This list of non-negotiables helped me to defeat PhD-student guilt

"During the first year of my PhD programme in clinical neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, UK, I could not work out what I was initially feeling. There was this sense that I always needed to be 'on'. When I was not in the laboratory or working on a project, I felt as though I should be. At each stage of my academic career, I'd always felt the need to prove myself - but this sensation was different. It was guilt. More specifically, graduate-student guilt."

"As the days went on, my creativity and passion in the lab started to fizzle out, and I felt as though I had become just another cog in the machine. At one point, I was so overwhelmed, I started to experience anxiety attacks at night. Once graduate-student guilt started to affect my health and performance, I knew I had to change. I established a list of clear, specific, non-negotiable rules that I had to follow."

Graduate students can feel compelled to be constantly working and may experience guilt when not engaged in academic tasks. Guilt can present during social events, prompting a rush back to work and eroding creativity and passion, sometimes causing anxiety attacks. Implementing clear, specific, non-negotiable rules can reduce the sense of urgency and guilt and protect health and performance. Non-negotiables differ from flexible boundaries by being immutable and prioritized. Adopting non-negotiables can reframe doctoral study from a competitive sprint into a slower, self-paced journey of discovery.

Read at Nature