Hello Messy PhDs,

Shimmying into your inbox today to send you a gentle reminder that 'productivity' and progress in the PhD is not always a predictable, controllable, structured thing that we can plan for.

Sometimes, things go totally off the rails.

Sometimes, there are set-backs.

Sometimes, the progress you're making simply cannot be measured.

And you've got to remember to make space and allow for ALL the juicy, good stuff that's happening in the background even when you're not literally writing 2000 words / coding 450 bits of data / reading 21 journal articles.

Give yourself a break. Have a little (actually, a lot) of trust in your ability and capacity to do a lot of really good quality work without being welded to your desk and churning things out like a machine

(because guess what? You're not a machine. You're a humany-human full of humany ups and downs, and you cannot be programmed or switched on and off like an android).

My favourite truth to live by these days is this:

Longer hours ≠ greater productivity or better work

Maybe it's just my way to justify being a slacker.

Or maybe it's true. I've found that I always do my best work when it's in short, focused, intentional sessions (literally 30 mins max), rather than trying to set myself gigantic 'output' goals and burning myself out.

And shorter hours = more space for other things: to get things back on track when they've gone off the rails, to catch up with the set backs, to honour the un-quantifiable progress that's still being made when you're afk ("away from keyboard" for anyone who's no longer into old skool text lingo. God, remember those IRC days, anyone?).

If this resonates, I've come up with 7 other alternative ways of thinking about productivity and success in the PhD.

If you haven't already read my Twitter thread on this, catch it on the blog (I've tidied it up for those of you who might prefer reading a proper 'thing' instead of bitty Tweets):

And if you decide to try out one of these new ways of approaching your PhD work, drop me a line to let me know. I'd love to hear what works for you!

Also, I've got one more 1-hour PhD coaching spot left for the month. It's going for free and we'll come up with a plan to get you loads more ease and clarity for whatever's going on in your PhD (as a side benefit, you might find greater 'productivity' too. Hah). Want that spot? Hit reply to claim it.

Love,
J

*****

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​Jamie Pei, PhD ~ The Messy Coach​