So, I'm embarking on a part-time PhD. I'm doing it part-time primarily because I have a very well paying job that I enjoy and don't want to give up. Those are tough to come by in this day and age after-all.
Consequently, I'm anticipating my PhD taking about 6 years for lit review and experimental work and then another two to write up my final thesis. I'm 23, that time-scale is equivalent to roughly 1/4 of my life lived so far and thus I've never really had to plan and organise anything of this scale before.
As such, I'm concerned about making sure I schedule this well, for two reasons:
- I have a propensity to overwork, I've suffered from chronic burnout in the past and I don't want to go there again. So I need to pace myself.
- On the exact opposite foot, I need to make sure I don't end up sticking it so far on the backburner that I never get it finished.
My initial thoughts to manage this are to set myself 6 monthly goals and try to stick to these. However, I am concerned that this may make adapting to changes harder or I might make the goals too large / too small and run into the same problems as above.
I'd appreciate any advice anyone has that's pertinent to this particular question. Obviously scheduling for a full-time PhD is a challenge in itself, but I'm trying to fit a part-time PhD around a full time job, so I need to get this aspect right if I'm going to make it work.
If it's of relevance, my PhD is in the areas of satellite and opto-electronic engineering.
