How to finish your PhD faster | 7 tips including an unspoken truth!

How can you finish a PhD faster? It's a tough time but here are 7 tips to make sure that you stay on track and you are able to finish faster.
With a little bit of discipline, you can achieve a PhD in as little as 2 - 3 years. Here's how:

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▼ ▽ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Introduction
1:31 Build the right habits
4:20 Start writing frequently
5:40 Relax for one full day a week
7:21 Build strong supervisor-student relationships
9:23 Avoid "paper bait" and what that means!
11:24 Find a mentor outside of your faculty
13:15 Communicate with colleagues

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[sashanealand]

1 start focused work on the one thing first thing in the morning
2 set aside time for writing everyday
3 relax one day a week
4 let supervisors know what you expect from them
5 avoid paper bait
6 connect with colleagues

[Jonathan-xeec]

Listen to this video at 1.5x speed and you'll finish your PhD even faster.

[ROGUE]

Spot on. It took me 5 years to finish my PhD while in full-time employment- and my job requires constant travel - besides being a husband and father. In my experience:
1. The most important thing is setting up the right habits and routine.
2. Pioritize your physical and mental health (gym, yoga etc) and sleep. Some of my best ideas came to me in my dreams - weird as it sounds.
3. Take some time off. There were times I couldn't put a sentence together, no matter how much I tried...then times when the right words would literally flow from my fingers! So I took time off when I was brain-dead, and worked hard when I was in a purple patch.
4. Talk to other experts and colleagues about your PhD work and approach - it helps to identify your blind spots, generate alternative approaches and also to test whether your topic is clear enough.

[abbigalebrown]

First week of PhD and already feel overwhelmed. Love these tips. Going to try my best. Thanks for you help.

[emilyrawling]

I am completing a PhD with a Studentship and I am expected to finish it in 3 years. I am really enjoying watching your videos. For me the ‘Imposter Syndrome’ is my main barrier. I completed my Masters in a year whilst working full-time in a stressful/demanding role. I am in the mindset…….I must start work immediately and I am seeing my research as my job. I think I may limit my social media access to evenings as suggested. XXX

[madeincosmos]

The 'Paper bait' tip is so true. I helped so many people in their work and didn't even get any authorship.

[benwarnes]

Great work man! I’m starting my PhD in right around two weeks. I will take these tips and put them to use. Much love from Canada!

[farhanazakir]

I am 1 month into my PhD, and these tips were really helpful. Thank you. Especially, the tip about paper baiting and taking a break. Not lot of people I talked to told me this.

[abhishekghosh]

The most important reason, according to me, is the course work requirements during a phd .There are certain US universities and even IIT Kanpur and IISC Bangalore in India, where course work is very rigorous, as one has to credit (not audit) a number of abvanced courses in their first year .After obtaining a decent cgpa, u are allowed to take your comprehensive exams and then comes your research.l believe that under these circumstances completing in 3years is a tough job altogether. That is the reason the average time is 5 years in these places.

[gilgagig]

Thanks for your videos! Also doing a PhD in Australia as an international student (French). Really like the way you bring PhD-related topics :)

[elisangelasouza]

Andy, good morning! I am a researcher from Brazil, I´ve just entered in a process of "starting" my PHD studies. Here the process is different, we can start just studying some core subjects. All your tips are great, I am preparing myself to really start my PHD. Great videos! Thanks for sharing!

[vanessaphd]

This is helpful! Can you make a video talking more about finding and having a mentor? How to ask? Qualities? Etc... thanks!

[TheVratilo]

Good content Andy. Maybe topic for part time PhDs who work in industry (non related with scientific subject), tips and trick, potential benefits from PhD in future etc. how to structure your day ?

[tadessehunegnaw]

You present very intriguing tips. I need a lot of motivation since PhD is hard. That is why some successfully do it. I have experienced killing my time through unnecessary jargon tasks such as lots of time on face book and other social medias. After much time elapsed, I wake up and start to insult me, see me as a man that can do nothing. I have struggling to start my proposal but could not concentrate or easily distracted. I could not develop a discipline. I have planned to wake up from bed at 5:00 Am. I made it for a few days but come back to the previous habit. I need this motivation to develop into strict habits. Thank you very much for your important tips.

[bhargavatejasallapalli]

I wish I could this channel sooner. I have wasted an whole year (2020). Hope 2021 is productive and I catch up.

[hezronottey]

Hi I'm so grateful to you for sharing these tips. Thank you.
I start my PhD in a couple weeks (September).

[meharihabtemariam]

I heard extremely intelligent people are so funny in every way of their way, and you proved that for me. Whenever I start to hear you, I always imagine how funny classes could had been if you were an academician.

[dominosia]

Started my PhD recently and will definitely keep this in mind 😊

[Change_O]

My previous flat mate did a PhD in three years in a science subject in the UK. He lived on pasta mainly and treated the PhD like a 9 to 5 Monday to Friday job and was at the uni during those days and times.

[truthspeaksgroup]

Thank you. I am doing all of these. I am doing chapter one now