I'm not sure I follow. Are you saying the PhD was slower and less work than you expected?

That was certainly the case for me as well, especially in the first year. For people working in labs for example, there's days when experiments haven't worked so there's not much to do except reading, and you can only do that for so long...

It was hell, pure unadulterated hell.

Just kidding!

Use your first year to read up as much as you can and to do the training courses. After your first year you'll have less time for that, especially if you plan on teaching alongside doing your PhD. Also, if you don't need ethical clearance for your data collection or get it done really quickly then, obviously, first year can be a lot of data collection. Generally it's good to be proactive.

Thankfully my research doesn't require ethical considerations, so I am relatively free in that respect. I have started to get to grips with the methodology before I collect the data. Would seem odd to do it the other way around.

Thanks for the advice though. I think it chimes with what others have been saying: be proactive, work hard, read widely, get on it early.

The majority of my writing from my 1st year literature review made it into my final thesis, so it is well worth writing it as though it will be included. I used Endnote and used my own keyword system to track my papers. I wrote a paragraph summary of everything I read and put that into Endnote too so that I could easily track the arguments.

I'd also second the My Tomatoes tip mentioned above to make sure you get good use out of your time. Go to all the training you can, and make connections with people in your university and beyond.

Final point would be to make sure you take breaks, during the day but also keep time for yourself and hobbies, friends etc. Don't try to do too much at the beginning, it's a marathon not a sprint. There will be points when you lost motivation and you need to be able to spur yourself on and push on.

Good luck!