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Illustrations: Lena Tokens

The nine-to-five PhD is an ever-elusive goal: many candidates aspire to it but few end up achieving such an impressive work–life balance. Nature’s 2025 global PhD survey found that 50% of respondents, who were self-selecting, identified a culture of long work hours at their university. This fuels dissatisfaction, and those who spent more than 60 hours a week on their PhDs were significantly more likely to report that they felt dissatisfied with their doctorates (21%) than were those who spent 30 hours or less (16%).

An analysis of more than 26,000 PhD candidates from 14 universities across the United Kingdom between 2006 and 2017, by online PhD information platform DiscoverPhDs.com, found that one in five fail to get their PhD, mostly owing to candidates leaving their programmes early. Another longitudinal study showed that time pressure was correlated with dropout rates1.

It is not just the candidates who would benefit from making PhD study more sustainable. According to a review published in 2024, PhD holders are more likely to be employed in high-skilled jobs than are undergraduates, and having people with PhDs in teams boosts the productivity of their colleagues who do not have PhDs. PhD holders in industry also help to foster collaboration with academia and investment in research and development, particularly for smaller businesses2.

Here, 13 past and current full-time PhD candidates, who say they spent or are spending an average of 40 hours a week or less on their doctorates, share their advice and observations.

You’re in charge, revel in the flexibility

“Be sure to take time off to make up for overtime: you often don’t have to work the same hours every day or the same hours as other people. And when you’re waiting for feedback from someone, take that as time off! Don’t be afraid to have a flexible schedule.” — Victoria Crozier, a fourth-year ecology PhD candidate at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada

“Avoid working long hours continuously. My research project in health informatics involves structured phases — particularly during field data collection — which makes time planning more manageable. During proposal writing, I typically worked for three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening. During fieldwork, I usually spend seven hours per day at a health facility, conducting interviews and observating how people use health-management information systems. After each site visit, I spend an extra one to two hours reviewing notes and audio recordings. Although these periods are intensive, they are bounded in time and predictable, which helps prevent work from expanding uncontrollably.” — Bigten Kikoba, a fourth-year health-informatics PhD candidate at the University of Dodoma in Tanzania

“I typically work Monday to Friday from 9.30 a.m. to 7 p.m., but I take half a day off every week (typically on Wednesday morning). This way, I can work the whole week and not reach the weekend exhausted. I am able to organize my work better, because I can concentrate for longer and make sure to finish during my full days. I can also be more relaxed during my time off.” — Claudia Pisanti, a second-year physics PhD candidate at the University of Bologna in Italy

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