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I finished a PhD while working full time with 3 young kids. Feel free to reach out if you've been interested and I can share my experience with you.

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How did you keep the motivation up?

(I tried doing a PhD while working full time, and quit the idea after 3 years.)

The hardest part is near the end for me.. I had a paper rejected and I thought I would have to extend my graduation.

When things went smooth (accepted paper) I tried to roll that motivation forward as much as possible.

Interesting. A couple of questions: - How young are the kids? - How do they behave, especially with essentials like eating and sleeping habits? - Could you carve out a morning and/or evening routine for yourself? - How much outside help could you rely on (grandparents nearby, lovely neighbours...)?

My kids now are 7,5,2. They were obviously younger when I was doing it.

2 years was during COVID so I never really had to travel for classes which really saved time.

I did most of the coding and ideation on either paternity leave or holidays. Evenings were often running smaller experiments or eventually endless iteration of a paper.

My wife was great and helped me focus usually 8-11pm most nights and some weekends 1-4pm.

We don't live nearby any family and friends were not much help.

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