You may think academia is an environment where output is measured by goals, but that's variable. The first lab I was in, a student finished all his courses and his thesis in 3 years. I think the adviser was nearing retirement and didn't care one way or another. Then I went to my second lab, and I saw the guy who spent the most effort of us all held back. After five years (which is the standard in the department for graduating), he had a few papers, one of them in Science magazine, and his two advisers said "you're not ready, you need to do one more project", so he had to stay a couple more years. I think they just kept him for labor. Of course, after that, he was done with academia and went to industry.
I am lucky enough to be in an environment where output is encouraged. Plus, Norwegian PhDs are contracts of 3 or 4 years with very strict labor guidelines. i feel pretty safe that my department will not be able to keep me for my labor unless they give me a postdoc or technician position after my first contract. What I produce these next 3.5 years is very much up to me.
I know the above can come off as vapid corporate/career/manager speak, but if we're talking about academia, you know you're sacrificing time and money in order to get to do something you actually want to do all day. If not, you shouldn't be there. I know when I'm working on something I'm truly interested in and free to work on my own terms, I can easily go 20+ hours straight and make huge amounts of progress. If I'm forcing myself to do something dreadful and pointless, every bit of progress can be a fight some days. If you're in academia, you need to keep yourself in the former category as much as possible. As far as small specific details go, I think that stuff is fairly individual and easy if you just constantly think about optimizing everything you do. One little tweak here or there over time really adds up.
When it comes to LaTeX, Lyx is a huge help. Also, I made an AutoHotkey script that turns CapsLock into a Shift type modifier to autogenerate greek letters, commonly used symbols, features, etc. This combination makes LaTeX faster than handwriting half the time for me.
Thank you for that. I had never heard about Lyx and will decidedly check it out.
I am in the strange situation where I have a lot of motivation, but also feel largely overwhelmed. I always said that I didn't want to do a PhD, because most of them were industry-focused (and funded), but this one isn't. Our funding is independent and I pretty much have the freedom to pursue environmental pollution to my heart's desire.
That is also what terrifies me though. I have all this freedom and all this support. I have to narrow my focus, or I'll get lost. If that makes sense. If these next years are all I get (you never know), I have to spend them well, which is somewhat paralysing.
Several items here that helped me go from 60 hrs to 45 ish:
1. Know your priorities. What do you need to stop doing or take off your plate?
2. Check email/ chat 2-3 times a day and have it CLOSED the rest of the time (if you're a help desk person or similar I know this is not realistic)
3. Have a shut down routine at the end of the day. When it's done, it's done.
4. Block off a certain amount of time to get shit done (I block off 3 hours a day M,W,TH and 3.5 hrs on Tues/Fri). I do not accept meetings except in the direst of circumstances during that time
5. Set aside 15-30 min of planning per week (I do mine on Friday afternoon- plan for the next week)
6. Take lunch- I can't tell you what a difference it's been to actually take a break during the day- makes me work better in the afternoons
7. Don't give out your personal cell number unless absolutely required by some policy or job description. Only my boss has my cell # and I've told him that I don't check my phone after 6.
Source books for tips:
1. Essentialism
2. Deep Work
3. Peak
This is a great list, thank you. I had not thought about just allocating a "meeting" with myself in the calendar and showing up as busy. I think that is a great idea.
I must admit, I am not good at taking proper lunches. I am quite the introvert, and tend to just stay at my desk and read while I eat. I suppose I should get better at that, but approaching people takes so much initiative.
Will check out the resources, thank you. And I'll give all the items on the list a try. Recently, I've had to realise that the forum has been a little too enticing, so I installed StayFocused on my browser. Even just as an incentive, it has been very efficient.