Time Management for Academics

Or some notes from the British Academy of Management's Doctoral Fridays talk

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In April, I gave a talk for the British Academy of Management’s Doctoral Fridays, which was great fun. I was asked to talk about this topic:

Walking the Tightrope: Strategies for Successfully Completing Your PhD and Managing an Academic Career

At first, I thought, "this sounds a bit intense…” but it made me reflect on what it was like as a doctoral student and what I have learned about managing an academic career since then.

From what I can remember, completing a doctoral degree often felt like walking a tightrope—a delicate balancing act requiring focus, strategy, and resilience. Most of the time, I was not sure what the right thing to do might be, and whether the advice I received was any good. While searching for good advice (in the library, where else), I came across Pugh and Phillips’s excellent book "How to Get a PhD". Their main point, which I still recall clearly, because it resonated strongly with me, was that the PhD experience isn't just about producing a thesis—it's a profound identity shift. When you begin your doctoral journey, you arrive with confidence and a clear sense of self. You've been successful academically and professionally, and you've earned your place in a doctoral program. That was certainly the case for me. Yet not long after beginning, many doctoral candidates experience a destabilisation of their self-image. The constant critique and feedback—essential components of academic discourse—can feel personally undermining. Your work is continually scrutinised, and nothing ever seems "good enough." And that was even more true for me, and I found it incredibly frustrating.