How to be productive during your PhD

Stop procrastinating

For a lot of PhD students it is a challenge to keep their productivity up.

Here are some quick tips

- Use the pomodoro technique: work for 25 minutes on a task and then stop.

- Set strict deadlines

- Talk with others about your goals

- Set aside some fun work when your attention level is dropping. Determine what gives you energy and do that more often.

- Take long walks and plan breaks

- Use tools like http://macfreedom.com/, and https://www.rescuetime.com/ to avoid distractions.

- Collaborate with other researchers.

- Take a day off. When things don’t work at all, just stop and go outside.

- Find the best place to work: is it at home or at the office?

- Experiment with different approaches (for example reading on pc, tablet or e-reader).

- Evaluate if you are focused. If not, do something else.

- Outsource the boring tasks. Data entry? Go to odesk.com or similar sites and outsource that work.

- Read the four hour workweek or blogs about getting things done.

- Know the Pareto law: 20% of your efforts will yield 80% of the results.

Hope this helps!