How to get through your PhD without going insane! Eye opening truths

Here are the eye-opening truths about how to get through your Ph.D. without going insane! A Ph.D. is a super turbulent time and the outcomes will only be as good as your mental health is! Here are my top tips for staying sane:

0:00 Introduction
0:27 Why this is important
2:18 Focus on one task at a time
4:14 Set aside time for deep work
5:57 Avoid the politics as best you can
8:09 Create a manageable routine - this is a marathon, not a sprint!
9:55 Learn to cope with rejections - 2 awsome approaches
13:35 Create balance with non-academic activities and friends

Let me know what you would add to this list:

[foodiemin]

I am currently going through that phase for a month now. this helps! Thank you!

[michaelsun]

These videos are definitely helping me stay sane during my thesis writing lol

[benwarnes]

Thanks for the video Andy!
I sometimes struggle to see the most important task that needs to be done and I will take you advice. I also enjoyed your point about balance. Thankfully, my supervisor is exceptional and I think the balance of having a day a week to focus on other things will be integral to a successful PhD in Chemistry.

[meemsultana]

Thanks Andy 🤠 you are really helpful and right on time. God Bless you ❤️💝🥰

[Yaqeen_ehsan]

Love this! Keep it up! Your videos really help us out a lot as PhD students! So much motivation in them 🙏🏻

[carlalmejiasrivera]

A huge thanks for this video and this channel. Listening to your experiences have helped me so much. THANKS, THANKS, THANKS!

[blancavega]

Hi, I just found your channel, almost at the very end of my PhD and I wish I had before. Very good advice, since now I am trying to wrap up results and finish, and I feel an incredible ammount of frustration every time an experiment does not work and I have to rethink the whole strategy again. I hate it every single time it happens and I feel incredibly miserable.

[CesarrrScreamer]

i love your videos, so good to hear other phds talking about the struggle and helping each other through it.

[PhDCoffeeTime]

The timer method is called Pomodoro timer! I actually hated it because I don't like to be stopped at an exact time point of work, and as an introvert, the alarm was like a punishment more than a "reward".

Personally, I enjoy a simple timer Toggl, it's free and just a timer button. It's been helpful for the last 4 years, and I swear every time when I write the first 10 min I get impatient. But thanks to the timer, I realize I could push a little more to finish my daily 30 min goal. I had a review paper done after two years of spending an extra 30 min in the morning to write.

Big congrats for 1K sub! The PhD community needs to hang out more on YouTube!

[wilsonzhang]

Thank you so much for your video, Andy !!! It is really helpful and practical, I always feel there are so many things in my work list which makes my work and study very confused and tired! I need to focus on the most important thing!

[silverhetch]

soooo glad I found this channek, gems in every video :D

[lovelyxtyxty]

Thank you very much for this insightful video. It really lift my spirit up. I've been having a tough time with both my supervisors because I feel they are both confusing me and competing with each other. I feel that I am not their dream student because I was expected to know and do everything at once. I've not been enjoying having a meeting with them because nothing I do is good enough and I was so demotivated in our last meeting. This will help me go through this week.

[ebrensi]

I went insane. Looking back on it i can say that. I barely crawled out of my maths PhD program with a M.S.

[saragomez]

Thank you so much for showing what PhD students go through. I am in my last months of the journey, finshing the writing of the thesis and my first ever paper. I have had, and still have, a lot of anxiety related problems. Any help for future students is good!

[dr.bangura]

Your guides are useful- I am in the centre of it (the PhD marathon) to overcome it.

[Andrade]

Hey Andy, thanks for the video, it was super useful. I specially liked the coping mechanisms to dealing with failure, definitely helps with the imposter syndrome and it is not talked enough in academia. Video idea: how to find a good supervisor/department to do your PhD in? I am still a MSc student and I worry about the transition from masters to phd. Keep up the great work :)

[jray]

great video --- especially the reminder about not getting involved in the politics! so true

[StyleGoalsHarmony_]

Thank you so much for this video, I had a tough time these past few weeks.

[digitydog]

Be aware that universities offer lots of time wasters. You have to remain focussed on your thesis - as this document is important to only one person - YOU!

[pseudomugilidae]

As a researcher who has ADHD, Pomodoro method is very useful!