What do PhD students actually do?

A number of people have asked me some version of the following question:

So what do you actually do on a day to day basis?

Good question!, I always tell them. It seems that people have a lot of general ideas about what PhD students do, but people don't have a great idea of what that looks like on a day to day basis. I've taken the liberty to put the information down here.

Generally, I'd categorize my work time into 4 different categories: coursework (teaching as well as taking courses), research, general learning, and random administrative stuff. (Note: I'm doing a PhD in marketing, so my description here is going to be somewhat specific to business PhDs. For instance, my colleagues doing PhDs in clinical psychology, on top of what's written here, perform many hours of clinical work.)

1) Coursework

For the first two years (or more, depending on the program and the person), PhD students do a fair bit of coursework. This is not all that different from the coursework of an undergraduate, but it is far more in depth, tends to meet only once a week for a long session, and is generally focused on discussing literature and advanced methodology. Thus, a fair amount of time goes into preparing for class (reading, writing, thinking, etc.). 
Many programs also require PhD students to teach. For those who teach, this sucks up a large amount of time. The course has to be set up (think back-office administrative things like learning names, preparing a gradebook, refreshing one's self on content, etc.) Every lecture requires preparing or updating slides and lecture notes. Exams and projects have to be written and graded. It's a lot. 

2) Research

If you ask a PhD student what they "should" be doing at any given time, the answer is usually research. This is very different for each program and person, but for me generally includes reading literature, thinking (a lot), designing studies, analyzing data, and writing. 

3) General Learning

People who do PhDs, unsurprisingly, like to learn. Thus, some time inevitably goes towards general learning - for instance, I recently spent a morning developing a deeper understanding of cross-classified hierarchical linear models. This wasn't for a class or any specific piece of research, but in the long run will (hopefully) make me better at research / modeling. 

4) Random Administrative Stuff

As with any job, there's a fair bit of random administrative things that PhD students have to do. This might include sitting in on job-talks when the department is considering hiring a new professor, figuring out health or retirement benefits, making sure your funding is in line, registering for courses or dissertation hours, etc. 

Any one day is generally a combination of these elements.

​Thanks for reading!