Why lockdown feels like the second year of a PhD (and what to do about it)

Note: As I write this the U.K (and the whole world) is 5 months into a pandemic caused by COVID-19. If you haven’t heard about it you’re either from another planet or you’ve been living under a rock.

There has been an increasing number of people breaking the coronavirus lockdown rules over the last few weeks (some have been doing it from the start – looking at you Dom). As time has gone on people’s mental health, and willingness to follow the rules, has suffered. At the start of lockdown I tried to establish a good routine: wake up, workout, write my thesis for a few hours, play animal crossing then have lunch. Then I’d write for the afternoon, take my dog for a walk, then settle down for the evening and watch a few episodes of a TV series (currently I’m re-watching The Witcher). This routine worked for several weeks, almost several months. But, two weeks ago I hit a wall; everything felt stale and I fell out of routine. My most impressive achievement during that week was devouring a whole large Dominos pizza. Obviously none of us have experienced a national lockdown before, but I had Déjà vu; like I was trapped and needed a change of routine. Then I realised – lockdown felt like the second year of my PhD.
During a PhD there is a stage called the “2nd year blues”. It’s not exclusive to PhDs and can happen in any long term degree or job but in academia it describes the slump in motivation during the 2nd year of your PhD. As far as know the 2nd Year blues are only anecdotal but if you google it there are plenty of blogs with people discussing their personal struggle with it. No one knows why it happens but most academics I have talk to suggest that during your 2nd year the excitement of doing a PhD has worn off, your project is harder than you first thought and you aren’t getting the results you had hoped for. This is made worse by the fact that you have at least 1 year left – which simultaneously feels like too much time and not long enough.
At the start of my 2nd year I had an upgrade viva – you sit down with an academic and they discuss your work and test your knowledge to see if you’re a good enough student to continue doing the PhD. During that discussion he warned me “you’re approaching your 2nd year so be ready for the 2nd year blues” and I asked him why he thought they happened. He, like others, said that he didn’t think it happened to everyone but gave me a good analogy:

“you are in a tunnel and you’re so far along you can’t see where you started, but you also can’t see what’s ahead – and that is demotivating. You have to keep going through 2nd year and then you’ll see the light at the end”

This might be a grim comparison for a PhD but I think it is accurate. More importantly, I think it mirrors what has happened during the weeks and months of lockdown. Currently I’ve been out of the lab since March and I haven’t seen any of my family in person since January. I’m incredibly lucky to have a wife, a dog and a garden. Others have had it much worse; I know people who have been separated from their spouse, lost loved ones and been alone this whole time. Lockdown has changed every aspect of our lives and has been going on for months. Like 2nd year blues we’re stuck in the middle. We can’t remember what it was like before and we have no idea how long this could go on for – some elements, like social distancing and wearing masks, are here to stay for the long term.
This comparison between 2nd Year blues and how I’m feeling in lockdown might be interesting or you might have already stopped reading. I’m making this comparison because I went through the 2nd year blues and survived and now I love my PhD (I’ll love it more once I can get back to the lab). Over the last few weeks I’ve used some of the techniques I used to during my 2nd year to help get me over my lockdown slump. Below I’ve listed some of those techniques in the hope that they will help you, like they are helping me, find some balance during this uncertain time in history:

Journaling
When I first heard about journaling I was sceptical; it brought to mind teenagers scribbling in a diary. I am happy to admit that I was wrong. 5 minutes of research will tell you that throughout history people have relied on journaling to get through difficult times. Marie Curie’s notebooks look more like journals than they do scientific documents. Anne Frank’s diary during World War II became an incredible piece of historical literature. Marcus Aurelius’ journal, which he wrote during two decades of war, became a philosophical instructional manual - the Mediations. Journaling is almost as old as the written word.
When your brain is struggling with an issue talking about it can help, but sometimes talking isn’t enough or you don’t know how to untangle the issue. When this happens try writing your thoughts down. Personally I try to journal once in the morning, to plan my day and write down what I want to achieve Then I do it again at the end of the day to review how my day went – what I struggled with, what went well, what I can do better tomorrow. This won’t work for everyone so don’t be afraid to experiment and find a method that works for you. Start simple – spend one minute writing each day. Write one thought about anything:

-       What is your biggest worry at this moment and is there anything you can do about it?

-       What is one thing you are grateful for?

-       What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome in your life?

These are just some suggested questions you might want to try and answer; for a more in-depth look at journaling I recommend these Daily Stoic and Art of Manliness articles.

Acknowledge fear
I’ve used the word “fear” but you can replace that word with any of the emotions you’re feeling because of lockdown - anxiety, stress, boredom. If you don’t acknowledge what you’re feeling it can be 10 times harder to deal with that emotion and that’s why journaling can effective; it helps you put into words what is going on in your mind. 
Putting something into words can make something less scary and help you realise how much (or sometimes how little) of a situation you actually control. Early on in lockdown I was worried about how little work I was achieving and it caused me a lot of stress. Eventually I sat down and thought about why I was so stressed. I thought I was just worried about how much writing I was doing, but I was actually concerned that my supervisor would judge me and think I hadn’t done enough. So before my next call with my supervisor I made a PowerPoint slide listing everything I had done – literally everything; online training courses, the number of thesis pages I’d written and any new skills I was learning (how to code). When I wrote it down it helped me realised how much I’d actually done, and when I had the meeting with my supervisors they were happy with what I’d been doing.
If you hide from your emotions you’re just making them harder to untangle. Acknowledge what you feel, and identify what is causing that emotion; this will allow you to take action to combat that stress.

Reach out
The greatest challenge of both a PhD and lockdown is the isolation – both physically and emotionally. You feel like you are the only one facing your problems, that your situation is unique. To beat this you have to get out of your own head and realise that you are not going through any of this alone. When lockdown blues started I thought I was the only one, but again I talked to my supervisor. He acknowledged that as lockdown has gone on he’s been struggling and that he wants nothing more than a day in the office – just for a change of routine. This acknowledgement, that my supervisor was human too, helped me remember that we are all just reacting to what is happening - this is new for everyone.
Try and get out of your own head and share your feelings with another person;  another PhD student, a friend, your supervisor – anyone. You’d be surprised by how many people are going through the same things that you are.

(Note: if you have concerns about mental illness please reach out for professional support. PhD Balance is a good place to start for resources and support).

Shut down, switch off
The internet is an incredible resource, particularly during lockdown – it keeps us informed, allows us to stay in touch with relatives and lets us support cultural change (#BlackLivesMatter). But it has its down sides. During the first few days of lockdown I looked at the the news every day and, after too long, noticed that checking it didn’t make me feel informed it just bummed me out. It isn’t just the news; social media can be a cauldron of deception, vicious trolls and political anguish. It shouldn’t be surprising that spending too much time in that online environment makes it hard to process your emotions and deal with the difficulties of lockdown.  We need to be able to step away from the chaos and take time to unwind - guilt free.
I use Sundays as my rest day and avoid the internet as much as possible and, if I can, I switch my phone off and ignore it all day. Having time each week where I’m unplugged and away from the noise of the internet calms me down and brings some quiet to my mind. For the same reason I try to avoid using my phone before bed and leave it in another room when I go to sleep; so it’s not the first thing I look at when I wake up. This strategy might not work for some people and everyone needs to find a routine that suits them. It doesn’t have to be extreme; go for a 15 minute walk at lunch and leave your phone behind, carry a book and read it the next time you’re stuck in a queue, eat your next meal sat at a table rather than looking at your TV. The world isn’t going to end just because you’re not watching it, so take the time to step away.

These are just some suggestions that helped me get through the 2nd year of my PhD as well as find some balance during lockdown life. Doing a PhD can be hard, living through a global pandemic can be hard – doing both at the same time, that’s next level. If you’re going through the 2nd year blues or lockdown blues know that you are not alone. If anyone else has any suggestions on how they dealt with their 2nd year blues or are currently coping with lockdown let me know on twitter.