My schedule for finishing my PhD

The last few months have been particularly busy, I have been finishing my PhD, working full time, marking, teaching online, and running this blog. I promise this post isn’t for your sympathy,  it is to be transparent about the difficulties of fitting this much in, but in the same vein showing that it is possible (although probably not sustainable long term).

There is never two days the exact same but this is kind of my ‘average’ week the last few months.

Weekdays:

6.20am- Alarm goes off & gets snoozed a few time

7am- I am up, dressed, makeup and hair done and down stairs ready to do a bit of work before work.

7am-8am- Either work on my PhD, or get a couple of assignments marked

8am- Ride to work

8.30am-12pm- Work, work, work

12pm- Lunch, I don’t always take a lunch break but if I do, I often use it to get some assignments marked or PhD edited

12.30-5pm- Work, work, work 

5pm- Ride home

5.15-6.15pm- Log onto an online tutor shift (if I have one schedule) 

6.15-8.15pm- Usually mark and work on PhD (and eat dinner in there too- often cooked by Steve, very grateful!) 

8.15-8.30pm- Usually do a little bit on the blog (write and/or schedule a post)

8.30-10pm- Chill out time, which lately have involved watching OC reruns

10pm- Bed

This is an average day and most of my days during the week look like this but there are some differences:

• I will usually skip doing work before work one day a week (often Wednesday)
• Some nights I have to work (my full time market research work) later which changes the schedule a little bit – normally means I start a bit later the day after and fit extra marking in then
• I don’t have online tutor shifts every night
• If I am really not ‘feeling it’ one night I don’t work as much- I go for a walk or ride or just do nothing
• Usually I don’t do PhD work on Friday nights

Weekends:

Weekends are more variable as it depends on what I have on. However, most weekends I do a large amount of PhD work (as well as marking and online tutoring) both Saturday and Sunday. Typically I go into the PhD office for 3-4 hours each weekend and do more from home after that. 

Why this isn’t sustainable long term:

I have been working 12-13 hour days and working on the weekends for the last few months to get my PhD finished, This is not something I am wanting to maintain because it has honestly been taking its toll. I have been missing out on things like going to barre, cooking dinner, reading, and just having time away from work. These are all things that I am very excited to get back to after I have submitted my thesis. 

I am hoping to keep marking and my online tutoring role for next year so I will not be going to a traditional 8.30-5 working week BUT I will have much, much more time!