After all, many PhD students devote half a decade or more of their life to their studies. They carefully cultivate their academic CV, present at conferences like crazy, and assemble an impressive personal library of books and articles.
Full stop. Do you have to finish a bottle of whiskey or a pack of cigarettes just because you opened it? A good rule of thumb when contemplating quitting is to think of your PhD as an end in itself, never as a means to an end. Academic jobs and postdocs are the only things that explicitly require a PhD, and those have never been more scarce. So, if you genuinely enjoy your academic work, keep it up! There are plenty of ways to learn beyond the academy.
This might not be the right way for you. This one is a solid maybe. Travel restrictions are still in force and accessing archival materials is no simple matter. But even not counting the pandemic, research trajectories hit walls all the time. And sometimes it takes years of research and study in your chosen field to reach the point where you can recognize this fact. If so, what can you do about it? Sometimes reading books on another topic altogether can help.
Also, other activities — teaching, volunteering, going for a walk, spending time with friends — generally can help with research-related stress, and this in turn can help you re-focus. It may even be that moving on to a different chapter or working on a different part of your research is enough to help.
Maybe approaching your topic from a new angle is all you need. Talk to your supervisors about this. An issue that can come up, however, as I mentioned above, is that some doctoral students worry that they would be ashamed if they scrap their thesis and their studies, and that others will be disappointed in them. Thanks for such a thoughtful and straight talking post BJ. What do you think? Is your PhD making you miserable, or does the misery have another cause? Is it time to quit or do you think you should soldier on?
Have you given up on study before and then started again? Love to hear about your experiences in the comments. Why do people quit the PhD? Four more reasons people quit the PhD. You can download a worksheet PDF to help you. Often, people either start or quit a PhD to get away from something, only to find that the problem remains.
You could also come up with 10 reasons why you want to finish your PhD. Even if you identify 4 or 5, that could be enough to rekindle your motivation. Take a hard look at those reasons, though: how many of them are extrinsic versus intrinsic? You need at least a few intrinsic motivations or personal rewards to propel you. For people like Toby Hendy, quitting a PhD frees them up to pursue other activities that have become more meaningful to them.
And if the pressure of your PhD is making you ill, then stopping is appropriate self-care. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Found out more in our privacy policy. Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
More information about our Cookie Policy. Talk to someone impartial Your supervisor possibly has a vested interest in you completing your PhD, so it might be hard for them to see it from your point of view. Write about it Journaling is an effective technique for exploring our thoughts and gaining insights.
0コメント