Hi all.

I am currently three months into my PhD in chemistry. So far everything has been a breeze and my supervisor seems overly pleased with the written work/results. It's just I feel I haven't really done any proper work yet. My sup is fairly hands-off and my life generally consists of coming into the lab whenever I please and occasionally emailing him what I have been up to and chatting if we are in the lab at the same time. Sometimes I will get bored by midday and simply go home for the afternoon, and noone is any the wiser. Although everyone (even my industrial sup) seems pleased with my "progress" I can't help but feel like I could have got to the stage I am now within a month if I had really tried.

Has anyone else had this, the sensation of just cruising along and not deserving the praise you get for seemingly little work? Should I count myself lucky and enjoy things slotting into place while I can, before things inevitably go pear shaped and I am forced into 12+ hour days e.g. when experiments simply do not work? I really enjoy my topic, but for some reason I find it hard to motivate myself to give that little bit more, I am satisfied with doing the bare minimum to keep my sup and others happy.

Any comments/thoughts?

My PhD is rather different to yours (I'm working as an RA whilst doing it and it is computer based) however, I found, like many others on the board, that the first few months often seem to involve doing very little indeed. I've never worked out why. I felt I was doing bugger all for the first 2 months certainly, and it only gradually progressed to the point I'm at now a year and a half in, whereby I feel I actually do a days work each day.

Perhaps try to force yourself to do some extra to get in the swing of a full days work, but I wouldn't worry too much to be honest.

Just one opinion, I don't know if there is someone more chemistry based that can offer some good advice?

Hi,

This post pretty much describes how I feel about my PhD at the moment - I'm 3 months in like you, but in social science, and the only thing I'm required to produce is a 12,000 word literature review at the end of February. That's 5 months literally just reading and writing, and I feel like I'm going insane. I can't make myself work for more than maybe 1-2 hours a day, sometimes even less. I do (in theory) enjoy the topic I'm working on, in fact I used to feel really passionately about it, but since I started the PhD I've just lost it. I can't concentrate on reading, everything I write seems like crap and I can't get a clear head to sort out what exactly I'm trying to do and how to go about writing the lit review. I spend a lot of time mindlessly checking my email, reading the news, etc, etc. Wasting time basically. And waiting until I can reasonably go home. The problem is that any time I do spend not working on my PhD, I still can't relax because I know it's waiting for me and I'm going to have to do it sooner or later. My motivation is at zero - help!

Honestly, I think that if you feel like you aren't doing enough then it's a real sign that you could push yourself harder! It isn't your supervisor's job to ask you how many hours a day you do, or how many pages you read a week. They assume that at this point you will source your own channels to research.

If they seem very impressed with you, despite you feeling like you haven't done a huge amount, then maybe they are just giving you very positive reinforcement for what is actually just the norm: people are more likely to use their own initiative more when they have been assured they are on the right track. Of course, I am not doing a science PhD, so I realise that lab work can be a lot more integrated and may be dependent on another, but I would advise you to read as much as possible while you still have plenty of time. :-)

Thanks everyone, very interesting. It's a strange thing to moan about I know. Anyhow it's early days yet, got a lot of work ahead of me no doubt.

I think this will spur me on a little bit. One way of looking at it is thinking how pleased my sup would be if I actually did a decent week's work... Only one way to find out...

I don't know which area of chemistry you are in, but I did my PhD in organic chemistry. I often felt the same as you, and to be honest didn't really put in much effort until the last 6 or 7 months of my PhD. Having said that, I have published 4 papers from my PhD work because what I did do worked well. Others in my lab worked much harder than me but still haven't published a thing because their project wasn't working. This doesn't mean you shouldn't work hard, just that if the chemistry works then you don't really need to put in as much effort. Looking back, if I had put in more effort how many publications could I have now? Something to think about maybe.

Hi Broccoli,

my only advice would be not to waste funded days doing nothing.

Imagine how bad it can when funding runs over and you need to get a job to pay the bills and do the writing up...

Moreover, if you need a more controlling supervisor agree on deadlines to deliver certain things. It is really hard to find a balance between the laid back supervisor and the control freak that breaths down your neck...