In the past week I've made a conscious effort to treat my job as a "normal" job. So when I leave the office I don't take anything work-related with me (well, except for this laptop.) I don't take any papers with me, I even leave my log book behind, and I don't answer any work emails at home. I'm keeping regular work hours (which for this job means 10:00-18:00, since we have so many collaborators in the USA, and an extra hour makes a big difference for meeting times.)
Since making these changes and "coming out" as someone who wants to leave the field, my productivity has increased quite substantially. Once I got to the point where I was working for my job, and not trying to make my job work for me, it got a lot easier. There's no stress in trying to give more than I need to, which means that I don't get caught up in cycles of taking work home, eating late, sleeping late, waking late, staying at the office late etc. Instead I concentrate on enjoying the job, because the day to day activities are a lot of fun. This all leaves me with more free time and more energy, which I'll put into getting more of a social life in Brussels and travel.
In the meantime someone sent me this comic from SMBC. This sums things up quite nicely. I started my PhD seven and a half years ago.
Since making these changes and "coming out" as someone who wants to leave the field, my productivity has increased quite substantially. Once I got to the point where I was working for my job, and not trying to make my job work for me, it got a lot easier. There's no stress in trying to give more than I need to, which means that I don't get caught up in cycles of taking work home, eating late, sleeping late, waking late, staying at the office late etc. Instead I concentrate on enjoying the job, because the day to day activities are a lot of fun. This all leaves me with more free time and more energy, which I'll put into getting more of a social life in Brussels and travel.
In the meantime someone sent me this comic from SMBC. This sums things up quite nicely. I started my PhD seven and a half years ago.
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