It feels like my life is a mess right now, I can't concentrate on anything. The days are blurring and slipping away without any trace of productivity or satisfaction from my activities at work. I'll try to explain it in order.

My PhD has started one and half year ago. I had a break for 4.5 months during this time due to maternity leave. Now I am working again on PhD (at least supposed to) for 7 months and feel completely burn out and under the constant depression. The reasons I see are:
1. First of all the PhD topic is not directly related to what I've studied before. I knew it from the beginning, but was interested in the topic anyway. And actually it wouldn't be a problem at all, but the second reason spoils everything.
2. It is a financial point. Our department has quite a lot of projects. All doctoral students are hired by the department to work in these projects. Theoretically the project and the research are related to each other and everyone should do them simultaneously. But in practice we have so many disturbing tasks (meetings, deliverables, contributions, emails), which just eat all our time. As a result, I've stumbled with the research completely. At the same time I am expected to do a lot of work in the project. Project partners ask all the time about the description of the solution, which I don't simply have. I feel completely stupid all the time. I can't even schedule my time, because constantly am receiving emails with contribution requirements and are forced to spend a lot of time just composing something remotely resemble to what I should do. The biggest problem here is that for me it is impossible to organize. All of it are just a pieces of different information, which are not really related to each other. I don't see the whole picture and completely lost. I don't even know right now, what I'd like to do. I only feel that I don't like what I am doing now, don't see the purpose, don't feel like I am acquiring new knowledge.

I'd like to have some advice on the time management from the people, who are in the same situation from financial point of view, when you need to manage a lot of stuff in the project and do your PhD at the same time. Or just to have an advice from the people, who felt the same way and overcame it somehow.

Sorry for chaotic post, but really I need an advice and experience sharing.

Hi Absentminded, sorry to hear of your problems.

Hopefully someone with experience will be able to offer help. Many people on here have to juggle their PhDs with family commitments / other jobs etc so they may be able to offer a different perspective.

Hello absentminded,
I have suffered from burn out twice. Even though I heard myself saying "I need a break" I didn't listen. My body finally made me take notice. I didn't even learn from my first experience! On Facebook I came across Your24hcoach.com which offers great assistance through real-time coaching online at any time. In my opinion talking to experts about how to handle stressful situations and map out a plan to achieve your goals has a great impact on your conflict resolution. Through their assistance I have changed certain behaviors. I finally learned my lesson after my second burn out. In this case, an ounce of prevention is definitely worth a pound of cure - it can take quite a long time to get back on your feet. Best luck with it!