Share: A day in the life of a Clinical PhD student?

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ivyleaf

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So, I was hoping those of you in Clinical Psych PhD programs could share a bit about your life as a grad student, hopefully touching on some of the following areas/questions.

1. What is your day to day schedule like, activities-wise? Im sure it varies considerably, between programs, weeks, time of year, research vs clinical focus, etc, BUT if you had to give a general description..

2. What % of your time do you spend: seeing clients, attending class, working on your own research, working on your mentor's research?
Basically, what's the breakdown of your day?
^^I'm esp interested in those of you in more research-focused (or = emphasis) programs


3. What hours do you generally keep a day (for writing, research, class, clients, etc)?

4. Do feel as if you have time to go out for dinner a couple nights a week with friends or your SO, exercise, maintain an outside hobby, etc?


I've talked to the students in the lab where I work, but I wanted to get a perspective outside of our lab, since it's the only one I've seen so far.

Thanks!

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1. Typically, get up between 6:30 and 7:30, get to school or lab between 8 and 9. I try to minimize the running around as much as I can since my lab is off campus. That is, I try to set up my schedule so I spend Mondays and Tuesday doing on-campus stuff and W-F in the lab. It obviously rarely works out that nicely, but I try:) I usually get home around 5:30 or 6, except for one night a week I have an evening client. Nights when I get home later than that are not rare, but 5:30 or 6 is the norm.

That said, its not like the day ends at 6PM. I work at home most nights, and a substantial portion of the weekend. I've actually been putting a strong effort to spend more time at home lately, not for any lifestyle balance, just because there are WAY too many distractions in the lab since people always come running with questions or to chat, etc.

2. It varies by year, but on average: Class, 15% (substantially more the first year, progressively less since), clinical 20% (I'm including clinical work done for research here...the line is kind of blurry between clinical work and research).

Rest is on my research and my lab's research. That division varies by where the need is, lately I've been spending far more time on my own research because I'm trying to get my thesis started. That said, I have a fantastic research match so when I say I work on my advisor's research, its not like I'm slaving away entering data on a study when I don't even know the hypotheses. I'm overseeing a few different studies, have enormous input into how things are run, can add things to them when there's a compelling reason to do so, am getting large numbers of publication and presentation opportunities (3 first author presentations between now and summer, 2 of which will be talks at major conferences) all from studies that are not "my own work". I'm actually being underproductive if anything since I've been too scattered recently - I'm hoping to focus in a bit more and really start churning on papers and presentations. We seem to have a virtually endless supply of data looking for attention:) This is why its important to have a good research match;)

I'm at a research-heavy program if that isn't clear from the above. I expect I'll be shifting the classwork into clinical work as I finish my coursework up. I'll be trying to keep the clinical under 1/3 of my time unless I have troubles accruing hours.

3. Not sure what you mean, but I keep fairly normal hours. Sometimes I have to stay up late if there's an imminent deadline and I procrastinated, but most of the time I can get to bed on time.

4. Some weeks yes, other weeks no. Most of the time I could be more efficient (i.e. I often have the TV on in the background when working at home), but I find I burn out quickly if I'm that strongly focused so I prefer to work at a slightly more relaxed pace some evenings rather than highly focused work that burns me out quicker.
 
Thanks for your reply! When I say normal, I suppose I mean work between 8-6, 1-2 hours of work at home a night (for future reference!).
 
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I think that would be a bit on the light side (unless you are including weekends). Of course if you're very efficient it might be more doable...I can't get writing done during the day for the most part, so that adds alot of time. If you expect to be completely free on weekends, you're going to be doing a great deal more work at home during the week.

Its also worth mentioning it tends to come in waves...there have been weeks I bust my butt from 8AM until 11PM and barely get everything done, and other times I can duck out early, have relaxing evenings at home, etc. time is also what you make of it. I could prioritize some things more than I do. I actually NEED to start making my health a priority and better protect my exercise time, so I'm going to find a way to do that and I'm confident I can make it happen.
 
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I was thinking weekends as well (I'm assuming you can't escape work then!) When you refer to writing, do you mostly mean research papers you are working on?
 
In that case you are probably overestimating, if anything. If you're going 8-6 and 1-2 hours at home 7 days a week that's around 80 hours a week. I've gotten close to that a few times, but its not typical.

Well, really any form of writing. I need to be "in the zone" so to speak, and the constant interruptions in lab are no good for it.

It might be writing an empirical paper, writing a review paper (so far only for classes - I haven't produced one I'd want published just yet), posters, talks, etc. Writing is one of my weaker areas, at least in my eyes, so its often slow going and I need to make time to get more practice with this. I'm hoping to start getting more stuff out...actually NEED to be getting more stuff out. I should be getting authorship on 3-4 things so far, but it doesn't do me any good unless they actually get finished and submitted somewhere;)
 
Thanks for your reply! When I say normal, I suppose I mean work between 8-6, 1-2 hours of work at home a night (for future reference!).

If I'm trying to meet the deadline of a major milestone (comps, MA thesis, dissertation, etc)... then I work something like the above, or a bit more. Most weeks I work much less than this (average 6-8 hrs/day). And I'm not exactly a slacker either. I'll defend or be close to defending before leaving for internship, I work as an EAP counselor, training clinic therapist, group therapist at the health center, clinic intake coordinator, TA for assessment, and this is just off the top of my head for this semester.

I'm no longer part of a big lab (advisor left), so I don't have the complication of needing to be "seen" or spend a certain # of hours in the lab. I'm more clinical than research focused, so much of my work gets done during the day. But I have published and I present at or attend conferences regularly. I spend A LOT of time writing emails. I might be answering emails by 8:30am, but it's usually in my PJs. The meat of my day starts around 10am.

Admittingly, I fall somewhere in the middle. I'm far from lazy, but I'm not the "star" of my program. Work-life balance is very important to me. I feel competent and successful - and I love my life. I love psych, but I have friends & hobbies and other interests also. I'm not willing to give up reading fiction.

The reality is that until you're hooded, graduate work is never 'done'. Given this, I try to refrain from working so much that I'm not available to my spouse & dog. This is aided by trying not to compare myself to other students. (though I consider this a practice, not a decision, as it's not easy!) Everyone has their own way. I think the real learning occurs when you're able to find what feels good to you, and honor it.
 
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