An ironic thought: I’m reading, but I feel guilty because I could be doing work on my dissertation. The irony comes in when you are reading an article about the topic while you are highly distracted by academics (http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/grad-school-guilt).
The premise of the article focuses on the very flexible structure in graduate studies and the way it can cause stress in other parts of your life. Furthermore, there are other needs in one’s personal life. There are other needs in one’s academic duties. One can be plagued by one’s own high standards of productivity and anything less can cause guilt and extra work.
In the end, the author recommends to make sure you have a full day worth of work on your dissertation in order to avoid the guilt. The author mentions setting some daily goals so you have some personal perspective to compare the day’s work.
Now it is time to walk over to go have a nice burrito without guilt…
First of all, love your ending! I found this article interesting because I’ve never put my feeling of guilt into words before. I’ve always wanted the nine to five hours, but that’s not grad school. One of my professors told me you have to be efficient with your time which I think the author is getting at. I like the three things to accomplish each day and the reflection isn’t something I’ve tried, but might now. Along the lines of three tasks per day, my advisor told me to allocate hours and don’t look back. If you have three hours to work on that dissertation, then you sit down and stop after three hours. If you know you have a specific time limit, you just work. I’m still struggling with this, but I think these are very helpful tips.
I saw this comic and thought of your post (and it’s what I do when given the chance to do something on the weekend).
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1034