{"id":2740,"date":"2019-05-27T11:37:24","date_gmt":"2019-05-27T11:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/phd-life-a-little-bit-of-this-a-whole-lot-of-that\/"},"modified":"2025-04-05T07:09:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T07:09:44","slug":"phd-life-a-little-bit-of-this-a-whole-lot-of-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/phd-life-a-little-bit-of-this-a-whole-lot-of-that","title":{"rendered":"PhD life: A little bit of this, a whole lot of that"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am going to cover the following three topics here:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Trying to continue work and life as normal while going through\u00a0PMS\/being on your period.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Why does it feel like time flies as you get older?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Writing my literature review, and writing in general.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Trying to continue work and life as normal while going through\u00a0PMS\/being on your period.<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    Despite running this blog for almost a year now, within which I have had 11 periods, I have never spoken about the challenges of working and continuing life as normal during this time. I guess that is because women\u00a0just get on with it. But this month I have decided to bring it up, because it\u2019s important. I will not make assumptions that all women feel like this, but this is what it\u2019s like for me\u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    Firstly, trying to do anything while PMS-ing is like walking a tight rope with a sack of potatoes on your back, where, if you fall, you will destroy everything and everyone on your way down. Not a great way to feel at an important meeting, or when your boyfriend, who you haven\u2019t seen in a while makes the effort to come and see you and all you want to do is cry. Trying to keep it together during PMS is exhausting. Secondly, the pain that comes with a period is like someone has climbed inside of your uterus and is scraping it with a knife, whilst trying to dislodge the vertebrae in your lower back. Trying to focus on work whilst wanting to keel over and overdose on painkillers in a dark, but comfortable corner isn\u2019t easy. Finally, bleeding is not pleasant, and sanitary products are NOT comfortable, no matter what adverts say. Oh, and they\u2019re expensive.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    I love being a woman, and I find the female body and what it is capable of doing, creating, and enduring absolutely phenomenal. However, I wanted to bring this up because I don\u2019t think we take enough time to appreciate women all over the world, who go through this EVERY month and still get s**t done.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    Why does it feel like time flies as you get older?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    Recently, I have had quite a lot of anxiety around this. Partly because I am almost a YEAR into my PhD, and partly because I feel like my life has been on fast forward the last couple of years. To make myself feel better I have pondered over this and have come up with a few explanations as to why it feels like time flies as you grow up:<\/p>\n

    1. As functioning grown-ups, we spend almost all of our present planning for the future, working to improve our prospects; we are never actually\u00a0present<\/i>\u00a0in the present. And the future never really comes, because once we have achieved one goal, e.g. a promotion, we are then working on the next goal, once again, for our future. So, we never live in the moment, and we miss it. It\u2019s like when you have a daydream, once you come around from it, you are completely unaware of where the time went.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    2. Technology is a HUGE problem when it comes to this topic. We are used to instant rewards, having about a million conversations at once, and staring at our screens.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n