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FlimsyHuckleberry OP t1_j5ks6xs wrote

Edit: PhD was in computer science.

All data collected and graphs created in Google Sheets. Graphic created in Adobe Illustrator. Dates are in day/month/year format.

I spent three and a half years working on my PhD and decided before I started that I wanted to track my time. I'm glad I did because about four months in, I was very seriously considering quitting, and the thought of throwing away four months of data is partly what kept me in it.

I categorized my time by:

  • Writing: self-explanatory I hope; writing, rereading my work, and revising.
  • Administration and Troubleshooting: reading and writing emails, filling out university forms and whatnot, and troubleshooting involving downloading and installing software.
  • Teaching Prep and Grading: preparing for lessons and grading student work; also includes time spent uploading grades to the online portal.
  • Teaching: time spent teaching and did not include time spent talking to students after class.
  • Data Prep, Planning, Analyzing, and Experimenting: planning data format before collection, collecting data, cleaning data, planning experiments, executing experiments, and analyzing experiment data.
  • Coding: writing, deleting, and troubleshooting code.
  • Research: reading and taking notes from journal articles and other sources.
  • Meeting: meetings with supervisors, the wider department, and other colleagues.
  • Learning: doing formal online courses as well as informal tutorials; there was one in-person class I took that was counted here (it was only two hours I believe).
  • Presentation Prep: creating slides and practicing
  • Conference: any time spent at a conference including attending presentations and networking. 
  • Presentation: formal presentations; includes time spent answering questions afterward.

Note that my contract stated that I was to work from the office for 35 hours a week. Covid changed that and allowed me to work from home.

Some interesting things I found from visualizing everything:

  • The vast majority of my time was spent writing
  • I was most productive in terms of my own research when working from home as opposed to working from the office
  • Time spent preparing for lessons and grading did not decrease as much as it should have each year, although this is partly because I was assigned to different classes each year
  • Wednesday was my most productive weekday while I spent more time working on Tuesdays
  • When I did do work on the weekends, it was more likely to be administration work, teaching prep or grading, or presentation prep.
  • I did not spend anywhere near the amount of time in meetings as it felt at the time.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this project. I don't know how indicative my experience was of a typical PhD experience, but it may be helpful for those considering a PhD in Europe.

If you've done something similar during your own studies, please link it as I'd be super curious to see it for comparison's sake.

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MoanALissa32 t1_j5kttyb wrote

Just because you spend more time on one category, were you as productive? I’m just inserting in office vs wfh. Sometimes collaboration between two people is more productive in person as opposed to over the internet. Just wondering.

And, did you keep a log in the computer or was it handwritten and then entered later?

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FlimsyHuckleberry OP t1_j5kvnnx wrote

I kept a log in almost real-time (e.g., after a meeting or a stint of work, I'd enter in the time).

I agree that my conclusion that working from home was more productive is not as strong as it should be. Because I was timing myself, I tried as hard as I could to stay focused while the stopwatch was running. So aside from meetings and teaching, I don't think my productivity varied minute by minute between WFH and office.

If I had a better way of measuring productivity, then I'd use that. For what it's worth, most of my writing time was at home.

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MoanALissa32 t1_j5l06it wrote

I just feel like home can be distracting and the office can provide more opportunities for collaboration. It sounds like your work was more individual and independent as opposed to collaborative and codependent.

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Longestnamebeaver t1_j5kyy04 wrote

This is very aesthetically pleasing. Good job! The tool you picked for visualization was interesting though. Given that your PhD was in computer science, I assumed you would use either R or Python. And just for ease of use, power BI or tableau would be the popular choices to use as well. I’m curious to know why you picked adobe illustrator. I haven’t used it before but I assume it’s a design tool like photoshop? Is it better than BI products like tableau in some way..? And did you use it a lot in your PHD program (which again would be a big surprise for me if you did)

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FlimsyHuckleberry OP t1_j5l05rk wrote

Good question. So to be honest, the answer is because for the last few years, it feels like I've done nothing but code (clearly that is not the case). In another life, I took some graphic design classes and fell in love with it. This wasn't a professional project. I wasn't extrapolating any great insights. It was purely for me. And I wanted to go back to messing around with graphic design tools.

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Accomplished_Trip_ t1_j5mxee0 wrote

How long did comps prep take you?

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FlimsyHuckleberry OP t1_j5nqq60 wrote

I did not have comps. I basically started on the project right away. At my university, you had to take 100 hours of training, but it didn't have to be formal classes (Udemy courses counted, for example).

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