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[sundog]

I'm a second-year grad student in a humanities PhD program. Unlike my first year in the program in which coursework was heavily emphasized and I was easily kept busy almost every night keeping up with my assignments, I am now at the point where my tasks consist largely of working toward relatively long-term goals: writing my first qualifying paper, acting as a research assistant, submitting abstracts to conferences, and the like.

I am on the go all day every weekday from the time I get up in the morning at 7:30 until the time I eat dinner around 5; I attend classes, do homework, and work toward the aforementioned long-term goals. By the time I'm done with dinner, I'm mentally exhausted, and since usually by that time I've already accomplished all my short-term tasks, my motivation flags: everything else can wait until tomorrow, later in the week, or even next week or beyond. So I take the rest of the night off to devote to relaxation and personal matters, and eventually, everything gets done (at least so far in my career).

But is that enough? Can I, in the long run, be a successful grad student working efficiently for approximately ten hours a day, and then have six or so hours in the evening to myself? I feel like I'm not living up to the image of the stereotypical eat-sleep-and-work-only grad student, and yet as far as I can tell, I'm making good progress. This goes for my short-term as well as long-term goals, though sometimes I feel guilty for not continuing in the evening to work at the more long-term projects---the fear is that although they will get done, their quality will be lower for having been compressed into shorter periods of time. So far, I'm not sure whether this fear is warranted.

Now, obviously, everyone's situation is unique, and nobody will be able to answer how much is enough for me. But what I'd like to get is a sense of other grad students' working habits, and others' opinions on how much is enough. How much time can an efficient and dedicated grad student afford to devote (per night, say) to socializing, mental relaxation, and the like? 1 hour? 3 hours? More? Less?

[hollow_man]

Do you go to the University of Chicago? Then what place has made you think this way?

I rarely if ever worked more than 10 hours a day. Of course, I wasn't counting, either. I did work a lot at night, but mostly because I wasn't working all the time earlier.

All work and no play makes Jack yet another socially maladjusted academic. Get some fresh air. Date. Get a dog. Have a life. Stop worrying. Either you'll get a job or you won't. Making yourself miserable by working all the time will help you and hurt you at the same time, and so it will balance out.

[t_folk]

My rule was to treat grad school like a job. I went in before 8, worked until 5, Monday through Friday. The nights and weekends were mine unless I had a seminar paper to write or an particularly large project to work on. I never understood why some of the people around me were so stressed until I realized that most of them slept until 10 and spent inordinate amounts of time on Myspace, at the bar, or otherwise goofing off. It's about managing your time - developing a schedule and sticking to it. Do that, and you will be a successful, less stressed-out student.

[sciencephd]

Assuming that nobody is keeping tabs on your hours, then hours worked are probably not directly related to success.  However, politically, I think there are advantages to being known as a very hard worker.  Also, being able to grind things out helps too.  Finally, if you get the reputation for working very hard, you can get away with alot of goofing off without anyone actually noticing.

PS: for some people, 5 hours a day is enough.  for others, 5 days may be necessary to complete those tasks.

[saguaro]

Whenever I asked my adviser for some time off at Christmas, for example, he would say, "Fine. It will just take you that much longer at the end." You could look at daily hours in the same way. You will put the hours in eventually. Thus, it is a trade-off. You work longer hours and you will get out quicker, but you will go crazy. You work shorter hours and you will get out later, but you will stay sane. I would (and did) go for the shorter hours.

[scheherazade]

Whenever I asked my adviser for some time off at Christmas, for example, he would say, "Fine. It will just take you that much longer at the end." You could look at daily hours in the same way. You will put the hours in eventually. Thus, it is a trade-off. You work longer hours and you will get out quicker, but you will go crazy. You work shorter hours and you will get out later, but you will stay sane. I would (and did) go for the shorter hours.

Or you go crazy before you finish.  That's no good.

OP, if you're completing everything and your advisor is happy, you're doing fine.  More than fine, because you're getting some very necessary down time.

[whiplash]

Whenever I asked my adviser for some time off at Christmas, for example, he would say, "Fine. It will just take you that much longer at the end." You could look at daily hours in the same way. You will put the hours in eventually. Thus, it is a trade-off. You work longer hours and you will get out quicker, but you will go crazy. You work shorter hours and you will get out later, but you will stay sane. I would (and did) go for the shorter hours.

Or you go crazy before you finish.  That's no good.

OP, if you're completing everything and your advisor is happy, you're doing fine.  More than fine, because you're getting some very necessary down time.

Down time is very critical.  I am in the sciences and worked 7 days a week, was often the first in and last out during the week and only one in on weekend.  I hit burnout at the end and my advisor still felt I owed more to the project.  By working the extra hours I was rewarded with other projects.

Take some down time, keep fit, eat healthy/well and make sure to keep the lines of communication open between your advisor and your committee.  The committee helped me by finally saying---enough---get the dissertation written and be off.

[redding]

You might just be faster and more efficient than your colleagues. 

I never pulled an all-nighter in grad school: my laziness compels me to get through my work as quickly as possible so I can have that down time.  I am also really, really lucky that I can read quickly.  This is an invaluable skill in grad school.

I did about 5-8 hours a day through most of school (although I did work most weekends).

[hmaria1609]

I never pulled an all-nighter in grad school.

Neither did I!  While I didn't like having evening classes, I appreciated the day hours and days that I didn't have classes to do my reading/hw assignments.

[gayle]

I agree with everyone else.  I find that at a certain point in late afternoon the quality of my work declines to the point I am making negative progress - I'm just messing up the work I did well earlier.  You need to recognize where that point is for you and step away from the computer.

[kissa_mau]

I think it comes down to what you feel is sustainable for you. I will say that 14 hour days, every day, for nearly a year will put you in the hospital for a few weeks. I speak from personal experience on that one.

I'm in a science. I really love what I do and I have enough projects in different phases that I get a fun mix of work, including things I get to do on my laptop from my sofa. 10 hours is my max. I make myself quit after that. Six days a week is my other max. I make myself quit after that.

If it were 10 hours of solid reading and writing, I wouldn't be able to get it- I would be brain-dead and start doing crummy quality work. And then I might as have been watching reruns on tv.

[secretweapon]

Work smarter, not harder.  I don't see a simple relationship between the number of hours I work and the output; my brain just shuts itself off after a certain number of hours when it's had enough.  Get yourself on a schedule like others have suggested, and when your colleagues brag, "Gawd I work such long hours, I was at the library at 6 on Saturday,"  give them a slightly pitying look and reply, "Wow, I'm so sorry you have to do so much.  That must be really hard for you."

[shrek]

I wanted to chime in. I think that it's not the hours it's the efficiency. If you learn this now you'll be much happier and productive as a faculty member as well.

[roarheels]

OP, does the structure of your program create this. Mine has second years doing half the coursework of first years. In addition, I am a former teacher so being a TA has come very naturally. I worked 15 hours a day last year for sometimes 15 days on end. Now I rarely work more than five hours a day, and never weekends. I was worried like you were at first but my grades for the first semester of my second year were just as good. I just got back into some old hobbies and it has dramatically improved the quality of my overall work because I am more relaxed.

[sciencephd]

OP, does the structure of your program create this. Mine has second years doing half the coursework of first years. In addition, I am a former teacher so being a TA has come very naturally. I worked 15 hours a day last year for sometimes 15 days on end. Now I rarely work more than five hours a day, and never weekends. I was worried like you were at first but my grades for the first semester of my second year were just as good. I just got back into some old hobbies and it has dramatically improved the quality of my overall work because I am more relaxed.

Does this include time spent on research ?