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A Day In The Life Of A PhD Student

A Day In The Life Of A PhD Student

Are you ready to start your PhD? If yes, then you must have already chosen your field of study and decided your research topics.

But have you thought about how your day will look? What will be your learning style? Will your routine be fixed for your entire journey of PhD?

Your life as a PhD graduate will be completely different from that of any other undergrad or postgrad students. 

In PhD, you have enough freedom to choose your subject and research topic, and the rest of your work will be based entirely on your research. So, you are free to make your schedule and follow it. So, let’s have a look at how your day as a PhD student will be.

Day in the life of a PhD student

Your daily routine revolves around your project. While pursuing your PhD, you meet new people, visit new places, and create new experiences.

If you start your PhD along with your job, then the daily schedule will include both your job responsibilities and PhD research studies.

There are no fixed classes so you can make your schedule. You can make your fixed timetable and manage your time and complete the thesis within the given time.

If you do your PhD in Arts and Humanities, then most of your time is spent reading novels and texts. Whereas in STEM PhDs, you will spend most of your time experimenting in the laboratory. 

If we speak about your daily schedule, then there are three main activities for a doctoral researcher — reading, data collection, and writing.

Reading and writing take most of your time during your entire PhD journey, whereas data collection takes a lot of time in the early phase of the PhD and very little time in the latter phase. 

What Does Your PhD Study Involve?

PhD is a long journey that requires patience and time management. So you must have a set routine for your research, studies, and other work. 

A PhD includes a lot of reading, research, and writing. To complete your thesis, you have to keep reading and digging for information related to your research topic.

After researching and collecting the information, you have to take out the relevant topics and write them down in the thesis. 

You have to think deeply about your research topic and create your chapters of the thesis. This is where reading helps to write the information faster.

PhD study also involves industrial visits and knowledge trips. Sometimes you go with your professors or your classmates to explore more about your research subject.

Apart from this, there are university or industrial events and conferences that you have to attend as a part of your research activity. You get a lot of knowledge that you can use to improvise your research paper.

Apply for a PhD at IITs

Apply for a PhD at IITs — the best technology institutions of India


Learning Style and Habits

Learning style and habits are important in setting your daily routine. You have complete freedom to set your schedule as there are no restrictions and a fixed time table for PhD routine. 

For some people, morning time is best for them to read and write their thesis while some like to study at night. You can also decide on a fixed time of three to four hours to work on your research paper or can divide different time slots for different tasks.

The number of hours will depend on whether you are doing a full-time PhD or part-time. In full time, you need to spend more hours on your research and study.

Follow a creative and innovative style of learning to improve your thesis and keep updating your research paper, especially if there is a change in the real data.

Follow industry leaders on media or attend seminars to learn about other research papers and rectify the mistakes in your thesis, if any.  

As you move ahead in your PhD journey, you will also be exploring the career path to choose just after completing your PhD. 

Social Life Is Still A Part of Your PhD Life

When you spend most of your time on studies or writing your research paper, but you need a social life to consider work-life balance.

Meet your friends, follow your hobby, and do what you love so that you get some time for yourself.

You also can’t miss sleep! Give yourself a proper rest so that you can get a fresh start every day.

How Would You Like To Spend Your PhD Journey?

It can be a challenging journey to complete your PhD as it requires hard work and dedication.

Try to achieve the daily targets of your schedule and stick to your timetable. It will help you to complete your thesis on time.

All that struggle will be worth once you have your PhD degree and become an expert in the area of your study. 

Have you applied for a PhD at IITs — the best technology institutions of India yet? Explore the Doctoral Programme in India for ASEAN and complete your application.

Apply for a PhD at IITs

Apply for a PhD at IITs — the best technology institutions of India

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