Mid-degree burnout?

[Jasmineflower]

I love my program and am very happy with the choice to attend my institution, but as a mid-program PhD student I'm starting to feel some burnout.  I don't know why, but simply coming to campus causes me to feel stressed.  And even though I love teaching and am committed to doing a good job at it, I'm burned out on that too.  Most of the undergrads I've worked with have been great, but for some reason I can't stop focusing on the lazy, entitled, obnoxious ones these days.  Anyone have any advice for dealing with burnout?  I can't take time off, so I really need to figure out how to get over these negative feelings. 

[TakeruK]

If you can't take a short amount of time completely off, would it be possible to reduce your workload slightly in order to take on something that currently interests/motivates you? Even just a few hours per week doing something you really enjoy could help. Near the end of my second year as a graduate student, I picked up a new sport/hobby and while it took about 8 hrs/week to do, I found that it made a good difference in my outlook and my remaining hours per week were more productive and enjoyable. Just an idea! It doesn't have to be a sport or hobby of course, it could be anything that you are interested in--student government? outreach? volunteering? more sleep? etc.

[fuzzylogician]

I think there are two important things you can do. The first, is to recognize that you deserve a break. Grad school is hard work, and feeling worn out is normal once in a while. It's totally legitimate to feel like you're tired of the work and aren't very productive at the moment. The second thing you can do is to give yourself a "vacation" from all aspects of your work that are not crucial. I understand you can't actually take a break right now, but can you slow down some aspect or other for a week? Do it in a purposeful way and with a plan in mind, so you know you're not slacking off or falling behind, but instead giving your mind some well-deserved time off. In your spare time, can you do anything fun or enjoyable - e.g. starting a new hobby as mentioned? For me, one common way to unwind involves watching something brainless on TV - America's Next Top Model, Project Runway, Chopped, etc. I seek these shows out because they don't require any thought on my part, and I might watch several episodes in a row. Another important activity is to sleep more (and be careful about my work/rest balance in general), and try and take walks in the sun, assuming it's out .  

[Loric]

Kickboxing.

[Jasmineflower]

Hey, thanks so much for these suggestions! Honestly it helps just to read the replies to this topic. While I'm unfortunately not up to kickboxing (!), more exercise and deliberate "down-time" definitely sound like things I can incorporate. I'm about to go and meet the undergrads I'm teaching this quarter -- hopefully that will inspire me to get my act together as well! (Wish me luck there are no problematic ones ...)

[juilletmercredi]

My third year was terrible for me, and my fourth pretty bad, precisely because of mid-degree burnout.  Years 1-2 I was running on pure adrenaline and excitement and energy I still had leftover from undergrad, but by year 3 I was confused and upset and depressed most of the time.

 

I started seeing a therapist at the school counseling center.  Your health insurance should include at least 10 visits with a therapist; at one visit a week that should take you through most of one semester.

 

My exercise regimen and eating better definitely, definitely helped.  Not only does being healthier make you feel better, but exercise gives you that time to just focus on yourself and maybe even to think about nothing for once in your life.  I took up Zumba classes, body conditioning, and then running.  Especially when I run, I can't really think about anything else besides putting one foot in front of the other and the beat of my music, so I let myself zone out and give myself permission to focus.

 

I also diversified my interests a bit.  I was getting really bored with grad school.  When I was in undergrad I was a resident assistant, and I really enjoyed the job, so I got a part-time job as a hall director at the beginning of my fourth year - it involved supervising 10 RAs, being on crisis call duty and managing administrative and building issues for some undergraduate residence halls (20 hours per week).  I loved this job so, so much and it was so great because it gave me something different to do besides think about graduate school, something that used different skills.  I also met a group of amazing friends, some of which I'm still really close to now.  I did that for two years; I quit in May only to focus more time on my dissertation in this (my final year).  I'm pretty sure that if I didn't do that job I could've graduated at least a semester if not a year earlier, but it was so important to my mental health - I'd rather take 6 years and be healthy than 5 years and be a complete mess at the end.

 

This can be hard to manage depending on your advisor; I did tell my primary advisor, but my secondary advisor didn't know (I wasn't actively hiding it; it was more that I just omitted it from any discussions.  *shrug*).  And you may not be interested in this at all.  My point isn't "go get a job" but more discover what things are important to you and make time for those things, whether it's doing urban photography for 6 hours every Saturday or taking a ballet class 2x a week or just vegging out with Netflix for four hours every weekend.