I was chatting recently to a
group of PhD scholars who are about midway through their journey. They are all
studying part-time, juggling this with full-time jobs, family commitments and
other responsibilities. All agreed that the PhD is a difficult process which
requires an enormous amount of time and energy.
But I noticed that they could be
roughly categorised into two groups. Those in the first group spoke of their
PhDs only in negative terms and viewed them as a constant burden that offered
little gratification along the way. Their PhD was a boulder they were bound to
endlessly push up a steep hill without ever being able to stop and contemplate
the view.
The second group expressed pride
in their work. They had a strong sense of being part of something important and
contributing to something meaningful. They spoke enthusiastically about what
the PhD had already offered them in terms of self-development and improved
skills.
Some of these scholars probably
moved between the two groups depending on how they were progressing at the
time. But I wondered whether there might be a way to spend more time in the
second, happier group - after all, four or more years of satisfying and
challenging engagement sounds great but the idea of spending all that time
feeling grim and despondent is perfectly horrible.
I decided to do a bit of
sleuthing to figure out what might lead people to the second group and way of
thinking. To do so, I collected reflections on the PhD journey from 28 doctoral
scholars. Each discussed their own ways of working, their views of their own
doctorates and their experiences of getting stuck and then unstuck again.
None of the findings are earth
shattering, but there’s some good advice within their responses about how to do
a doctorate and actually enjoy it.
1.
Make sure you’re doing it for yourself
There are lots of reasons to do a
doctorate: the status, the improved employment opportunities, as a requirement
for a position or promotion, to advance a field of study, to answer an
important question and to make new knowledge.
All those who said they’d really
enjoyed their PhDs had a strong sense of the doctorate as being part of
developing their own identity. They were deeply invested in their growing
capacity to contribute meaningfully in their disciplinary community.
There was also a sense from these
scholars that the doctorate was their own space. It was the place in their
lives where they could make the decisions, be creative and for which they could
legitimately fence off time from other responsibilities for their own growth.
They framed the PhD as something they did for themselves.
2.
The magic of momentum
Nobody can sustain an enormous
PhD workload relentlessly over the duration of the degree. This was especially
true for these scholars who squeezed the doctorate into the gaps between work
meetings and after getting families fed.
But those who enjoyed the PhD all
referred to working on the doctorate almost every day. Sometimes the only input
that was possible on a given day was an hour spent reading through an article
or 20 minutes writing a brief reflection note in a research journal.
The regularity of input, more
than the quantity and quality, seems to be key.
Those who bemoaned their PhD as a
constant liability admitted that weeks often went by without them working on
it. Rather than enjoying the respite from the doctorate, all this time was
spent feeling guilty - and when they finally did get to it, it took hours or
even days to get back into what they had been thinking and writing about.
3.
Celebrate small successes
Some scholars spoke of sharing
the completion of a chapter with their PhD colleagues through a WhatsApp
message. Others stuck a list of milestones to the fridge and their family made
celebratory dinners whenever one was met.
The notion of deadlines was
closely linked to the idea of regular successes. The PhD is a massive project
with no clear deadlines along the way, which is why some are able to put off
working on it for days and weeks at a time.
Many of the same scholars who
trumpeted their small successes set very clear deadlines for themselves and
shared these with supervisors, relatives or academic colleagues. Some also used
external deadlines like seminar and conference presentations as a way of
forcing themselves to engage with a particular aspect of their study by a certain
date.
4.
Be kind to yourself
Some scholars seem to be able to
keep looking ahead instead of beating themselves up about poor progress or less
than positive feedback from a supervisor.
They constantly expect better of
themselves and then put in the hours needed to attain these goals. Rather than
berating themselves for what they haven’t managed to do, they happily share
what they have achieved and what they are working on.
5.
Find a community
One thing was very clear: even
though it’s an individual piece of work, the doctorate doesn't have to be a
lonely endeavour. Those who seemed to be most enthusiastic about their
doctorates had found fellow travellers and developed ways to regularly engage
with them.
Sometimes these were virtual
friendships online with others researching in the same area. Sometimes people
met other scholars over coffee and cake to share readings and support each
other. It seems that sharing the process increases the chances of enjoyment -
and since you’re giving years of your life to this enormous academic project,
it seems important that you should enjoy large parts of it.
A version of this article
originally appeared on the blog Doctoral Writing SIG
