{"id":3060,"date":"2019-07-08T06:53:22","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T06:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/academic-writing-phase-a-day-in-the-life-of-a-phd-student\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T09:29:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T09:29:30","slug":"academic-writing-phase-a-day-in-the-life-of-a-phd-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/academic-writing-phase-a-day-in-the-life-of-a-phd-student","title":{"rendered":"Academic writing phase: A day in the life of a PhD student"},"content":{"rendered":"

Take a look at an actual to-do list, based on the writing phase of my PhD (Only while working at home \u2013 my office schedule is different. Will post one about that some time).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So far, I have completed drafts for my Introduction, Literature Review, and Hypothesis sections, and am currently (October 2017) working on my Background chapter\u2019s draft.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

8 am \u2013<\/b>\u00a0Wake up <\/b>(I had the option to sleep in, but I felt well-rested and the sun was shining, so why not?<\/i>)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

8:10 am<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Shower, brush hair, take recycling to the outside bin, put the kettle on, check Twitter while the kettle boils<\/p>\n

8:30 am<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Email professor to remind him to discuss something with the co-supervisor<\/p>\n

8:35 am<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Drink tea, continue checking the news and social media so I don\u2019t miss anything<\/p>\n

9 am<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Wipe down kitchen bench & dining table (workspace).\u00a0I take a while to wake up in the morning so this task takes little to no brain activity while I get my mind into gear.<\/i><\/p>\n

9:15 am<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Decide what to do for the day. Watch Vogue\u2019s interview with Daisy Ridley.<\/p>\n

9:30 am<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Realise I\u2019ve been up for a while and should probably get to work!<\/p>\n

10 am<\/b>\u2013 Somehow end up still on the internet, so I move rooms, put on a second cup of tea, and open my draft document. I also opened up YouTube so I have some music to work to. Sometimes it\u2019s Selena Gomez, sometimes it\u2019s Chopin, and sometimes it\u2019s \u2018generic cafe Jazz;\u2019 whatever the mood is at the time.<\/p>\n

10:15 am<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Begin working on my Background draft. I typed up most of it yesterday; today is for finishing the Conclusion section, then going back through the document to make sure phrases are cohesive and logical in their progression (i.e., signposting). After that stage, I\u2019ll insert the references, get specific quotes, and then proceed to edit for \u2018elegance.\u2019 After all of those phases have been completed, I\u2019ll send the draft to my professor for consideration.<\/p>\n

11 am<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Take a break. My breaks can occur any time at 15-minute, 30-minute, or 45-minute intervals depending on my concentration levels and how well I slept the night before. I was feeling pretty good, so I could concentrate for a full 45-minute stretch without interruption.<\/p>\n

11:10 am<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Remember to check my phone. No messages. Good \u2013 Get back to work.<\/p>\n

11:13 am<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Changed it up; Moved from my Background draft to my Literature Review draft, which is in its \u2018cohesion\u2019 or \u2019elegance\u2019 phase.<\/p>\n

Midday<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Wrap up writing for lunch. By this time I will have edited an entire chapter, written approx. 1,700 words, and perhaps gotten a start on referencing the second chapter. Time to eat, so I can power this brain for the afternoon stretch! I decide to go for a walk, since the weather was nice and exercise is good to loosen my back from sitting all morning.<\/p>\n

12:30 pm<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Vacuum. I get distracted if the floor is grimy, so I take about 10 minutes to clean the floor in the room I\u2019m working in.<\/p>\n

12:40 pm \u2013<\/b>\u00a0Check my emails. Has anyone sent me anything? Nope.<\/p>\n

12:45 pm<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Stretch, consider what I want to do this afternoon. Decide to do a little more academic writing before changing things up again. Decide to go back to my Background chapter.<\/p>\n

1:30 pm<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Take a break. I\u2019ve done all I can on that chapter today. Brew my 3rd cup of tea.<\/p>\n

1:40 pm<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Take another look at my Literature Review section to see if my post-lunch brain spots anything that my pre-lunch brain didn\u2019t. Sometimes this works.<\/p>\n

2 pm \u2013<\/b>\u00a0Finish academic work for the day. Time for something different! (Also, what am I doing for dinner tonight?)<\/p>\n

2:05 pm<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Do a little Japanese study in preparation for my upcoming trip. My partner requested I do a chart of \u2018how to count and understand money for purchases.\u2019 So I spend a few minutes writing this up on a whiteboard. Listing what 1,000 Yen, 100 Yen, and 10 yen are called (and what it\u2019s worth in AUD), and then listing numbers. Additionally, I put the average cost of certain items so we can tell at a glance if something is a bargain. (Ramen for under Y1,000? Yes please!)<\/p>\n

2:25 pm<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Pick a documentary\/historical drama\/movie to watch. Open up my draft novel and work on it while the show is on. I\u2019m stuck for ideas as to how to progress my story, so this sometimes helps!<\/p>\n

3:30 pm<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Take a break from writing to stretch and get mobility again. Record my academic progress in my journal (a book I keep to record my supervisory meetings, my progress, tips I learned from writing my first paper, etc.<\/i>) so that I have written evidence of how my PhD is going for my upcoming confirmation of candidature. I feel like I\u2019ve accomplished something, so I reward myself with a snack and popping outside again to enjoy the birds.<\/p>\n

3:50 pm \u2013<\/b>\u00a0Check my emails for the last time that day (at this point I was in a state away from my institution, so my university business hours would have finished by 3 pm at my local time<\/i>).<\/p>\n

4 pm<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Decide that tonight, dinner is going to be \u201cWhatever The Heck is Currently In The Freezer.\u201d At the moment, it\u2019s chicken strips, BBQ Pork buns, Taro sweet buns, and IKEA meatballs. When my partner returns home I will creatively refer to this as a \u2018Multicultural Variety Platter.\u2019 My partner will probably request that we go out for dinner tomorrow night. *shrugs*<\/p>\n

4:10 pm<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Vacuum the rest of my apartment because I want to do something, but I don\u2019t want to keep sitting at my desk. I have a pair of stretchy jeans with a hole in them that I want to patch up, but my seams don\u2019t hold when I put the jeans back on. I spend about 5 minutes contemplating this challenge before I put it off for Future Me to deal with.<\/p>\n

4:20 pm<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Write a letter to my sister in Military camp, lay out my diary to plan for the next week, and do some filing that I have been putting off for a while (tax time preparation! Yay.)<\/p>\n

5 pm<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Do some dishes, check over my Background draft again to add something. Go to my very-rough-Methods section draft to add something that correlates to my in-progress Background draft.<\/p>\n

5:30 pm<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Check social media to see what happened while I was working. America is not looking very fun right now.<\/p>\n

5:40 pm<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Partner returns home soon, so I start putting freezer food into the oven, then browse the internet for benign things like Reddit threads, new products from UNIQLO and Muji, check the Japanese news and things to talk about in my weekly catch-up with my mother-in-law.<\/p>\n

\u2013\u00a0Day \u2018ends\u2019 when partner comes home.<\/b>\u00a0Unless we have plans to go out and have dinner, we watch TV shows or a movie (Star Trek, Modern Family, Youtube channels, et.c), read from my partner\u2019s Psychiatry Synopsis textbook in preparation for his training program entry, and go for a night-time stroll around the block. Sometimes my partner will play a console game like Skyrim while I knit\/sketch\/chat and watch. We talk about our day over dinner, and then whatever topic randomly comes up thereafter. I typically go to sleep around 10:30\/11 pm<\/i>.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s a typical day in my life while I\u2019m in the writing phase of my thesis and working from home! Variations include:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n