Managing your time

As the manager of your graduate research project, you will need to deliver high quality work to expected timeframes and deadlines with the resources you have access to. It’s equally important to balance time spent on work and time dedicated to other aspects of your life to maintain your wellbeing and productivity in the long run.

Time management tools

Graduate researchers often use a range of stimulators to keep themselves motivated in their work, including deadlines, rewards, supervision meetings, conferences and peer pressure. Although these are great starting points, establishing a system for tracking tasks and progress in the long, medium and short term involves using planners, timetables and to-do lists.

You may wish to review these tasks periodically to ensure they are still relevant to your project.

Planners

A long-term planner can give you a broad and comprehensive timeline of your candidature.

Explore the PhD Planner below by clicking on the hotspots for more information.

Visit the PhD Planner site to download a template.

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PhD Planner

Timetables

You can further break down the activities you’ve planned for each week using a weekly calendar.

A weekly timetable or calendar allows you to:

  • Follow a routine by scheduling time for writing tasks every week.
    This is a common habit of successful writers. If you set up a productive writing routine early on in your candidature, it helps you feel in control of your project and boosts your confidence as a writer.
  • Set deadlines for writing tasks to avoid procrastination.
    Tasks with deadlines usually get done before tasks with no deadlines (Murray, 2017).

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To-do lists

To-do lists are handy for tasks you need to tick off during the day. They can be used in conjunction with a long-term planner and a medium-term calendar.

For example, you can itemise the task ‘Writing Literature Review Topic 1’ into a checklist such as:

  • Gather at least 7 recent references on Topic 1
  • Review writing plan
  • Ask Marie about Smith’s (2022) argument
  • Write at least 500 words
  • Check writing for main ideas.

Now, look at your own planner, timetable or to-do list. Are the tasks you have on them clear to you? If any of these are unclear, how could you replace them with SMART goals?

Maintaining your wellbeing and focus

Keeping yourself in good physical and mental health is important to a successful candidature. However, when you are working under immense pressure, it is easy to compromise your wellbeing. Research has shown that sufficient personal care is a major difference between PhD candidates who cope well and those who don’t (Barry et al., 2018; Murray, 2017).

To sustain your motivation and energy and stay on track during the multiple years of a graduate research project, take steps to develop a healthy routine that prioritises wellbeing alongside your work:

  • Allow and consistently schedule time for self-care, rest, relaxation and recreation, ideally away from electronic devices
  • Take good care of yourself in the basics: sleep, nutrition, exercise
  • Balance your project with the other roles in your life: you are more than your thesis
  • Share your experiences regularly with other graduate researchers or a peer support group.

Give yourself permission to have a life outside your work. Time spent away from your desk is just as valuable and necessary as time spent at it, and a sufficient self-care routine can increase your mental and emotional resilience and aid your productivity in the long term.

Seeking support

Even with careful management, there might be times in your candidature when you may need more support than usual. Counselling and Psychological Services, which are free to UoM students, offer great wellbeing advice and resources to help you not only survive but thrive through your studies.

Use the side menu to go the next section: Demonstrating project management skills, where we look at how you can translate your research skills into employability skills.