How to balance your part-time PhD with other work
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- Опубліковано 15 вер 2024
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It had been difficult to focus on work and family and the PhD over the years. The pandemic gave me a year of many nights to review all the work I had written, it was shocking and I finally understood the frustration of my supervisors. All the pins have dropped and hopefully I'll be finished by the time Dec comes 🤞🏾
Start by trying to get one chapter done to a submittable standard (not perfect, but complete- all the refs, all the formatting etc). If you can finish one, you can do the rest!
@@James_Hayton Thanks James, I have the lit. review and the research methodology done but I can't do my data collection since it involves travel, they might be all good including refs, I'll just send them on to my supervisors at this stage so 🤞🏾
Yes, I agree with Dr. James. We need to say "No" to a number of things during our PhD.
How timely this is, it's incredible! I am involved in a project on the side where I feel I am learning a lot of useful commercial skills and I so often fall in the trap of not dedicating the time to the PhD because I am having such a difficult time with it, but working on this project instead, failing to realise I will not find that job in the industry if I don't get the PhD in the first place. Thank you, James, for reminding me of the hard cold truth.
This is exactly what I needed. I work full-time as a staff member and always put work tasks ahead of my scheduled PhD time. I find myself bumping my PhD time blocks on my calendar.
Wow I definitely needed this advice, your words couldn't be any truer. Currently I'm juggling multiple part time jobs while doing my PhD full time, and balancing it all out just seems impossible. It's been bumpy road in trying to prioritise my time for PhD, but thanks so much for sharing this advice James, will definitely implement these tips!
'maintain contact with your PhD'. Such a great line! I am supposedly weeks away from submitting a draft of the entire thesis, but I also have a small business and a family like so many other people here. You are so right that there are immediate, visible rewards for finishing other projects. I joined a writing group of two other women and we meet for a few hours once a week. Once a month we do a retreat either a whole weekend away or just a whole day somewhere to leave our mum and business responsibilities at the door and just write. It is very small steps but it is consistent and motivating. Having a supportive partner that understands the bigger picture of finishing has been my key to success. Thanks for this video! Really appreciate your mahi James!
Thank you Dr. Hayton. I have felt your words are meant to me. Been in this case for months and feeling lost. Should start but don't know how or from where.
It doesn't matter too much what you restart with- get some momentum going first, then optimise later. One thing you can try is reading over the last thing you wrote, or your notes for the last things you did
Did my VIVA on the 5th of march, i passed with minor corrections ( i didn't write a conclusion lol),
Thank you Dr Hayton for these insights. I am a DBA student while working fulltime and fortunately for me, my research converges both my work and study. Your channel has been an inspiration and I have set up a similar show with hope of contributing the community as well.
I wish I could get this advice earlier.
Im doing part time phd and now in my final year with all severe circumstances
This is so true.
It is difficult to get focused. However, I am following your channel and videos hope it will help me in achieving the PhD goal.
Do you have a clear task to focus on? This is always the first step so you know what to bring your attention back to when you get distracted. If you don't know what to work on it's impossible to focus.
@@James_Hayton Exactly, I will work on my clarifying the task as much as possible. Thanks for your insights!
Thanks for your useful tips.
It's really helpful it was first time get that side of PhD student life.may I ask you to make video for writing a paper from the PhD dissertation
If I may, what I am planning to do is to dove-tail a real-world project of mine ( a creative project with what I deem as having humanistic and historical value) into my dissertation proposal, thus implementing said project as my capstone. Now if successful, I will have effectively doubled-upped my earnings at the table. In other words, are you familiar with "the two birds with/by one stone" expression; may be fitting here, as I complete my Phd. I would have also congruently finshied my real world project with great delight!
IP or intellectual property: I have already called the dean of the dept and discussed ownership of the rights to my project and he stated it is all yours. None of it belongs to the university. However b/c my area is in the interdiscplinary studies or humanities and digital studies, it may not be monetized as a start up. Although there ways to make money with it.
An incentive as well is I can look at my advisor as more of a consultant (please don't tell him or her) but I would like to see them as I see fit, and treat them as such to consult me and support my ideas while I work to defend my dissertation all the while.
Is this dichotomy a healthy one aswe ll as a valid one, and is it within my right as an entering student to have ulterior motives as to my purpose as a Phd student?
I'm not sure... If you have this real-world project, can you be objective in your research? If you stand to gain from your results turning out a particular way, this could be seen as bias (If I was examining your thesis I would probably ask this question).
For me, to be a good researcher you have to be open to results you don't expect or that go against your initial hypotheses. How will you ensure objectivity?
How would you organize your writting around 8:00 to 17:00 job? Morning before job or later in evening? It's feel imposible in both cases 😂
I'd go for before work- if the PhD is important in the long term, do it first instead of when you're drained at the end of the day. If both are impossible, try to renegotiate your working hours
@@James_Hayton
4:30 Jocko Willink style :) thats also my logic but execution is not so great. But thanks for support. Do you think that 2-3 hours per day is sufficient for PhD thesis completion? I did my masters during full time job, my postgraduate specialist study and all requirements for doctoral so far... doing it before and after job (but I burned out). Now it's different kind of game and motivation/moral is not on that level :) so it's hard for me doing it more then few hours daily... I know that you dont have universal answer... just wana know your opinion. Is it enough ? XD
As Jocko would say, "discipline equals freedom"
2-3 of hours of focused work per day can be enough, but it might take longer than someone working full time and exclusively on their thesis. You need to make sure you're making good use of the time you have, which means having a clear idea before you start work of what you're going to focus on. Maybe try taking time at the end of each day to set your priorities or goals for the next day, but keep them simple and specific
Hi James! Thanks for this video came at the right time. How would you suggest balancing a full time job and writing as I know people find this challenging. I had to take a break from the PhD writing for a while but now I feel ready again I’ve got a job. Any advice would be great. One good thing is don’t have to commute!
1. Set aside some time and protect it- you have to show up, no excuses! I'd say 90 minutes as a minimum for each writing session.
2. focus on one section at a time and work on it until it's submittable before moving on. I usually start with the introduction
3. use software to block distracting sites- you have less time to work with, so you want to make the best use of it. I use Cold Turkey and set a timer for 2 hours to block email, facebook, youtube, news headlines...
Great thanks James! Need to definitely use cold Turkey 😅
@@James_Hayton Thanks for your suggestions. You have applied science to all these.
Your videos are so helpful .I am stuck at the in-between stage between sending my Proposal for comments and review from my supervisor and actually getting my ethical clearance and carrying out the proposed work. I am not sure what I should be doing in this time? Should I be writing the first few chapters of my PhD? Any help on this weird stage would be most useful.
Don't worry about writing chapters! The most important thing you can do is work on your practical research skills- is there any way you can do a simplified practice run to get experience with your research methods? For example, if you're doing interviews, interview your friends, record it, transcribe it, code it... You won't use this data, but the experience will make a huge difference to your results.
@@James_Hayton Thank you. I will try this.
What if you are an full-time administrator? I suppose the same advice applies?
Yes, I think the same advice applies- you have to set aside and protect some time for the PhD, if necessary renegotiating some of your existing commitments.
@@James_Hayton Thank you.
Hi James, I woudl be interested in your thoughts/experience of balancing these things & protecting PhD time when for example your hospital appointment/childs hospital appointment occurs in your prioritised time?
If it's an appointment then you know about it in advance so can move things around. Your protected time doesn't need to be at the same time every day (though that's good to get a habit going).
I am constantly working on the PhD but sometimes I feel I am not doing much progress as I have to wait on my supervisor to commit before I can move to the next task for the PhD..Should I just continue writing or just wait on him,I really don't have enough time plus funds running out and how do your get your supervisor to be more responsive?
Is it unrealistic for me to try to do a Phd, work full-time to support my kid and myself (single parent) and do workstudy remotely job as a Research Assistant work to earn tuition money (without this I can’t afford tuition)?
Hi. Is it possible to have two research projects - one for paid job, another for phd? Both are from one field, but don't have any other similarities
Possible, certainly, but it depends how much time your job leaves free for the PhD...
Hello everyone, is anyone aware if you can change a fully funded Phd (funded by the university) full-time PhD to a part-time one?
you've got to ask the university!
hi , do you have facebook page , or a podcast
No facebook, no twitter, no instagram. Can't stand them!
@@James_Hayton maybe audio podcast ?