staying focused during phd
During the pursuit of my PhD, roughly, I would say 90% of the time I have been interested in things other than my PhD topic, and only 10% in my topic. I have been working on my topic under last-minute pressure and when I have no choice.
In my free time, I have been interested in learning to cook, more for self-preservation than for the joy of cooking. I have been deeply interested in geopolitics and general political science. I have even dabbled in the religio-political histories and forces that are currently prevalent in the world.
My interest in political science has been very strong. My interest in my firm-level economics and research methods has been minimal. I feel guilty and invigorated at the same time. I'm happy to have had the opportunity to study a PhD course and be able to dwell deep into topics that interest me naturally.
But now the time has come to shift the gears. I have realised that I can't have much impact in political science, at least not operationally. I could come back to the politico-economic reasons impacting the type of firms I'm analysing, but I think that would come later.
Now I need to get down to the basics, master the foundations of research and get good at publishing.
Although I find it hard to imagine myself as an academic - wait...
If I am being honest, since I was a kid in school, I used to enjoy explaining and teaching. I believed explaining things clearly, logically and intuitively mattered, and that I had a gift for doing that.
Maybe I need to approach publishing in that way. And work to build an opportunity where I can explain things to people/ students. And learn things in the same process.