Daily Work Habits For PhD Students and Researchers

Reduce the friction by developing regular habits to help you stay on top of everything.

When you are looking to develop healthy habits around your PhD, it pays to think about how you will go about them on a daily level. All those little good daily habits build up into something greater. Although you may not succeed in achieving everything every day, keeping a consistent routine builds momentum in the longer run.

If you want to learn a thing or two about habit development, I would highly recommend reading Atomic Habits by James Clear*. It changed how I see habits and how they relate to the bigger picture of life!

What follows is a collection of habits that I try to build into my PhD day.

Do at least one part of the writing progress

The writing process is made up of 6 parts (which I have written about previously here). Try to do at least one of these parts each day. This way the task of ‘writing’ will not seem so daunting at the end. Try to take notes as you go because future you will thank you if current you takes a little more time and effort in documenting their thoughts, processes and systems. Believe me when I say future you will not understand everything you have written! So make it as easy as possible for them.

I try to do some creative writing every day. It helps get my brain in order and comprehend the world around me. If you have a neurodivergent brain, you may find having some kind of ‘brain digestion process’ useful too.

Read something everyday

It doesn’t have to be a research paper or anything linked to your research, but reading material written by other authors is incredibly valuable for self-awareness, understanding new points of view and gaining inspiration for ways of writing and learning. In fact reading has so many benefits it’s almost impossible to list them all here.

I try to have a wide variety of reading materials available to me so that no matter where I am, there is something I can quickly dip into in a quiet moment. This includes having books of various genres around the house, a few apps on my phone including some kind of news app, Medium, Kindle Books, Libby library app and of course there’s always Google.

Why not subscribe to my newsletter to have a weekly insight into the research world? Every Monday I send out an interpretative summary of the previous week. Learn about how we can all be better researchers usually through my failings, not yours! Sign up to 🧠 Brain STREAM here.

Always carry something to record your thoughts

This point was going to be integrated in the point above, but I think it needed its own section. I find it essential to get into the habit of always having something to write in and/or record with. Inspiration always strikes at the most inconvenient of moments. The quicker I can get it recorded the quicker my brain can relax and forget about it for the time being. Collate all these together in one place and make a point to sort through them regularly.

If you don’t record your thoughts somewhere, chances are you’ll forget it.

… Just like I forgot I wrote another more epic version of this post already and published it over on my website Knowledge Ecology …

Share something

Sharing your knowledge and expertise regularly is a great habit to build. From sharing a technique with another member of your research team, posting an update on Twitter, to publishing papers and speaking (or preparing to speak) at public engagement events. There’s plenty of ways to get yourself out there.

Talk to your peers and others out with your normal circle

This is one that I am not very good and need to improve on, but regularly talking to people about your research helps get your name out there and improve your networking skills. Talking to others in your close research sphere can highlight new ideas, help solve problems and generally boost morale within your work place. Making efforts to network further afield on a regular basis will help networking feel less dauting when it comes to conference time.

Don’t be afraid of networking because most of it is actually done out with the event, as I discussed in 🧠 Brain STREAM 17.

Keep a log, journal or record of tasks

There is nothing like seeing how far you have come than looking back at an old diary. Because the day-to-day progress of a PhD might seem infinitesimal, taking a further step back to see just how much you have achieved in the previous month or year can really help boost your confidence that you have made positive steps forward. I like to think of this more as a ‘to done’ list. It’s a nice friendly way of writing down the things you have achieved rather than looking at the mountain of things you need to do. As one step further you can write reflections of the things you have done or experienced and discuss how you would do things differently next time.

Check and respond to emails once or twice a day, and tidy them up!

I tend to either be really on top of emails, replying straight away or I avoid them completely and only respond to the absolutely urgent ones. It’s not a very effective way of dealing with emails so I’ve been making a concerted effort to keep my inbox at zero. This avoids the ‘dropping off the first page or two problem’.

A good habit which I am trying to instil upon myself is having one or two set times a day when I deal with emails and consequently immediately remove them from my inbox.

I now use a simple system of folders according to the task required in the email e.g. read, listen, to do, urgent to dos etc. I tried a Mendelow method for a while where I categorised by the influence of the sender and the urgency. However this didn’t work for me so do try a few things out until you see what works.

Constantly horizon scan

I always try to keep one eye on the horizon. This could be for events, funding or just simply where I want to end up after my PhD. It’s a way of not losing sight of the bigger picture and getting bogged down in the day to day grind of a PhD.

Knowledge and time management

It’s very easy for our notes and to dos to become unmanageable. Ideally prioritise some time each day to stay on top of your time e.g. through scheduling or other project management methods, and your knowledge e.g. sorting and making your notes future proof. Doing both these will pay you dividends down the line.

Have a must do list and prioritise a maximum of three items

Rather than focusing on the to do list as long as your arm — we all have those — have a must do list instead. These are the non-negotiables which must be done or else you will not progress in your work. These may be specific experimental steps, working towards the date of a presentation or writing the methods section of a chapter. Identify what the minimum tasks are and start with these.

I would also recommend forming personal habits too, like ensuring you get exercise, eating healthily and getting fresh air on a regular basis. But that’s a whole other post. Until next time!

Stay research curious. X

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