Most PhD journeys don’t start when you submit your proposal—they start much earlier, during those endless hours of reading, overthinking, and second-guessing your topic. But something odd happens once the board finally gives the green light: excitement quietly turns into inertia. Time starts ticking. And you don’t. You tell everyone you’re doing your PhD, but somehow weeks go by without a single paragraph written or paper reviewed. The start line keeps stretching.
This piece is for anyone teetering at that starting point—full of intention, slightly overwhelmed, and wondering how to really begin. Here’s how not to become one of those people who’s always “about to start” but never quite does.
1. Decide the end date:
PhD planning is like planning for your wedding. If you don’t set a date, how will you book the place or invite your folks? So set the date first. Mark it on your calendar and let it sink into your subconscious mind! A PhD has no deadlines except the one at the end of 3 years or 4 years, depending upon what you are studying and your university’s rules. Your guide has 537 things on their head when they meet you and they meets you hurriedly like a visitor at a train station. There is nothing to keep you on track, like a unit test or a class assignment! Hence the date. Fixed by you. And be realistic. Don’t forget to factor in your perpetually demanding boss, your son who is preparing for his board exams, and needs to be constantly fed with nourishing and brain-strengthening meals and your nephew’s upcoming wedding in six months when you set this final date. Even if your target date is two or three years away, set it now—etched in your calendar, whispered to your subconscious, and written in bold next to your nephew’s wedding and your son’s exam timetable.
2. Work backwards from the target date:
Once your deadline is set, work backwards to plan your actual work days. Be ruthlessly realistic. Cancel out three weeks for your nephew’s wedding, the weekends (because of course—who works on weekends? Spoiler alert: you will), your mother-in-law’s 70th birthday and the week before, because you’ll be expected to organise it, and also your annual appraisal at work.
Also buffer in unexpected events—illnesses, accidents, existential crises. But you’ll also have to say no to a few things. Like your MIL’s cousin’s grandchild’s naming ceremony (true story), or baking 117 chocolate cookies for your son’s school event. It’s not that you’re selfish—it’s that your thesis can’t bake itself. At the end of this ruthless cancellation, what you’ll be left with is your real time. Planning your PhD timeline is like cleaning a giant jackfruit. After you’ve fought the crocodile skin, peeled the fibre, and removed 85 seeds, what you’re left with is a handful of sticky gold. That’s your time. Use it wisely.
3. Break up your PhD work into phases
If you have no idea of how many chapters you are going to write for your PhD then find out. Then divide your work into phases and allot time that you will need to finish them. Like the reading phase, the literature review, the data collection and analysis and finally the writing phase. At this point you might be clueless. You are like a newly-wed daughter-in-law having no clue where the tomatoes are kept or which water to use or where to grate the coconut let alone how to cook a meal. But don’t worry with practise you will be the one to decide what to cook and where the tomatoes, the water and the coconuts go! To understand how to break up the work, you will need to have an idea of what goes into each phase of your PhD – not just the writing part but also the research work, the field work, the data analysis that you need to do before sitting to write each of them. Don’t be like Aditi who promised she would review five research articles in a day and show her guide only to realise she could barely finish one review in the time she got! Remember this is a rough estimate. As you make progress, you will be able to get a clearer picture of the time and effort required for each phase of your work.
4. Set Realistic Goals (and Adjust When Reality Laughs in Your Face)
Now that you’ve sketched out the phases of your PhD, it’s time to zoom in and set some goals. Weekly goals are a great starting point—something like “review four research articles” sounds doable… until you try. Break your weekly goal into daily tasks. For example, on Day 1, you might decide to scan databases, shortlist four articles, and maybe review one. On Days 2 and 3, you’ll do the rest. But here’s what actually happens: After 568 scans of eerily similar article titles and a dull headache, you finally manage to download four PDFs—and promptly run out of time (and the will to live). The review? Still untouched. Lesson learned: your goals need to live somewhere between realistic and ambitious-but-not-torturous. You’ll only find that balance by doing the work and adjusting as you go.
Good goals could include:
Understanding the statistical analysis your study needs
Refining your hypotheses
Reviewing three key theories
Scheduling calls with experts
Even boring-but-important tasks like getting institutional permissions
And please, don’t be like Aditya, who ghosted his PhD for five years and then completed it in six months like a deer chased by a lion—with the bound thesis smelling faintly of panic.
5. Monitor your progress (and your emotional stability)
By now, you’ve made the plan, set your goals, sacrificed your weekends, and stopped baking for school events. Great. But here’s the thing—none of that matters if you don’t track how it’s actually going.
Once you start working regularly, within a few weeks you’ll know your pace. One day you’ll feel like Sunita Williams on caffeine, and the next you’ll stare at your laptop like it’s a toaster. That’s normal.
So here’s what to do:
Keep a weekly check-in with yourself. What did I set out to do? What did I actually do? Do I need to adjust?
If you fall behind, don’t spiral. Adjust, breathe, and move the goalpost slightly—not to next year, just next week.
If you get nothing done, do something tiny. Read one page. Reformat your references. Organize your folders. Momentum is magic.
And remember: consistency beats brilliance. Work even when it’s messy, imperfect, or just 15 minutes long. Your thesis won’t write itself—but it will wait patiently for you to show up.
Final Words (before you go back to rewatching cat videos)
Starting your PhD is like signing up for a marathon where the finish line moves, your shoes occasionally vanish, and the cheering crowd is mostly imaginary. But don’t let that stop you.
The key is to start—awkwardly, clumsily, imperfectly—and keep going.
Make a plan. Adjust when life intervenes. Take your work seriously, but not yourself. And if all else fails, remind yourself why you started this wild ride in the first place.
That should help you to stay calm and take the next step – however small it may be.
Ready to actually start your PhD and not just talk about starting it?
If you’ve been stuck in the land of good intentions and half-written outlines, this post was your wake-up call.
If you want help setting timelines, breaking things into phases, and actually getting stuff done, I offer 1-on-1 coaching to help you start strong and keep going, even when life tries to derail you.
Reach out to the number below. Let’s get your PhD moving.
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