I recently completed my PhD and am currently working full-time in academia. At this point, I have only one publication to my name. I was planning to publish my PhD chapters, but that process is currently under long-drawn negotiation with my supervisor.
I want to focus on research, but I only have about 1-2 hours outside of work each day. Has anyone succeeded in a similar situation? Any tips on how to focus on research while working a full-time job?
Comments
Hey – no way other than sitting down and writing it. You can try to chip away at it over many days, but I find that difficult because you feel like you never keep momentum because of all the stopping and starting. I like to just sit down with a free afternoon and hammer out as much as I can, but do whatever works for you.
Since you’ve already got your thesis chapters it shouldn’t be too hard since you’re just reducing them down to the highlights with a (possibly shared) introduction.
It really comes down to priorities and self discipline. If you’re working for 8 hours, and sleeping for 8 hours, that means you’ve got 8 more hours to commute, do chores and write your papers.
Nobody can write the papers but yourself. When you do find the time to do the work, you have to let go of the part of your brain telling you it’s not enough right now. You spend that time devoted to the work at hand. You can spend your work hours fretting about what you haven’t done.
If you need motivation, Einstein was a full time patent clerk and writing papers before he was a famous professor.
Carve space in your current schedule where you can for writing, if that’s a priority for your career. I block off a specific time on my calendar each week (2-4pm on Thursdays worked best for me) to focus on my current project wether it’s writing, reading, or editing. I justify this with my supervisor as scholarly engagement is written in the job description of my academic role.
I also recognize this isn’t an option for every field, so I also try to maximize my time out of office for things like conferences or forums. I hammer away at writing in between sessions or find a local coffee shop for the early mornings.
What sort of job do you have, and can you move obligations onto other days? I put all of my on-campus obligations to happen Mon through Wed (classes, lab meetings, etc). That gives me two days a week of writing time.
Congrats on getting the PhD done. Honestly I think that’s the hard part.
I’m 5 years out from my PhD, and have five articles and a book chapter out. How did I do it. Same way as the PhD was done over the previous five years. Just grinding it out. Using those 1-2 hours for writing.
But the question you should also ask is what are you doing during the work day. You say you work full-time in academia. Are you in a staff role or faculty? Might you be able to write during the work day. Should be a definitely yes for faculty hopefully a you can carve out time depending on the staff role.