Hi all,

Apologies if this has been mentioned before - I did a quick search and couldn't find many threads related to this so thought I'd throw this out there for any advice.

I'm in my second year of a full time science PhD, which has so far been going well. The main issues I've had are a couple of ongoing chronic health conditions which have occasionally slowed down my work rate and caused some added stress in addition to any stress related to the PhD. I should probably mention at this point that I've been told by health professionals that exercise will improve my physical health in the long run. My supervisor is aware of these issues and has been very supportive up until now. However I've now reached a point where my workload has increased massively and I've probably been experiencing a little bit of the second year blues that everyone talks about for the past couple of months. As a result I've been trying to throw myself into the work to feel like I'm getting somewhere, and therefore haven't been making time for exercise and to look after my health as much. Additionally when I am unwell I feel guilty asking for time off, so I don't always take a break when it would probably be better to do so. I feel like I should be able to juggle everything, but it can be hard at times. I tend to find that when I prioritise my health, my PhD suffers and vice versa.

I realise this probably all boils down to time management and I just need to find a balance, but I've always found it hard to prioritise. I just wanted to ask how other people cope with health problems and the massive workload that comes with doing a PhD. Do other people find it hard to juggle everything?

Any thoughts would be very much appreciated! :) Thanks in advance!

I don't really have much to offer in the way of advice but just wanted to let you know you're not alone. I'm in my 3rd year and have been ill on and off for the past couple of months. I have underlying health problems which sometimes affect my ability to work but more recently I've been feeling very run down and seem to have been catching every bug going. This has meant that during December I did pretty much no work and I'm struggling to get back into it now. Fortunately my supervisor has been supportive and understanding so far but I'm becoming increasingly aware that my funding runs out in 9 months and I still have a hell of a lot of work left to do. Stress exacerbates my main underlying health problem and I really struggled with it during the summer. I need to make sure I find a good way of coping for the rest of the year.