Making Summer (aka The Academic Ghost Town) Work For You

Make the most of the time before your supervisor goes away

If you know your supervisor has time off coming up, make sure to book a meeting with them before-hand. I usually try to schedule this about a week in advance of their holiday so I have a bit of buffer for anything I might have forgotten. I’ll have a list of questions ready for this meeting and discuss my plan for the coming weeks. This means you’re both clear on the work you’ll be doing and you can still move forward while they are away.

If there is anyone else in your research team that you are likely to need help from, such as technicians or postdoctoral researchers, make sure you have touched base with them before the summer, so you don’t have to wait until their return!

It is also worth looking at the first few weeks after your supervisor has returned and check for any deadlines you might have coming up. Make sure your supervisor is aware of these and if possible, try to get the report/paper/abstract to them before they go away so they don’t come back from holiday to a stressed email from you! Not quite the return to work they are hoping for!

Take advantage of the quieter spaces (lab equipment, writing desks etc.)

Whilst the ghost town can be slightly disconcerting, it can also work to your advantage. One example of this is using equipment that is normally busy or hard to get time on. I completed a lot of my lab work last summer as no one else was using the equipment at that time. I had my choice of time in the day to work and I could play my music out loud in the lab. This was actually a really enjoyable experience and a less stressful way of lab working, compared to term time.

Another example is that the empty spaces can be an opportunity for you to focus on your writing and treat the office as a homemade writing retreat. In my first year I found the empty spaces really hard to get used to. I now see them as an opportunity to get my head down!

Keep a list of questions or tasks for when everyone is back

You are bound to have questions pop up while your supervisor is away. Add anything that can realistically wait until they return to an ongoing list ready for your first meeting back. This means you won’t forget anything and you avoid bothering your supervisor with a hundred emails during their holiday!

I try to also keep a list of what I have been working on in this time as this will often remind me of any issues that I have encountered and help our discussions about the next steps.

Take some time off (or at least slow down!)

Finally, if everyone else is taking some time off, it can be the ideal time to take some annual leave yourself without feeling you are missing meetings or team events. Chances are nothing is happening in August anyway!! If you decide to continue working, use the ghost town as a chance to go a bit slower — maybe you can start slightly later in the day or finish earlier in the afternoons. This is a good chance to restock and rest, ready for the crazy start of term in September.

Whether you are working or resting, there are ways to make the ghost town of summer work for you. My blogs on FindAPhD are normally about myth-busting, but now you know that in August we go ghost-busting (sorry not sorry!).

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