What is the craziest schedule you've ever had?

[NeuroLady]

I'm considering whether or not to take an opportunity and I'm curious what others have pulled off in pursuit of being awesome (and a psychologist).

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[G Costanza]

The busiest I've ever been was my third year in grad school:

Classes: 9-12hours
Studying: 20 hours
Prac #1: 16 hours
Prac #2: 9 hours
Doc assistantship: 20 hours
Commuting: 8 hours
Sleep: ?
Family: Who's that?
Hindsight: Learn to say no

 

[erg923]

When my first child was born.

 

[singasongofjoy]

I second G Costanza above- learn to say no when you need to. I was regularly working 80-90 hours per week during end of second through beginning of 4th year once I added in classes/studying, teaching, practica, externship, expected manuscript submission schedule/thesis/general exam etc, various responsibilities to my advisor/team/more junior students. I burnt out and ended up dropping 2 classes and some responsibilities at the beginning of my 4th year so I could focus on internship apps and figuring out how to be a reasonably healthy human again (thankfully my advisor was more understanding than I anticipated). I'd never wish that on anyone, because as G Costanza mentioned -- Sleep: ?... Family: Who's that?

Learning to set reasonable expectations (knowing half the things are really going to take twice as long as you anticipate them taking) and learning to say no (and mean it) when you really DO enjoy doing all the things you do (in smaller amounts) can be hard. I truly liked all of the things I was doing on their own, but no one should be working that many hours a week on the reg. Tread carefully because it's easy to get sucked in. Protect your own sanity and the quality of your own training / career (or life) goals in the areas you are prioritizing at the time, which will suffer if you're stretched too thin elsewhere.

 

[BuckeyeLove]

This past Friday: Bindover eval from 7-1, drive an hour to get to a hearing, ended up getting sequestered and subsequently not needed, 4-6 to do some treatment at a facility (dude tried to spit on me, but used my matrix moves to avoid it), 7-830 for a feedback session on a parental fitness eval, getting yelled at the whole time by angry dad. self care from 10-1 with non-psych friends. I find on days like these one's, i always end up feeling like Henry Hill driving around town all day, doing a billions things, sweating, and just not wanting the sauce to stick.

 

[PsyDr]

Grad school: wake up at 4:30am, classes from 6-9am, lab or practicum, then class or ta until 9pm. Then home for homework.

Practice: leave house at 3:30-4am, red eye flight, work from 9-6ish, flight home, arrive in hometown around 11pm-1am; get home, get to sleep around 12-1am, wake up again at 5am, work a 12 hr day, get home, fly out the next day for another 20hr day. Add in some report writing at home.

 

[123EW]

December-January of internship interviews. Flying around the country and still incorporating my regular academic/practicum schedule.

 

[Sanman]

My schedule nowadays is pretty crazy, today was:

Wake-up at 6am, meeting to develop clinical training for staff 8:30-10, drive to facility to see pts 10:30-8:30 and answer on-call phone calls, go home and answer emails, do billing. Let's see when I get to bed.

 

[deleted760483]

Compared to a lot of people in this field I've apparently worked a pretty conservative schedule. There was about a 9 month period when I worked 2 jobs, one of which was 15 hours a week and the other about 20, while taking 12 hours of classes, doing homework, and working on my dissertation. The job I worked 20 hours a week at had 2 locations which I traveled between on some days, which resulted in a particularly insane Wednesday schedule. Wednesday mornings I ran a DBT group from 9-12 at one location of my first job, then saw an individual client from 12-1. Then I drove to my second job to co-facilate a group from 2-5. Then I left from there to go to the second location of my other job to run a second DBT group from 6-9. So it was a 12 hour day, 9 hours of which was facilitating groups (6 by myself for clients with personality disorders), and about 2 hours of driving between 3 different work sites. Then I would come home and work on my paper

Those days were my wake-up call that my father's workaholic tendencies have been passed to me, because in theory I should have hated those days, but I felt almost high during and shortly after them. They felt really, really good.

 

[Justanothergrad]

I've had a number of very long days and what-not, but my experience is that the craziest schedules frequently occur when people don't work efficiently. Grading for three hours while you watch Orange is the new black is not the same as working for 3 hours non-stop..... In general I would estimate around 45-50 hours a week with some weeks being longer and others shorter. Thats a consistent 45~ hours a week of work though.

 

[WisNeuro]

Hmm, haven't had a real crazy schedule since some months in grad school (60-80 hour weeks), and the year before grad school where I worked two jobs, one full-time. My weeks are pretty confined to 40-45 hours.

 

[DrMikeP]

One of the longest days I remember, not that unusual though.

10-Noon patients at private practice
Noon~2 working with family with mother just admitted to icu
2-3 attempting transplant eval of pt who is drifting in and out of consciousness.
3-4 Working w/other patients throughout hospital
4~6 more private practice pts
6~7 working with mother of transplant pt to explain why her son doesn't qualify due to suicide and is going to die.

(Called in for emergency consults)
7-8 preping kids to see their brother w/gsw in picu
8~9 working with family w/mother in icu as they are getting ready to unplug
Break for quick bite
10-11 providing support to large ethnic icu family after mother's death.

Grad school was easy in comparison.

 

[DynamicDidactic]

when I was writing my dissertation.

 

[Hope4Grad]

when I was writing my dissertation.

THIS.

 

[NeuroLady]

I decided not to take the opportunity and everything worked out just fine (landed a fantastic internship). I've had plenty to do without it (dissertation) and still kicking. No regrets on this one.

 

[neurobain]

My worst schedule is right now on internship from 7:30 AM until roughly 6 PM, and then straight home to work on my dissertation until 1 AM on average. Then on Saturday and Sunday I work on my dissertation from 8:30/9AM until 1 or 2 AM with about two hours of breaks for meals or naps throughout the day.

 

[chicandtoughness]

[deleted]

 

[Grenth]

I feel like a whiner now for complaining about my schedule after reading some of these. I'm a 1st PhD year student year but I have a master's level license and a lot of the first year coursework is remedial so I'm lmoonlighting for extra cash.

• 40 hrs a week overnight at a psych facility 10:30-8:30
• 12 hrs of class time
• 10 hrs dedicated research time
• Homework is running me between 5-10 hours because I'm in a class that forces us to watch videos so I can't work faster than the video.

It actually isn't too bad except every other week I have an early class start and go straight from my night job to class and by the time I commute home in the brutal traffic I've been up 24hrs. However, I got a daytime 20hr a week practicum for the fall and so the night work is coming to an end soon which I won't be sad about.

 

[chicandtoughness]

[deleted]

 

[propsych]

Honestly? The worst schedule I ever had was applying to graduate school as an undergrad. Working as an RA in three labs (30 hours per week), getting out two pubs, taking 15 units per semester, TAing for classes, members of all sorts of honors societies and clubs that put on events, compound that with GRE studying and the Ph.D. application process... whooh. I was probably at 80 hours per week. And all while trying to have a social life. I hated it.

I would still have some 12 hour days as a master's student, but I also managed to read the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series in one semester (~5,000 pages), so it couldn't have been too harrowing.

As a doctoral student, I see clients, adjunct teach at a local college (1-2 classes, depends), have a 50% TAship where I'm instructor of record, take about 4 classes each quarter, and spend 10 or 15 hours per week on my research team and personal projects. Somehow, although the work is a lot more rigorous and I believe there is simply more of it, I think the maturity that comes in growing from undergraduate, to master's, to Ph.D. has taught me a lot about work/life balance. Although my schedule should, theoretically, be crazier than it was in undergrad, it definitely isn't as frantic. I'm learning how to say no to things, what takes priority, and when I need a break. I still get to visit family that live two hours away, be sure to chat on the phone daily with my boyfriend and try to see him weekly or every other week, work out daily, play with my dog. Like someone said above, it's about efficiency and balance. I find that the more time I give myself for self-care, relaxation, and hobbies, the better I actually am at completing tasks, both in terms of the quality of the work, and also how quickly I can get motivated to get started. My whole vibe is just low stress right now, and so far it's serving me quite well!

I predict the most difficult time in a doctoral program, scheduling and time wise, will be applying for internship. My dissertation shouldn't be too bad because I'm (planning on) taking an extra year in my program to have an entire year just to have a TAship and finish my dissertation before I go on internship. I know most people try to get out quickly, but hey, I'm only two hours away from my home town and my program is funded with a nice stipend- I like the idea that I can have a full year to really focus on diss., while also delaying the inevitable leaving of my family, friends, and partner, haha.

As other posters have said above, grad school isn't too bad. If you're interested in something and really feel it's worth the necessary extra work- go for it. In my head, I told myself, "anyone can get through anything if they know when it ends" if it was bad, and told myself that I'd appreciate that I went for it if it was good. As I get older I'm learning I'm a better judge of what is worth it and what is not, and I'm sure you are too. Although I know that it totally sucks turning down amazing things that you are very passionate about. If only we all had Hermione's time turner!!

Whoa, full-time student, 3 labs etc.... how?
I've made my schedule for next semester so that i only go in two days a week for 17 credits. And then I'll be starting an internship as well probably one day a week (6hours+).
Then I'll be co-managing the lab I'm currently an RA in and leading another iteration of a study (so that'll take up a lot of time).
I've been deliberating joining another lab in order to explore research more pertinent to my interests (currently im in a sleep lab- naps/performance in athletes). I haven't quite figured out the exact area I'd like to do research in in grad school, but something like a childhood developmental lab would be interesting.
You give me hope that this is possible, though I'm not sure it's worth risking affecting my grades in school. (I'm currently getting all A's as my gpa suffered in my early years of college and I am now desperately trying to raise them). Was it worth it for you? Do you think i should go for it?

 

[PsyDDad]

Currently a PsyD student - 15 hours of class per week, 15 hours of doctoral assistant work, about 10 hours per week of homework/readings (the bare minimum to get by), and conducting my own research study (time investment varies greatly, but can be many hours per week on most weeks).

Oh, and I'm married with two little kids - so that means I get up with them in the morning, give them breakfast, get them dressed...carpool in the morning, suppertime when I get home (if I'm lucky enough to be home for supper that day), etc. It never ends. I'm married to a superwoman who does a tremendous amount, but it's a joint effort. I go to sleep around 3am on most nights, because the hours after bedtime are the precious few calm hours when I can work.

Next year will be the same schedule, but I will be adding 17 hours of internship and clients that I'll see in our clinic. Even now, it's the craziest schedule I've ever had, but also the most rewarding...

 

[Grenth]

Hey, I had a question about your experience with this. I'll have my masters level license by the time I (hopefully) start my PhD as well and was thinking of doing the same thing. I expect there shouldn't be an issue first year, but once you start practicum/externships in second year, is it considered an ethical conflict of interest to be doing your doctoral practicum AND moonlighting on the side?

(Anyone else who can answer feel free to chime in too!)

In my program, it is allowed if you get permission. Ethically and per my program rules, you must be very clear to only be a student/trainee at your practicum and not use your license and only a master's level provider at your job and not attempt to act outside your master's level competence or above your license. This may vary from program to program but your DCT will have guidelines.