Is anyone else finding it really difficult to be motivated to get work done at home? I'm a lab based researcher and the work I am doing from home isn't directly helping me progress my project further so it's making it hard to want to do it. I'm feeling quite lost to be honest and feel like I'm in a constant cycle of not doing much and then feeling guilty about it and so on.

How is everyone else getting on? Does anyone have any tips to help encourage productivity or to not feel so guilty about not getting so much done?

I am having the same problem. I am also mainly experimental and am at a total loss of what to do. I think I have lost my work routine and default to being lazy around the house. I am going back to my parents for a few weeks to find a new rhythm and work/life balance. I will tell you if I have any success.

I feel exactly the same at the moment as I had to delay data collection. I tried to use the time to work on ethics applications and writing for my literature review, but I'm now getting to the point where I feel a bit lost and uninterested in my PhD.

To try and encourage productivity, I've tried a couple of things:
1) work in small chunks (e.g. 1 hour and then do something else)
2) set some deadlines with supervisors (I set a deadline for a chapter draft and ethics approval)

The above have helped me a little bit but I think the most beneficial thing for me is to have regular meetings with my supervisors. I use Zoom or Skype and try to book a meeting for every 2 or 3 weeks. While we may not have much to discuss in terms of my PhD, it gives me a motivation boost.

It was both great and not so great reading this. Great that people are finding themselves in my exact scenario, and not so great that you guys are in my exact scenario!

I feel i get nothing done at home, then at my weekly supervisor meetings i get made to look like an idiot. I am a new PhD student and I have not even been in the university for a single day due to the pandemic.

I have mentioned to my supervisor, took up student counselling and done a lot to try and organize, focus and motivate myself (i have gotten very lazy).

The same advice is continuously given - create a schedule and follow it (I have done this so many times, but i never end up following it for whatever reason). Set aside a designated work area (I stay with parents and work around a quarter of a yard away from my bed on my desktop that i use for my studies and there are no spare rooms in this tiny house). Talk to other PhD students (I have literally met nobody and know nobody so this is also difficult).

I often say to my supervisor if i didn't hear from him on a weekly basis i would just be a guy who sits in his bedroom and occasionally reads and looks into stuff of somewhat interest.

Sounds like a change of scenery could really help you... I think libraries are starting to reopen so you can work outside the house, even cafes - if it's out of the question to move out of your parents' and rent somewhere for yourself

What methods did you use to motivate yourself at undergrad and masters? I think at PhD level it is your responsibility and not your supervisor's to motivate yourself and make progress[/quote]

I totally agree a change of scenery would suit me - to Motivate myself at undergrad and masters levels i would do exactly that, change my scenery, i worked (had a job in the library) and studied in the university - so i have never been in the situation where i have to motivate myself from my bedroom where i work, sleep and live, in the past it has been solely for sleep.

I agree it isn't my supervisors job to motivate me either, but i thought when i joined a new university i would have met more than one person.