Georgia Wetherall is a first year researcher in the School of Media, Arts and Humanities. Here, she shares some insight into how she learned to prioritise her mental health and learn when to say she needs a rest.
As PhD researchers, we often feel like we have to spend every day chained to our desk, slaving away over our books and computers, staring longingly at the outside wishing we could enjoy the same free time as everyone else. But we can. It can be hard to break that pattern, easy to forget that we are also free to use our time as we choose. One of the most wonderful things about a PhD is that we can dictate how we spend our time, how much time we dedicate to research and how much time we need to relax our brains. It’s easy to think PhDs must function like a full-time job – eight hours work each day, five days a week – and certainly there are times when that might be necessary. And then there are times when we can slow it down, take more rests, breathe a little. Only you can decide when you need those breaks.
It’s ingrained into us (certainly into me, at least) that our status as researchers is tied to how much work we do, how many words we put down on a page, how many papers we publish, or how many interviews we can conduct. We feel guilty for taking breaks, for one hour working days, for taking the weekend off. But they’re essential for your brain to function properly; the brain is a muscle after all. Only you can know what your mind and your body needs, and if that is to take a whole week away from your research then you should do that. In fact, as I write this, I’m about to take seven days off – I’m leaving my laptop at home and going away with my boyfriend, I’m not taking any books other than ones I want to read for pleasure, and I’m logging out of my emails. It’s a terrifying thought, the knowledge that come Monday I won’t be able to access my research for seven whole days, but I’m so excited too. I’m excited to see family and friends, to sing songs in the car with my boyfriend, to sleep in late and go for walks without the nagging thought that I should be doing something. And I know I’ll feel so much more motivated to work when I get back because I’ve taken that vital time to relax my brain.
So, how do you know that you need a break? Only you can decide that. For me, I know I need to step away when the words just stop coming, when I can’t finish a sentence without thinking of everything else that I wish I was doing, when all I can think about is making dinner, or watching TV, or sleeping. Or it’s when my eyes start hurting, when I start to get a headache and I can’t sit still. Whether it’s a physical indication or a mental one, something will tell you that you need to take a break, step away for a little while and do something else.
I call it ‘tired brain’ – it’s when I’ve been working so hard that even the most basic task like putting the kettle on requires way more concentration than it should, or when turning the TV over reduces me to tears because I just can’t remember how the remote works. ‘I have tired brain,’ I say to my boyfriend, and he knows I need time to decompress, to relax my brain and be something other than a PhD researcher for the evening. The brain, after all, is a muscle, and, like any other muscle, it’s important that you give it chance to relax after straining it. Having the right people around to help you do that is crucial; whether it’s friends, family or a significant other, having someone hold you accountable to relaxing is never a bad thing, especially when you want to cut your relaxation short and get back to work. Another person can distract you from that thought pattern, too, helping you forget about what you think you’re ‘supposed’ to be doing, and forcing you to focus on the relaxation activity.
If you’re still struggling with the idea of stepping away, think about this: have you ever stepped away from your laptop to cook or shower and had a breakthrough? Or have you ever been walking to the shop and realised how to overcome a problem you’ve been having? Often, these breaks are the exact thing your brain needs to come up with solutions. As it focuses on something else, the subconscious can continue working through problems and will often lead to that ‘Eureka!’ moment that we all crave.
Sometimes people need to feel productive in order to take breaks. Another great way to get that productive kick while still resting your brain is by moving your body. Exercise is a fantastic way to destress, refocus your mind and increase your productivity. Not to mention, we spend so much time sitting down as PhD researchers, getting up and moving around for even an hour can help reduce the effects of sitting for so many hours per day. Besides, anything that can lead to that ‘Eureka!’ moment can’t be a bad thing.
There is only a certain amount of time the brain can work for. After around forty hours, the brain loses its capacity to work as effectively, though for some people it might be more or less than this. It fluctuates weekly, too. Some weeks, I’m capable of pulling fifty hours and only feeling a little tired, but sometimes ten hours work feels like I’ve been running a mental marathon. It’s up to you to decide when your mind needs a break and to take it. No one else can tell you when to stop, no one knows your mind like you do, so you have to be responsible for making sure you’re taking the necessary breaks. The best piece of advice I received was from a third year student who told me that she accomplishes more in seven hours of focused work than in thirty hours of casual work. Often, what we think of as ‘not enough’ is what your brain needs to do its best work.
It might feel obvious, but getting the right amount of sleep, and getting good sleep, is essential. PhDs are difficult, time consuming, and stress inducing. Sometimes it can feel necessary to work late, to push back sleep until you’ve finished a task or reached a goal. I’ve felt it too – I’ll go to bed when I’ve finished this chapter, I’ll go to bed when I’ve transcribed this interview, I’ll go to bed when I hit 20,000 words. It’s difficult to stop a task mid-way, far easier to just push through to the end even if it feels like dragging your feet through mud to just reach the goal, but it’s far more useful for your brain to stop mid-way through a task and pick it up again in the morning when you’re rested. Our thoughts are constricted without sleep, our creative and critical capabilities dwindle without enough rest. Taking the time to make sure we’re performing at our best is essential.
Overall, as PhD researchers, it can be very easy to put our research first and forget our personal needs, but remembering that we are human beings in need of relaxation and sleep is crucial. We should never feel guilty for taking a break, especially when our body is practically begging us for one. Breaks are often the thing that makes us work the best and produce the best work, and shouldn’t be neglected. It’s easy to feel guilty for needing time off, easy to think that the research is the thing that matters most in our lives, but setting those boundaries between work and free time will make us better researchers. Our worth is not tied to the amount of words we can write or the amount of books we can read, and taking a break is always okay, regardless of how long that break is.
Sussex Research Hive 