======= Date Modified 23 00 2010 14:00:22 =======
======= Date Modified 23 57 2010 13:57:47 =======
I am a second year Phd student. I am working full-time. Here is my daily schedule. My life is a very fixed one.

I am working 9 AM-5 PM. Monday to Friday. If there is some free time- I am chating with friendly co-workers. Then, I am also reading/doing school work.

I am studying 8 AM-5 PM Saturday Morning (class all day).
I am studying all days on Sunday -normally 9 AM-10 PM (Homework).
I am studying everyday from 8 PM-10 PM (Homework and dissertation).

The rest are eating, sleeping, working out, hanging with friends, and shopping.

What are yours? Am I overworked? Do I have enough study time?

wow. that sounds like a gruelling schedule. I think only you know if you are doing enough phd though. and this is a question i have been asking myself for the whole time i have been doing mine (I am at the end of my third year as a full time student and have worked in an unrelated job 2.5 days a week throughout). Are you doing yours full or part time? Do your supervisors think you output is good so far? Is your PhD in the lab? Or 'in the field'? Or book based? Can you do any phd at work? Your schedule would not be sustainable for me. Though I work everyday, I also count snippets of work I do in transit so to speak -on the tube, on the bus, bibliographies whilst watching eastenders etc etc.
Also, to be honest, my research was empirical so in the second year I was doing lots of admin -getting access to participants etc and so would say that i didnt do that much in year 2, and what I did do I could do at work. It is in year 3 that i have paid the price for that! If it works for you then good luck...

I also work full time but with communting (by car so no chance to read) it's more like 7.30am-6.30pm plus marking in the evening. I've found that I have to cram PhD into non teaching time so am frantically catching up now BUT I have a husband and two young children so they have to fit in as well. Our summer holiday will be part research trip for me (about half). Gym etc has had to go by teh wayside as has catching up with friends. We all have to juggle what we can.

Quantity doesn't always translate into quality.

Sounds a lot to me but then it depends if you feel you are doing too much - some people get a kick out of doing lots of work. If it works for you, don't worry about it. If you feel like you shouldn't work so much, then don't.

Also, do you feel that having a fixed schedule is a good thing? SOme people do, some people don't - I didn't at all, I work 8-4 nowadays and find it very restrictive in terms of output. I prefer to work when I have inspiration, as I used to with my PhD.

I have a full time job, but it is in a school (don't get the all the holidays off though, but can work at home for some of the time and get a bit more than others might, but on the other hand I can't just book a week or a day off if I need it). I do some work most evenings, but not all, and not always a lot, and I work part of most weekends. i have the usual domestic things to do, plus there is a large garden that needs attention, especially just at the moment. However I regard these times as 'thinking time' and I have had to do a lot of that to finally - I think- get an idea of what the true basis of the problem I'm looking at is. I work when inspiration strikes and that is for me quite a productive way of doing things rather than working for a set number of hours per day which doesn't suit me at all, although I expect that is partly to do with the subject. Each to his own i think:-)

wow you must be very disciplined
you also sound happy with this so it must be working for you
GOOD!

I like to write down what I should do everyday; I don't have fixed times like you
sometimes I work all night; sometimes not at all
love satchi

======= Date Modified 23 Jun 2010 21:37:36 =======
Hey, only you know if this works for you. I also had a similar schedule, right through my PhD, and coped OK with the long hours. I'm in the final stages at the moment, so am working 6:30am to 10:30pm, with a gym/dinner break most days, and that's all. You should also schedule in some whole days off tho, so you get a decent break and don't burn out.

======= Date Modified 23 Jun 2010 22:05:48 =======
Interesting thread. When I was a full-time computer science student over a decade ago I worked 9-5 office hours on my PhD Monday-Friday. And that was it. No PhD time outside. My husband did the same, also computer science PhD.

More recently in my part-time history PhD, studied over 6 years, I was managing for the first few years on about 10 hours a week, and more like 5 hours a week in the latter half of the degree. That was total per week, spread across the week in 1 hour chunks each day if I was lucky.

So no it isn't essential to work long hours. I also think they can be very counter-productive, leading to burn-out. But you may find them necessary for you, given your project etc.