have already invested so much of your time, energy, and soul into graduate school that you deserve to have all the resources you need to finish.

Make sure that you have the academic and emotional support to keep you on track and motivated while you write your thesis.

In college there were support groups in the form of study groups, office hours, and the residential community.

In graduate school many student do not have any type of support – you have to be proactive and find your own accountability system.

Simply knowing that you need to report your progress to someone else by a specified time will give you a burst of motivation to follow through on your plans. 

Managing your time in graduate school can be challenge if you are not proactive, but, if you put these strategies into place you will notice an incredible boost in your productivity and confidence.

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Productivity and Time Management Tips for PhD Students

One of the things that PhD students across the globe struggle with is productivity and time management. And this struggle is even more profound for PhD students who are also working and have a young family.

I am one of those juggling PhD studies with family, work and other ventures.

So, how should one manage all these conflicting responsibilities without losing their sanity?

The answer lies in effective productivity and time management practices.

In this post, I share a few tips on how to enhance productivity and manage time well that I have learnt along the way.

Enemies of productivity and time management

Before I give tips for time management and productivity, it is important to understand what the barriers are:

1. The need for perfection

If you are like me, then you must have suffered from this illness called perfectionism in any area of your life. In PhD, especially, perfectionism manifests in various ways: wanting to submit a perfect assignment, wanting your proposal to be perfect, wanting your thesis draft to be 100% error-free, etc. Perfectionism holds you back because you keep on doing the same thing over and over again with the hope that the end result will be excellent. As a result, other important tasks suffer and delay in the process. Whereas it is noble to strive for excellence, it is important to understand that a good assignment or proposal is one that has been submitted.

PhD students should therefore give their assignments and writings the best they can give and submit them in good time. This helps them receive feedback on their work in good time, and subsequently they can revise and submit an improved version within a shorter timeframe than if they were striving for perfection.

2. Social media

Social media is all around us, and the platforms keep increasing and becoming more interesting as the years go by. Whereas social media platforms have pros, such as helping us connect with our loved ones and peers, the main downside to them is that they can be such time wasters. The temptation to keep scrolling when you open your Facebook page or when you log in to your Instagram account is too great that it takes such a strong resolve to exit. In most cases, by the time one exits their social media account, two or even three hours are already lost.

Besides social media, email is another great time waster. This is made worse if you have turned on notifications for email and if your email tab is open. It is impossible to avoid the temptation to check an email that has just come into your inbox and to respond to it.

4. Multi-tasking

Multi-tasking entails doing more than one thing at the same time. This is an enemy of productivity and time management because your attention will be divided between the various tasks at hand and will end up either doing a shoddy job on them or failing to complete them within their deadlines.

5. Lack of a plan

A big enemy to productivity and time management is the lack of a plan. Some people go to bed not having a clear plan on how their next day will run. They wake up in the morning and still have no agenda for the day. They operate on “whatever comes my way” basis. The lack of a daily plan holds people back because they will not know how to allocate time to important and non-important tasks, and will therefore end up wasting time in the process.

With this understanding of the greatest enemies of productivity and time management, I next discuss some great tips for boosting productivity and managing one’s time in the most effective and efficient manner.  

Top 10 productivity and time management tips

1. prioritise.

We all have competing tasks, some important, some urgent. To boost one’s productivity and manage time well, PhD students should create a list of their priority tasks, on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis. The good thing with priorities is that they are fluid, and keep changing by the day, week, or month.

Creating a list of priorities can help PhD students focus on what’s most important at that particular time, and dedicate less time to other tasks that are not important or urgent.

An example: assuming a full-time PhD student struggling with allocating his time between his various tasks such as reading, writing, taking classes, submitting assignments. If the coursework is the first year of the PhD programme, then his priorities during the first year of his programme should be taking classes, and working on assignments. This does not mean that he will not read papers or write his proposal; he will do them but will not dedicate much time to those tasks in the first year because they are not the most important or urgent tasks. Come second year, the student will now have completed his coursework and can now re-focus his effort and time to proposal writing, which would entail reading many papers and writing out his proposal drafts until he submits and fends his proposal. Come third year, and the focus for the student would now be data collection, analysis and report writing. This example is a clear indication of the fluidity of priorities and the need to focus on what’s important and urgent in any particular season of the PhD journey.

The same applies to PhD students with other competing interests as well such as work and family. They need to know when they should focus on their work, when to focus on their families and when to focus on their studies. This clarity of priorities makes all the conflicting responsibilities a little bit easier to manage.

2. Always start your day right

There is power in completing the most important task first. The task you do first when you wake up should be one that is most important and that brings you the highest value, and sets the right pace for the rest of your day. If you start your day by checking and responding to emails, you are in essence dedicating your most precious time to other people’s agenda, rather than your own. The most important, highest value task will vary by individuals and by the season the individual is in.

For PhD students working on their proposals, the most important and highest value task could be reading journal papers or writing our portions of the proposal. Starting the day with these tasks will not only give the student a sense of accomplishment but it will also clear the way for the student and makes the remaining tasks easier to do.

Tackling the most important, highest value task first thing in the morning should be done consistently until it becomes a habit.

Not only is it important to tackle the most important, highest value task first thing in the morning, it is equally important to work deep.

In the book Deep Work by Cal Newport, he defines deep work as “professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limits” (p.3).

The concept of working deep is highly applicable to PhD studies, where students are expected to make contributions to the body of knowledge. But how does a student make original intellectual contributions when he is working with social media on and in the midst of distractions? This is impossible.

Going deep means locking yourself in a room away from other people, and turning off technological distractions such as mobile phones and just focusing on your work for a given amount of time; this can be as short as 1 hour or as long as an individual’s brain can take it.

Going deep enables a PhD student to have laser focus on the task at hand, be it reading papers or writing bits of a thesis.

4. Set aggressive deadlines for yourself

In my PhD program, it is the norm for students to be given a month to complete coursework assignments. What I have observed is that majority of the students are adrenaline junkies and wait until the very last minute to submit their assignments. An assignment that can be completed in two weeks at most ends up taking a whole month.

What I have found to be useful is to set for myself aggressive deadlines and work with those deadlines. So for a one-month assignment, I set a week or at most two weeks’ deadline to research on it, work on it and upload it on our platform. There is nothing as liberating as completing tasks way ahead of their deadlines. You not only set your mind free from always reminding you subconsciously about the pending assignment but you also free your time to do other important things.

Setting yourself aggressive deadlines forces you to be laser-focused on those tasks and to make better use of your time than more lenient deadlines.

Aggressive deadlines can also be applied to other tasks such as proposal writing, whose timeframe provided by the institution may be as long as one or two years. Be intentional to cut down this time by half or even more, then set to work on the proposal as if your life depends on (and indeed it does). Same case for data collection, writing journal papers, and writing the thesis itself, among other tasks that seem like a mountain for most PhD students.

Setting aggressive deadlines is one of the reasons why some students take 3 years to complete their PhDs while their classmates end up taking even 5 years to complete the same program, yet they started on the same day.

5. Create a to-do list

Keeping your to-do tasks in your head makes one prone to forget some important and not-so important tasks. Your mind will also feel congested with pending tasks.

Free your mind! Jot it all down.

You can use the good old pen and paper method to create your to-do list or you can go the digital way. It does not matter as long as you have one.

A to-do list creates a visual picture of what you are supposed to do each month, week, and day. It’s therefore important to have a to-do list for the month, then break it down into weekly to-do lists and further into daily to-do lists.

This way, your tasks become clearer and less mind boggling.

6. Schedule your tasks

It is one thing to create a to-do list but another thing all together to schedule those tasks.

Use a calendar to schedule your tasks.

It is easy to work on something that has been scheduled than one that does not appear in the calendar.

Use your daily to-do lists to schedule the tasks according to their importance. When you go to bed each night, be clear on what you will do the next day and what time you will do them.

This saves one time that is spent in trying to find what you will do at any particular time.

It will also prevent you from finding and doing less important tasks throughout the day.

7. Use themes to schedule tasks

One strategy that works for some people is the use of themes to compartmentalise tasks and group similar tasks together.

One can use daily themes or time themes.

For daily themes, you can allocate each day of the week for specific tasks e.g. Mondays for reading journal papers only, Tuesdays for writing, Wednesdays for working on references, Thursdays for short courses etc.

For time themes, you can allocate times of the day for specific tasks e.g early mornings for reading, mid-mornings for writing, after lunch for data analysis, early evenings for communication etc.

This strategy reduces distractions and helps one to stay focused on one task on any given day and at any given time.

8. Use dead time to your advantage

Everyone has dead time, which is the time that is lost during the day.

Dead time can be the time we use when we take a shower, when we commute to and from work/school, when we take meals by ourselves etc.

One can use dead time to be more productive by engaging in activities that enhance our productivity.

For instance, rather than scrolling the social media while taking lunch, one can decide to listen to a podcast or an audiobook, practice public speaking, do some stretching exercises etc.

One can also use shower time to meditate, plan for the next day or unwind so as to rejuvenate oneself.

You can also use commute time to read a book (if not driving) or to listen to a motivational speech or audiobook etc.

Dead time is often underestimated but those few minutes each day can add up to hours, days and weeks as the days go by.

9. Consistency is key

You can become better at anything by doing it repeatedly every day.

Same applies to PhD. Many PhD students struggle especially with writing. But you can only become a good writer if you write something every single day.

The more you write, the better you become at it, and the less time it will take you to write in future. This is true for other tasks as well.

PhD students should therefore get in the habit of creating a daily routine for tasks such as reading and writing.

An example that is too common among students is putting off some tasks such as referencing until the last couple of months to dissertation defense. This is a huge mistake and ends up being time-consuming and prone to errors when done this way. It is recommended that referencing (inserting in-text citations and building the reference list) should be done regularly each time a source is read and referenced.

A little each day goes a long way!

10. Take breaks

Your mind, body and soul need breaks throughout the day to rejuvenate.

After every 90-120 minutes, take a short good break.

There are breaks that will boost your productivity and breaks that will dampen it. Learn the difference.

Examples of a good break include: drinking water, eating a fruit, walking around, stretching a bit, taking a power nap etc. These are breaks that build you.

An example of a bad break includes surfing the internet aimlessly, logging into your social media accounts etc. These are breaks that will waste your time and further drain you.

A good break should re-energise you, reset your mind and make you more or as productive as you were before.

Don’t push your body and brain without giving them time to recover; they will not serve you as efficiently as you would like.

Schedule your breaks regularly throughout the day and you will be amazed at how much you will be able to accomplish each day.

It is said that time is a great equaliser; we all have 24 hours in a day.

The difference between successful and unsuccessful people lies mostly in how they utilise their 24 hours.

On the same note, the difference between a productive and an unproductive PhD student is how they use each second, each minute and each hour of their day. If you are a PhD student, implement the strategies and systems highlighted above and you will find your journey to be a bit more manageable.

Related post

How to Create and Use a Gantt Chart for PhD Studies

Grace Njeri-Otieno

Grace Njeri-Otieno is a Kenyan, a wife, a mom, and currently a PhD student, among many other balls she juggles. She holds a Bachelors' and Masters' degrees in Economics and has more than 7 years' experience with an INGO. She was inspired to start this site so as to share the lessons learned throughout her PhD journey with other PhD students. Her vision for this site is "to become a go-to resource center for PhD students in all their spheres of learning."

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Rigorous, discipline-based research is the hallmark of the MIT Sloan PhD Program. The program is committed to educating scholars who will lead in their fields of research—those with outstanding intellectual skills who will carry forward productive research on the complex organizational, financial, and technological issues that characterize an increasingly competitive and challenging business world.

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PhD studies at MIT Sloan are intense and individual in nature, demanding a great deal of time, initiative, and discipline from every candidate. But the rewards of such rigor are tremendous:  MIT Sloan PhD graduates go on to teach and conduct research at the world's most prestigious universities.

PhD Program curriculum at MIT Sloan is organized under the following three academic areas: Behavior & Policy Sciences; Economics, Finance & Accounting; and Management Science. Our nine research groups correspond with one of the academic areas, as noted below.

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The fourth annual Rising Scholars Conference on October 25 and 26 gathers diverse PhD students from across the country to present their research.

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From Douglas McGregor's Theory X/Theory Y distinction to Nobel-recognized breakthroughs in finance by Franco Modigliani and in option pricing by Robert Merton and Myron Scholes, MIT Sloan's faculty have been unmatched innovators.

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“MIT Sloan PhD training is a transformative experience. The heart of the process is the student’s transition from being a consumer of knowledge to being a producer of knowledge. This involves learning to ask precise, tractable questions and addressing them with creativity and rigor. Hard work is required, but the reward is the incomparable exhilaration one feels from having solved a puzzle that had bedeviled the sharpest minds in the world!” -Ezra Zuckerman Sivan Alvin J. Siteman (1948) Professor of Entrepreneurship

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