As the new academic year gets started it is important to think about how to look after yourself, especially your mental health and wellbeing. This can be difficult for a PhD student, as we are in a position of being very independent and on our own in some ways. So, I thought this month’s post would be good time to talk about the ways I try to look after my wellbeing and make sure I am not getting burnt out or struggling more than needed and hopefully people may find some useful tips for themselves too.
One of the reasons this topic is especially important to a PhD student, is because of how easy it is to become isolated. A PhD is an independent piece of work, you have supervisors, and even other PhD students in a research group maybe, but the work you do is unique. You don’t have other students working on the same things who can relate to what exactly you are doing, or easy to follow structures to know how far along you should be. This can often make a PhD student feel very adrift and unsure of who to talk to about the difficulties they face.
The first tip I would give is about managing your time. My main tool for this has been a big whiteboard that I am lucky enough to have in my office, but I also find paper or digital mediums can be helpful. Basically, each Friday I spend half an hour to an hour planning the following week and putting it on the whiteboard. I plan what days I will be on campus, what I have on each day, and what time I have for working on my PhD in the office or the library, or preparing for teaching or any other things I need to work on. This is a really helpful tool to help visualise my week as due to not having a weekly timetable, it is easy to get lost in the motions. By planning out what I am working on each day and for how long, it helps fence things off and keep everything organized and manageable.
The whiteboard also leads into something incredibly important, ensuring you have time away from academic work. With the amount there is to do, it is easy for a week to go by and just work on academic reading, writing and teaching and not much else. However, this isn’t great for your mental health. One of the great things about PhD is the ability to be flexible with when you work, for example I prefer to get in early in the morning and work on PhD stuff in the morning, then extracurricular stuff or teaching in the afternoon. By mapping out my time each week it is a lot easier to find the times where I am able to take a moment and relax and decompress a bit and do something different to mentally recharge. For me that might be fencing, working on an unrelated passion project, meeting up with friends or playing on a game, but whatever it is, it’s really helpful to have time in the week bookmarked as restful.
The next thing that has been essential for me is being honest with my supervisors. Early in my first year I was really starting to struggle with some personal issues and my mental health, and talking to my supervisors and letting them know was the best decision I could have made. Not only was it good to talk to people a bit and have some reassurance, but it also meant that when we had meetings, the issues could be considered in the context of my work. So, if in the previous meeting we had said we planned to do something by the next meeting, but personal issues prevented it, by being open we were able to be more flexible and understanding to make sure I wasn’t risking burn out by trying to deal with everything and still work to self-imposed deadlines that had become unrealistic.
The other thing I found helpful when I was struggling last year, was finding the support in the university that was available to help. Knowing what your university has for supporting mental health or whatever difficulties you may be facing is an incredibly important tool, and something I absolutely encourage any student, PhD or otherwise, to look into and find what is available.
And now for the advice that I view as one of the most important tools I have learned while doing my PhD so far, accepting when a day isn’t going to work as I’d hoped. Whether it be something happening to de-rail the day, or experiencing the delights of my ADHD, some days just do not go the way I want. When this happens the way I approach it is first seeing if the day can be re-purposed, so say if my concentration one day is absolutely not going to work for reading through papers, maybe I can work on some admin, or writing a blog post, or something else that is productive. I always try to see what I can salvage to make the most of the day, and then maybe slightly alter my plans for the remainder of the week to compensate. However sometimes a day is not recoverable, and one of the most beneficial things you can do is to acknowledge that and instead prioritise maybe using the time to look after yourself. For example, maybe finishing early and going to the gym before going home to cook something nice and relax that evening and address the problems tomorrow. This is a really important tip I find for doing a PhD as when you are working on stuff that isn’t due imminently it is helpful to have the time to recover and re-assess the best way forward rather than being stubborn and refusing to adapt.
The final tip I have ties into accepting a day isn’t working, and that is to take advantage of the flexibility of a PhD. Say Monday doesn’t go to plan, maybe have the afternoon off and work at the weekend instead, or maybe one week you have an event you want to attend midweek, why not swap two days in the middle of the week for Saturday and Sunday, or do some extra hours in the morning and evening during the other days of the week to make up for the difference. There are lots of ways to manage your time in such a way that you are able to do the things you like, and also work around obstacles that come up as you work, it is just all about being able to plan it out and being willing to adapt and admit when a plan needs to change.
The summary of my advice in this post, is that you need to be honest with yourself and those around you. PhD is a really difficult undertaking and one of the most highly regarded academic qualifications for a reason. So it is important to remember as part of that, to look after yourself, and make sure you give yourself the time and space you need to cope with the things going on around you, and do the things you need to do to recharge and get through the day (and week, and year…..) as without those considerations, the three years of PhD are going to be cut a lot shorter due to burnout, or feel a lot longer due to the negative experience it could become.
I hope this post is helpful for people, especially at this time of year when mental health can become more difficult in the darker months and the cold. If you do need any support, please reach out to the support networks around you, whether they are friends, supervisors, or handy university counsellors, there is always a door to knock on somewhere.