[Execution Phase] Looking back at the first semester of a PhD program at Peking University through study logs and life records

Hello!
I'm Seita!!
I am currently studying sociology in a PhD program at Peking University.

In this article, I am mainly writing about how much I studied during the first semester of my first year in the PhD program at Peking University.

In my previous article, I wrote about how I estimated classes, assignments, and study time. In this article, I will take it a step further and also write about the extent to which things went according to plan.

I usually use an app called Focus To-Do to record my study time by the minute. Based on the study time recorded in this app, I will write about the gap between estimated and actual time, how I actually spent my weeks, and the results I ultimately achieved. *An app that integrates task management and time management using the Pomodoro Technique

In conclusion, it went mostly according to plan. Although the volume of tasks was unprecedented, I finished everything by the deadline, and my GPA was over 3.7, so my grades did not suffer significantly. On the other hand, not everything went exactly as planned. There were assignments that finished faster than expected, and others that took more than twice as long as expected.

This article is intended for the following people:
・Those interested in Peking University
・Those considering a PhD program abroad
・Those who want to know the real life of a graduate student
・Those who want to learn how to process tasks
・People who have a habit of procrastinating and cannot finish tasks

Plan vs. Reality

First, for those who haven't read the previous article, I will briefly explain what kind of plan I made.

Plan at the beginning of the term

By the time the course registration period was coming to an end, the tasks I needed to do were mostly clear. Therefore, I summarized each task, the estimated time it would take, the deadline, and the 'target deadline' by which I wanted to finish it as follows.

However, since I didn't think it was enough to just finish the assignments, I tried as much as possible to spread them out so that the target deadlines wouldn't overlap. As a result, by distributing the estimated time according to the target deadlines, I was able to spread out the assignments quite neatly as shown below.

• 1st month (09/08~10/07): 40h

• 2nd month (10/08~11/07): 65h

• 3rd month (11/08~12/07): 50h

• 4th month (12/08~01/07): 30h

• Winter break (01/08~02/10): 60h

Regarding the actual execution of tasks during the semester

Now, let's look at how well this plan was achieved.

First, please take a look at the table below, which adds the actual time taken and the completion date to the previous table. Tasks that exceeded the target deadline or took longer than the estimated time are highlighted in red.

First, regarding the target deadlines, I was able to meet almost all of them. Although there were three tasks that exceeded the target deadline, all of them were only over by 1 to 3 days.

From this, although it may sound like I'm tooting my own horn, I can say that I am the type of person who can commit to the deadlines I set for myself. There are significant individual differences in how much weight people place on deadlines and goals. For those who can take them seriously, I think there is great value in organizing a schedule in this way.

Comparison of estimated time versus actual time

While I was relatively on schedule regarding target deadlines, there was quite a discrepancy in the estimated time.

Although the estimated study hours were nicely distributed during the planning phase, when recalculated with actual study hours, they became uneven as shown below.

• 1st month (09/08~10/07): 26.1h

• 2nd month (10/08~11/07): 55.8h

• 3rd month (11/08~12/07): 44.2h

• 4th month (12/08~01/07): 44.6h

• Winter break (01/08~02/10): 133.3h

The reason for this lies in the divergence between estimated and actual time. Below are the totals for the estimated and actual time for each class.

While the classes categorized under "Quantitative Research Methods" ended up taking less than half the time I expected, the "Population Science" and "Sociological Theory" courses each took over 40 to 50 hours.

First, the "Quantitative Research Methods" courses were held at the Institute of Population Research rather than the Sociology Department, and the workload for assignments was significantly lighter than I had anticipated.

On the other hand, the tasks that took the most time were the literature review assignments. The final report for Population Science took 69.1 hours, and the literature review for Sociological Theory took 64.2 hours. The former was 27,000 characters long, and the latter was 22,000 characters. Since they were written in Chinese, if you were to calculate the length in Japanese, it would be about 1.5 times that number. Wouldn't 40,000 characters in Japanese be about the length of a master's thesis?

The reason these took so much time is that for a literature review, you first have to read a massive amount of papers in the relevant field. For reference, the number of references is 92 for Population Science and 96 for Sociological Theory. Of course, I didn't read every single one of those documents this time, but I think I read an additional 20 to 30 papers for each report.

Furthermore, for the literature reviews, it wasn't just about the time spent reading the text; I also needed time to organize the arguments and connect them to my own research interests. Especially in a doctoral program, because you need to read to connect to your own research, rather than just writing to submit, it inevitably took a lot of time.

Also, since these literature reviews could be submitted during the winter break, it was possible to turn them in about a month after the classes ended. Because I had that time, I was able to spend it reading many papers rather than just rushing to finish writing.

Thanks to all the time I invested, I received an A+ (GPA 4.0) in Sociological Theory. Although the grade for Population Science was an A- (GPA 3.7), my advisor, who rarely praises people, told me, "You worked on this the most diligently of everyone." I think I can take that as a compliment, even if it was quite understated (laughs).

Although I significantly exceeded the estimated time, it could be said that this was a choice made precisely because I had some flexibility in my schedule. Also, the massive amount of literature I read in the first semester is now being utilized in the new research I have started, so I consider it to have been extremely meaningful.

How I spent a certain week

All of the above content covers the study material and study hours throughout the semester. While it is easy to understand how much I studied overall, it is a bit difficult to see how much I studied on a daily basis.

Therefore, in this chapter, I will focus on a specific week from November 8th to 14th, 2025 and write about how I spent my time. I chose this week because it is right in the middle of the semester. I took the trouble to note down my activities in 30-minute increments half a year ago, thinking it would make good material for my blog (lol).

Activity log in 30-minute increments

This is the logic behind the color coding above. Roughly speaking, cool colors represent studying and classes, while warm colors represent exercise and socializing. Also, the blank spaces are travel time, breaks, time spent on my phone, etc. When visualized like this, I realized that there are surprisingly many small gaps of empty time.

First of all, what stands out is that my bedtime is between 1:00 AM and 2:00 AM, right? I am quite a night owl (lol). There is also quite a lot of empty time, and while travel is unavoidable, I also felt that I was wasting time.

I recently had surgery to put a bolt in my shoulder, so my exercise time is almost zero, but I get the impression that I was exercising quite a bit back then. I go to the gym frequently, but besides that, I belong to a touch rugby club and attend their practices about 2-3 times a week.

A rough overview of how I spent each day

Broadly speaking, outside of studying and classes, the following events took place.

First, on Saturday, after practicing touch rugby, we all went out to eat barbecue (BBQ).

On Sunday, I ate Korean food.

On Monday, a friend from Japan came to visit, so I accompanied them around the Peking University campus. After that, I studied a little, then went to the hospital for lower back pain. Later, I did some strength training before heading home. I happened to run into a friend from Oxford University, so we chatted for a bit before I returned to my room.

On Tuesday, I attended a small dinner party for people from the Kansai region currently enrolled at Peking University, called the Keihanshin Association. The venue was a restaurant on the third floor of the Peking University Nongyuan Canteen. We were able to eat a hearty meal for about 30 yuan (660 yen) per person.

On Wednesday, I had two classes. After the classes ended, I did some strength training.

On Thursday, I attended classes, and other than studying, I didn't do anything in particular.

On Friday, I participated in a seminar led by a professor from my master's program and attended class. Other than that, I didn't do anything special. Usually, I spend about two hours on strength training, including warm-ups, but for some reason, I cut it short to one hour that day. It was probably too tough.

I spent the week roughly as described above. Compared to other weeks, what is worth noting is that I met more people and ate out more than usual. At the same time, because I had a heavy presentation, my study time was slightly increased to ensure I could read the papers thoroughly.

Looking back, there were many plans that couldn't be explained by the schedule alone. Playing touch rugby, meeting friends, going to the hospital for back pain, and participating in lab seminars. On the schedule, only "study time" is visible, but actual PhD life is not dry or boring; it is filled with various events.Therefore, it is important to have some leeway, to make progress on assignments, and to read papers little by little every day.

Summary

The above is how I spent my first semester. Roughly speaking, it can be said that the plan I created at the beginning of the term worked well. I was able to finish all tasks within the deadlines, and I was also able to prepare a presentation for an academic conference based on the literature review I wrote for my final report, and proceed with quantitative research using the methodology I learned in class. In that sense, I think I not only handled the assignments but also built a foundation that will lead to research in the second semester and beyond.

However, it is true that there were some parts where the plan was too optimistic. My biggest reflection is that I underestimated the literature review assignments. From next time, I thought that I should estimate at least 1.5 to 2 times the expected time for literature review-type assignments.

I have made plans on a weekly or daily basis before, but I rarely made medium-term plans like this time. The reason I decided to make such a detailed plan was because considering the large number of assignments at the beginning of the term, I thought it would be bad if I didn't properly secure study time throughout the semester.

Once I actually made a plan and set my own deadlines, I was able to make efforts to increase my study time and improve efficiency to achieve them. Of course, it is impossible to proceed exactly as planned. However, I think a plan is not something to make the future go exactly as intended, but something to ensure you don't lose sight of where you are when unexpected things happen. So, everyone, please set appropriate deadlines!!!

Finally, I would like to quote a profound line regarding "setting deadlines" from the manga "World Trigger".

This is a quote that goes, "Without a deadline, you can postpone the judgment of success or failure. That is precisely why goals must have deadlines.". I think my plan for this semester was very close to this way of thinking. I want to engrave these words in my heart and work hard every day so that I do not stand still!!!

So, that concludes this article.
Thank you for reading this far.

The following article summarizes the outline of my four years at Peking University.

The magazine below summarizes techniques for streamlining research life.

The magazine below summarizes the classes I have taken at the Department of Sociology at Peking University.

The magazine below summarizes my days at Peking University.

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