Another factor that I value most is the advice and support I get from my school, supervisors and several other teams on how to juggle my activities around being a parent. I am a member of the PGR Parent and Carers Network, which I find very helpful in terms of advice and networking with people with similar circumstances.

My PhD journey is quite like any parent doctoral researcher. I am a mother of two beautiful boys who put a smile on my face on the worst of days but bring a certain level of challenge to my PhD journey. I schedule my engagements in view of their wellbeing and the time they require of me as their mother. My day begins at 5:00am, with an hour and a half of some start up reading followed by the breakfast routine, getting the kids ready for school and dropping them off. This is usually followed by a peaceful breakfast at 9:00am to get myself ready for a busy day ahead.

The first year of PhD is quite a blessing; it is a time when you can research as far and wide as you can to find a novelty factor, a gap in research, or something that is simply intriguing. Reading good content is crucial to every research. My day is usually divided into a reserved time for reading, training, attending conferences, as well as any other ad hoc activities that I might need to do. In my weekly supervisory meetings, my supervisors and I agree on some targets that I need to meet for the next week; I divide these over the whole working week.

I like keeping lists and religiously following them, but I tend to be not too ambitious when writing up my daily activity list. My active day has to end at 3:00pm, which is when the children come home, and my evenings are usually reserved for family time. Once the children are in bed, I devote at least an hour to completing any unfinished tasks and planning an agenda for the next day.