Keeping It Together in Grad School

[Pragma]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hearing about these 80 hour work weeks terrifies me.

Everything I read in this thread is basically how I lived my undergraduate life. I could take screenshots of my phone calendar from months ago: every minute was blocked off and there was almost no time for recreation or self-care, as people here put it.

I don't mean to sound haughty, but I am legitimately worried. All the work I put in for undergrad was worth it, coming out of undergrad with several authorships and presentations, a near perfect GPA, and several awards. Yet, it was all that at sacrifice of any time for myself.

All my professors told me, "If you think you work hard now, just wait until graduate school. You won't have time to sleep." Either they didn't know just how much I worked during undergrad, or this is legitimately true.

This is what makes me worried. One of my friends once told me, "Groupthink, you are neither a genius nor of above-average intelligence. You are simply the hardest worker I have ever seen, and it is quite commendable." I wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an insult...

Anyway, I digress. I work hard, and I'm good at working hard. Yet if hard work meant many hours in undergrad, and graduate life is supposed to be even more difficult, then is my ability to just work hard (but perhaps not work intelligently) going to be my downfall in my doctoral program?

They say the GREs predict efficacy and likelihood to succeed in a graduate program, and I did fairly poorly on them, so maybe I am in for a boatload of troubles...

I think you sound well-prepared and the transition may not be so rough on you. Yes, that "compliment" is a little insulting too - not sure how i would take that!

The activities you have mentioned suggest that you know how to put in the time to achieve things that are considered important at the PhD level.

It seems to me that the students who have a harder transition are sometimes the ones who had less responsibility as undergraduates. I am a little biased because I worked 25-30 hours a week as an undergraduate while going to school full time. That made time management (and stress management) necessary during those years. I felt it prepared me quite well for graduate school, and people i knew who didn't work as undergraduates seemed to complain more initially in graduate school.

It sounds like you will be well-prepared too. But, if you are concerned about not having time for you, you might think about revisiting some of the priorities. That's really where you've got to get creative. Figure out how to work "smarter" and not harder, where you can cut corners, and accept that you can't do everything perfectly. I think AA mentioned in a different thread that learning what is "good enough" should help you in the long run.

 

[PsychPhDone]

The mention of people "scheduling" self-care activities, or "fun," is amusing to me...

Haha, yeah, at least I am indeed not scheduling things like "shower". But I do schedule things like the gym or happy hour with friends. We all have Google Calendars so it's easy to propose an activity and invite people...and it just shows up on their calendars. Easy to "bully" people into drinks that way!

 

[PsychPhDone]

It sounds like you will be well-prepared too. But, if you are concerned about not having time for you, you might think about revisiting some of the priorities. That's really where you've got to get creative. Figure out how to work "smarter" and not harder, where you can cut corners, and accept that you can't do everything perfectly. I think AA mentioned in a different thread that learning what is "good enough" should help you in the long run.

Definitely echoing the "work smart not hard" philosophy! The hard workers are prepared.

Also, start practicing saying "no".

 

[Ya Ya]

Haha, yeah, at least I am indeed not scheduling things like "shower". But I do schedule things like the gym or happy hour with friends. We all have Google Calendars so it's easy to propose an activity and invite people...and it just shows up on their calendars. Easy to "bully" people into drinks that way!

I'm going to have to try the Google calendar thing. Sounds like a really great way or coordinating activities with friends without a long chain email!