I remember a conversation PhD students had last year. The question arose:

“How long a PhD student should spend for the research and how long they can have as a holiday.”

The general understanding we all had was that we, as researchers and scholars, don’t have a holiday. But as we are human beings, we should plan well our work hours. Until last year, I didn’t put any holiday in my schedule. There was no distinction between Christmas and term time. I checked my emails 24/7 and read articles without thinking if it was a holiday or a weekend. One piece of advice was delivered to all of us.

Without a well-structured research plan as well as rest time, this marathon would be exhausted before it finished.

Finally, I tried to put Christmas on my calendar. I informed my group members that I’ll have my holiday until the end of December. It would be only 1-2 weeks, but I already feel pushed to work and stressed not to work as lazy behaviour all by myself. One of my friends advised me that having a rest also requires practice. Everything is practice. Living itself is a practice.

In a way, it is an obvious thing. We never lived our life before, we should practice learning how to do it.

I hope I can fully rest this time without being stressed.