Hi All, first post on this site. I am coming to the end of my first year of my phd and am struggling to find a place I work well - home is a fair few miles from Uni so really have to decide to work at home all day (too much car guilt if not). Library not great and haven't the funding to work in a cafe all day long!! Just wondered where people found they were most productive? Think I need to learn some concentration techniques.

Hi SB (welcome!)

I worked between home and uni due mainly to family committments. My preference is home and I have a sort of office set up there. However I went into uni a fair bit during my first two years and actually it's good to mix the two I think. There is a lot of tacit knowledge you pick up through interacting with your colleagues that you obviously don't get if you are isolated at home. That said, if you are able to work at home and can resist the joys of laundry, hoovering etc (sic) you can get a lot done. I did 95% of my write up at home. What I did find a pain was lugging my material (interview transcripts, articles, books etc) between home and uni. I can't tell you how often I lugged stuff up the stairs at uni in case I needed it only to bring it home again without having looked at it.

Anyhow I was between the two which is probably not that much help to you!

Please bear in mind this was during my bachelors degree when I lived in noisy halls of residence. I downloaded a classical music album from amazon (~£2) and loaded it onto my ipod. When I had my ipod on medium volume, I found that the music enabled me to work through the noise of people around me at the library or where-ever I was studying. It works with music that doesn't have lyrics therefore you concentrate more on the work, that the lyrics.

I'm lucky enough to have access to an office at Uni where I have my own desk so I work there most days. I work at home the odd day but find I am more likely to be distracted by the television and other things. I too find the library quite difficult as it can get noisy.

Regarding concentration techniques, have you tried the Pomodoro technique? I read about it on here, it's basically a technique of working for 25 minutes and then having a 5 minute break. It helps you get on with your work but have short breaks for checking email etc. It doesn't suit everyone, but when I am feeling distracted it helps me get my head down.

Good luck finding a way of working that suits you.

Thanks for the advice - concentration technique working so far!! I suppose all of our situations are different but it's really interesting to see what works for people in terms of listening to music, moving around etc. Thanks for response
S