I read in The Guardian this weekend that by limiting the hours you work you actually increase your output. Very encouraging argument I think especially when I am constantly feeling guilty about not putting in enough time per day. Well the article also talks about the importance of effort (the 10 000-hour rule i.e. the amount of practice required to become an expert at anything) which offset common sense ideas associated with genius. No I'm not a genius because I'm doing an PhD - I just put a lot of effort into trying to understand the concepts and theories I'm working with.
But the juicy bit that I'm trying to get to is that experts also tend to spend a lot of time not practising, maximising their working time into reasonable stretches, sandwiched with breaks and healthy sleeping patterns. "We need to shift the perspective from seeing life not as a marathon, but as a series of sprints. We are most productive when we move between periods of high focus and intermittent rest".
What I get from the article is that it seems we need to respect our bodily rhythms and mental cycles - put another way - our 'off' periods are essential to our 'on' periods. I had a conversation once with my previous housemate 'H'; she came to the conclusion that 5-6 hours per day of the kind of academic work required for the PhD is probably a maximum threshold, another colleague of mine spoke of the 'consistent 2-hours-per-day rule' guaranteed to ensure the completion of a PhD in 3 years. I think there is a lot of method in this seeming madness. Find your body and brain's rhythm, accept it, get comfortable with it and therein lies the path to balance and success.
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