{"id":1441,"date":"2013-01-28T13:05:35","date_gmt":"2013-01-28T13:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/?p=1441"},"modified":"2025-01-30T07:44:02","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T07:44:02","slug":"sacrifice-and-submission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/2013\/01\/28\/sacrifice-and-submission\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacrifice and Submission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Narratives of sacrifice are woven into many stories about research. Nobel laureate Dr Barry Marshall<\/a> famously drank a culture of Helicobacter pylori<\/a><\/em> in order to demonstrate that the bacterium is indeed the causative agent of stomach ulcers. Closer to my home, one colleague who is now a postdoc took to sleeping in his office during the closing weeks of his PhD study:<\/p>\n

I borrowed one of the benches from the common room to sleep on.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These two anecdotes, and a number of other urban myths, propagate a seductive culture of “more is better” when it comes to the hours scientists put in and the days we dedicate to our research. In science, commitment is a prerequisite for success, but notoriety might be obtained through extremes of dedication. <\/p>\n

PhD students in particular might complain about or joke about their workload, describing their punishing schedules. <\/p>\n

\"PhD<\/a><\/p>\n

For most of the duration of the PhD, despite the demands of a doctorate, I found it possible to maintain a sense of balance. I made an effort to continue with my hobbies and to keep in touch with my friends, who were a real source of both support and perspective. I am glad that I made this effort. But despite the importance of life in the work-life balance, I did feel troubled by a persistent sense that I was not working quite hard enough<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Having declared that doing a PhD does not have to mean three solid years locked in a garret, despite war-stories that might suggest otherwise, I did find that, sometimes, needs must. One colleague declare that he wrote up his PhD <\/p>\n

in two months, but I don’t think I washed, slept or ate during that time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fortunately, for my office-mates, I started writing up sooner<\/a>. During my writing-up stage I did at least had time to wash, if not to do a lot else that was not thesis-related. Of the many nuggets of advice I have been given over the past three years of my PhD, one which sticks with me is that, overall, a sense of balance is important to prevent burnout. But that sometimes, and not all the time, but just sometimes, you have to throw the concept of work-life balance out of the window and just knuckle down and work<\/em>. Having emphasised the importance of work-life balance above, If any time during your PhD falls into this category, surely it is the run-up to submission of your thesis. During that time, the world beyond my work routine became difficult to imagine: <\/p>\n

\n

@enniscath<\/a> Non-caffinated beverages? What are they? #writingup<\/a> #phdchat<\/a><\/p>\n

— Erika Cule (@erikacule) November 28, 2012<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the fortnight that has passed since<\/em> I submitted, I have rediscovered rooibos tea, and sleep, and I have reconnected with friends and family. I have also started a new job, moved house, and somehow become embroiled in the organisation of the London Watch Party<\/a> for Science Online 2013<\/a>, which I am organising with Eva<\/a>. <\/p>\n

My examiners have received their copies of my thesis, and I have my copy to re-read. The viva has been scheduled. I am grateful to everyone in the Science Blogosphere who has helped me to get this far.
\n

\"Bob<\/a>

Bob O’Hara<\/a> introduced<\/a> Blogging the PhD to the readers of This Scientific Life<\/a> when Occam’s T launched.<\/p><\/div>
\nThe below is an excerpt from the acknowledgements page of my thesis. Sincerely, guys: you made it much more fun. Thanks for all the cheers. <\/p>\n

\"Thank<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Narratives of sacrifice are woven into many stories about research. Nobel laureate Dr Barry Marshall famously drank a culture of Helicobacter pylori in order to demonstrate that the bacterium is indeed the causative agent of stomach ulcers. Closer to my … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[189,3],"tags":[114,83,84,85],"class_list":["post-1441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging-the-phd","category-phd","tag-phd","tag-sacrifice","tag-submission","tag-what-next"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3105,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions\/3105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}