Making Grad School "A Job"

[Vader Was Framed]

I think it's wise to delegate TA grading to hours of the day where you are not cutting into your best productivity times. That has been late afternoon 3-5pm for me (when I am least productive that is). Save your best hours of the day for more difficult tasks such as writing papers and preparing presentations.

[Chasely]

Vader makes an important point.

When are you most productive?

This is the first question that needs to be answered if you're going to try and "set" your hours. I know that I'm most productive early in the morning. Because of this, I plan to get into work "early" (8) and then work for a few hours.

In the afternoon, I'm pretty bad. I'm hoping that taking an hour break late morning/early afternoon will boost my productivity for the rest of the day. This is not something I've been able to try at my desk job, so it will be an experiment for me.

So all in all I'm planning on working from 8-5:30/6 with about 90 minutes of breaks sprinkled in. This includes courses so I may need to add some more time to the end of my day. It's hard to get in earlier because the gym on my campus opens at 7 (late by gym standards). I would try and go to the gym in the middle of the day, but then you're dealing with wearing "dirty" clothes for the second half of the day.

Edited August 14, 2012 by Chasely

[Dal PhDer]

I like to TA at night while watching minless TV (cue my reality TV addiction!)...also, I have noticed that occasionally I have treated myself to bevvies while I marked (it helps when reading 2nd year ug research proposals...)...have you every thought back about some of the comments/marks you got in UG from your TAs and questioned whether or not they might have been drunk?! hahaha

I am like Chasely, I work best in the mornings...and then by 1/2pm I am at the point where I need a break...normally I'll get back to work around 5/6pm

[Vader Was Framed]

have you every thought back about some of the comments/marks you got in UG from your TAs and questioned whether or not they might have been drunk?!

well, the wine stains on the paper don't help .. oops

[ktel]

well, the wine stains on the paper don't help .. oops

Glad I do my marking on PDFs...

[wildviolet]

Yes, good point Vader!

I, too, am a morning person. I'm taking two courses this semester, and they are both in the evening from 4 to 7 PM. So I suppose my most productive time will be before lunch. Then I might take a stroll around campus (or the building if it's too cold), chit chat, and get some coffee before class. Hmmm... I think that means I'll either need a late lunch (1 or 2 PM) or I'll have to schedule work in during the weekends.

[new_to_kin]

I intend to do the 9-5 thing. I did my masters before I had kids and now that I have 2 of them, a spouse, and have worked in the real world, I don't think I'll any problems. hell, I have a friend who has 2 kids,spouse, AND a full time job while she's doing her PhD. Props to her!!

[newpsyche]

In case anyone stumbles across this thread and wants answers, I'll say that a very successful grad student spoke to our first-year cohort a week ago to give advice as to how to make it through your first year (which is the worst). She strongly advised making this a 40-hour job. It was such an incredible relief to hear her say that. I haven't stuck with it (i.e., I've worked through every weekend and into every night), but it's good to know that I'm doing this by choice, and that if I burn out I can pause and take a breath without feeling too guilty.