The nine-to-five PhD is an ever-elusive goal: many candidates aspire to it but few end up achieving such an impressive work–life balance. Nature’s 2025 global PhD survey found that 50% of respondents, who were self-selecting, identified a culture of long work hours at their university. This fuels dissatisfaction, and those who spent more than 60 hours a week on their PhDs were significantly more likely to report that they felt dissatisfied with their doctorates (21%) than were those who spent 30 hours or less (16%).
An analysis of more than 26,000 PhD candidates from 14 universities across the United Kingdom between 2006 and 2017, by online PhD information platform DiscoverPhDs.com, found that one in five fail to get their PhD, mostly owing to candidates leaving their programmes early. Another longitudinal study showed that time pressure was correlated with dropout rates1.
It is not just the candidates who would benefit from making PhD study more sustainable. According to a review published in 2024, PhD holders are more likely to be employed in high-skilled jobs than are undergraduates, and having people with PhDs in teams boosts the productivity of their colleagues who do not have PhDs. PhD holders in industry also help to foster collaboration with academia and investment in research and development, particularly for smaller businesses2.
Here, 13 past and current full-time PhD candidates, who say they spent or are spending an average of 40 hours a week or less on their doctorates, share their advice and observations.
You’re in charge, revel in the flexibility
“Be sure to take time off to make up for overtime: you often don’t have to work the same hours every day or the same hours as other people. And when you’re waiting for feedback from someone, take that as time off! Don’t be afraid to have a flexible schedule.” — Victoria Crozier, a fourth-year ecology PhD candidate at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada
“Avoid working long hours continuously. My research project in health informatics involves structured phases — particularly during field data collection — which makes time planning more manageable. During proposal writing, I typically worked for three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening. During fieldwork, I usually spend seven hours per day at a health facility, conducting interviews and observating how people use health-management information systems. After each site visit, I spend an extra one to two hours reviewing notes and audio recordings. Although these periods are intensive, they are bounded in time and predictable, which helps prevent work from expanding uncontrollably.” — Bigten Kikoba, a fourth-year health-informatics PhD candidate at the University of Dodoma in Tanzania
“I typically work Monday to Friday from 9.30 a.m. to 7 p.m., but I take half a day off every week (typically on Wednesday morning). This way, I can work the whole week and not reach the weekend exhausted. I am able to organize my work better, because I can concentrate for longer and make sure to finish during my full days. I can also be more relaxed during my time off.” — Claudia Pisanti, a second-year physics PhD candidate at the University of Bologna in Italy
Sounds of science: how music at work can fine-tune your research
“The type of research I do — on a branch of functional analysis known as operator theory — greatly favours flexibility, so it’s easier for me to maintain a nine-to-five schedule than for people in a lot of other fields of study, in particular those that involve being in the laboratory. The only equipment I need are my computer plus some pens and paper or chalk and a board, so I can do research basically anywhere. In fact, I often work from home if I can’t go into the office.” — Julio Enciso, a second-year mathematics PhD candidate at the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City
“Many of my experiments span two weeks, so I plan exactly which days and times I will be in the lab before starting. This helps me work out the rest of my schedule, such as slots for meetings, without overstretching myself. The same principle applies to computer-based work: if I have multiple experiments planned, I intentionally lighten the load of tasks such as writing. Conversely, if I have a major deadline approaching, I avoid scheduling experiments during that period. There will be occasions when you need to push yourself hard, and others when things slow down and you have more time to breathe.” — Sarah McPhedran, a third-year immunology PhD candidate at the Deeley Research Centre in Victoria, Canada
You might work 40 hours a week, but not necessarily nine-to-five
“The eight-hour day and 40-hour week was created for factory work in which every day was the same, not academic work, for which each day can look wildly different. I don’t even remotely keep to a nine-to-five schedule. I’ve never been a morning person; my body prefers getting up later and working later. During my master’s, I tried to work nine-to-five, but I found myself wasting time and sitting at my desk pretending to work because I was always so tired.” — Victoria Crozier
“Fieldwork tends to defy normal working hours, especially when it comes to multi-day trips that you want to make as cost-effective as possible. Also, the conferences and science fairs at which you present your work do not always follow a standard schedule. Sometimes working outside the nine-to-five routine is a positive thing, especially when researching a fresh, interesting topic: I read paper upon paper out of sheer curiosity late into the night.” — Kateřina Bezányiová, a second-year zoology PhD candidate at Charles University in Prague
Know your limits
“Know when to stop working: avoid answering non-emergency e-mails late in the evening or at weekends. Instead, set aside dedicated time for these admin tasks. However, if there is something with a distant deadline and you have energy to spare, then you might as well start working on it. Making use of the half hour it takes to get the result of a PCR experiment in the lab can save you sleepless nights of feverish work before a deadline.” — Kateřina Bezányiová
“I like referring to my department’s policies regarding working hours. My department has explicit statements recommending a 40-hour work week. So, even if my peers are working more hours, I know that I am performing according to the department’s expectations.” — Karen Arevalo, a fifth-year kidney-cancer-biology PhD candidate at the University of Toronto in Canada
“Developing the ability to say no is an essential skill in graduate school. Setting firm boundaries not only protects your time and mental health, but also often earns respect from others. Consistently saying yes can lead to being overextended or taken advantage of.” — Sarah McPhedran
Be organized
“It all boils down to time management. If you walk into the lab without a plan, you will procrastinate and eventually find yourself working overtime to catch up. If you know something will take you the whole week to finish, plan accordingly. I use a Gantt chart to, as accurately as possible, plan out my PhD and give myself realistic deadlines. It helps me maintain progress by feeling like I’m ticking achievable things off a list.” — Luke Nel, a second-year palaeoecology candidate at Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha, South Africa
“Set small milestones throughout your project. Finding a dedicated place at the university to carry out non-experimental tasks, such as writing and reviewing, helped me to cut down my hours. It also helped me to avoid taking work home.” — Leo Maia do Amaral, who holds a PhD in engineering and materials science from the University of São Paulo, Brazil
“Plan right from the start. Look at your submission deadlines and plan backwards from those. Every day, plan to write a certain amount of words, and try to stick to that figure.” — Sandra Kiessling, who holds a PhD in engineering from the University of Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent, UK
How to get the best night’s sleep: what the science says
“Know your priorities and how long it takes, realistically, for you to finish your tasks. I often work with samples that easily degrade or get contaminated and so I need to carefully plan my work beforehand. I know what my top priority is and what it would be great to get done. But I’m prepared to wait if something takes longer than expected.” — Kateřina Bezányiová
“It might take time to optimize, but figure out what schedule works best for you. I do my most intensive work in the morning and early afternoon. After about 2 p.m., when I start to feel burnt out, I rest. I often return to work in the evening and use those evenings when I’m tired for mindless administrative work or routine data analysis.” — Sarah McPhedran
