Part time PhD: really struggling

[Andrealn]

Hi, I'm hoping there are some part timers out there, or full timers that might have some advice on this. I'm about half way through my PhD. I work full time about 56-60 hours a week (it's quite a senior role) so I struggle with meeting my own workload demands let alone my PhD. I also have separate research outputs that are required in my role for REF, and I am now really struggling at this stage of my PhD. It's been 3.5 years of working weekends, using my leave to progress my research, and 4am starts to write (I'm definitely a morning person!). It's all taking it's toll. I have no time for anything else, my second supervisor changed recently and the dynamic has changed, I'm exhausted, demoralised, but reluctant to give up after striving for so long. The only hope on the horizon is a possible 1 year research fellowship in sept 17. I'm sure there are others out there, both full time and part time that have experienced similar.

[rising_star]

Have you considered giving yourself one weekend a month where you don't work on research/writing for the PhD? I ask because not taking any breaks is a way to exhaust yourself and could actually delay your progress long-term. I found that regular breaks were necessary to avoid burning out while doing the PhD. YMMV obviously. Good luck!

[juilletmercredi]

The PhD will expand to fill the time that you let it, so I think you need to put some hard limits on how much time you spend on the PhD each week. You are already going to feel overwhelmed - if you work 55-60 hours a week already, you're probably going to need to put in at least 15-20 hours a week on a part-time PhD, and so that's 70-80 hours you're going to spending working a week on either of those things.

Obviously, this might stretch out your time to degree - but that's better than feeling so overwhelmed and burned out all the time that you can't function or focus on your work. 

Are you done with coursework? If so, limiting your time is going to be easier. You can schedule periods of time to study for comprehensive exams or conduct your research for your dissertation - and stick to those periods of time. Like rising_star recommended, making sure you always have one weekend a month to yourself to recharge is also a good plan. You might want to try to work in two weekday evenings per month, too - even if it's just a couple hours to recharge.