PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours
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PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours
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Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours
#2Fewer hours. And yeah, I agree -- that's how I got mine done.
Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours
#3This is stupid advice with sole purpose of keeping students engaged in publishing incremental research. So that no one questions vanity metrics like H-index and the ridiculous condition of academic research.
As a PhD student the real secret strategy is to ignore academia, work only on very high impact projects ( with potential of becoming startups or revolutionizing the field), intern with production teams (in core areas) at great companies. And enjoy lack of 9 to 5 scheduled life.
The deep work in less hours is meaningless if the work itself is merely publishing "Minimum Publishable Units" couple of times every year. It's just fast track to mediocrity.
Though I agree that not all environments are hospitable to risk taking. But then dropping out is a better deal.
Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours
#4Seems to me like this applies nicely to more than just PhD's; it works well with programming as well.
At least when you can fit that work in between all the meetings you are scheduled for in a day.
Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours
#5hm, time to eliminate the hacker news bookmark...
Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours
#6[deleted]
Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours
#7Fewer hours. And yeah, I agree -- that's how I got mine done.
PhD in Grammar Nazism?
Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours
#8Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours
#9I think it's incredibly hard to give general advice about the Ph.D. process. Even within the same discipline, the work varies greatly from sub-discipline to sub-discipline, and from advisor to advisor.
Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours
#10Just try this for a week...
1. Remove Facebook/Instagram/Twitter from your phone. Using parental controls disable Safari. Remove your email too if you can.
2. Use SelfControl to block these websites for 24 hours at a time. So you only get to check these things once every day. After you've checked it, quickly block again. If 24 is too much, start with 8 or so. But always block again right after checking!
SelfControl: https://selfcontrolapp.com/
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Few more tips:
- Pomodoro technique is nice (I built FocusList - focuslist.co) but in my experience it doesn't help if you keep thinking about how many more minutes you have to stay focused. Instead you have to forget about all that and just think about your task.
- Keep a journal of sticking with this habit. I always print current month, put it up in my kitchen and I cross off days. I'm currently doing that for my diet, but it works for any habit you wanna build.
- If you can't motivate yourself, reading a book like "Deep Work" will give you an initial push.
- Use headphones. This is individual, but speaking for me, they just gave me this feeling of immersion and it just helps me get into the zone. Get a nice pair with noise cancelling, or with those foam tips (if it's comfy), it will make you feel like you entered a different world.