How many hours/day do you (deep) work as a PhD student?
less than 2
between 2 and 4
between 4 and 6
more than 6
Btw, what I mean by "deep work" - following Cal Newport - is focused work on a demanding task. So, for instance, I don't count emails, taking notes (transcribing highlighted quotes from a book to my word doc), doing my references, etc. as deep work, but I do count close reading, writing, planning a writing project, etc.
I see a lot of (full time) PhD students (not on here) saying they are at their desk 8+ hours and I feel like we often forget that we can be sitting at a desk and not be doing anything productive or demanding. Productivity in a PhD is not about how long you work for but how well you work. I max at about 4/5 hours on weekdays (some days I can only do 2 hours of deep work!) and I'm still ahead of schedule. So, my goal with this poll is to help adjust people's expectations about their own work pace, because intellectual work is exhausting and a brain is not supposed to be focused for hours on end.
Final results!
