From struggling to flourishing: a research-backed framework for PhD wellbeing and productivity

How often are you staring at a blank document for what feels like hours, knowing you should be writing but feeling completely frozen? Or perhaps you're working 60-hour weeks, ticking boxes and meeting deadlines, but running on empty with your health deteriorating. Maybe you're comfortable and stress-free, but deep down, you know you're not making the progress you're capable of.

If any of these scenarios resonate, you're not alone.

In a systematic review and meta-analysis, the authors found that the pooled prevalence of symptoms of anxiety was 17%, while anxiety in the general population globally is between 5 and 7%. A Springer Nature PhD Survey of 6,300 PhD students found that 36% of PhD students seek help for depression or anxiety symptoms. They also found that approximately 25% of PhD students worked more than 51 hours per week on their PhDs.

I’m not saying there is an easy solution to the above or that positioning yourself on a grid is your magic ticket out. I’m saying that something about a PhD is putting strain on our fellow humans, and in addition to sorting out the systemic and organisational issues, we need to look at what we can optimise within ourselves to set us up for success.  

When you control what is within your control, you don't have to choose between your wellbeing and your research progress. The two can coexist, and in fact, they must coexist for you to produce your best work and maintain your sanity.

The positive side of all this is that, despite the challenges, 71% of PhD students are satisfied with their PhD experience, and 75% are satisfied with their decision to do a PhD (Springer Nature PhD Survey).

Therefore, in this blog post, I'm sharing a research-backed framework that will help you understand exactly where you are in terms of productivity x wellbeing and what specific steps you need to take next. Opposed to generic advice, I’m suggesting a personalised, evidence-based approach that recognises that what works for one student might be completely wrong for another.

The productivity-wellbeing grid: your navigation system

The Productivity-Wellbeing Grid is a reflection framework that maps your current state across two crucial dimensions: your research productivity (how much meaningful progress you're making) and your wellbeing (your energy, mental health, and sustainability).

Understanding the two axes

The horizontal axis: Productivity

The horizontal axis reflects meaningful research momentum and output, rather than just the number of hours you put in. Are you making steady progress on your dissertation? Are you moving forward with data collection, analysis, or writing? This is your productivity axis.

The vertical axis: Wellbeing

The vertical wellbeing axis encompasses your energy levels, mental health, life satisfaction, and whether your current approach is sustainable. Do you have the resources to deal with the challenges you're facing? Are you taking care of yourself? This is your wellbeing axis.

The four quadrants: Which one are you in?

Focused & Flourishing (High productivity, high wellbeing)

This is the optimal state where you're making consistent progress whilst maintaining your health and happiness. You're in what researchers call the "thriving" state. Your work energises you, you maintain good boundaries, and you sleep well. Most importantly, you can be fully present with loved ones when you're not working.

The key characteristic here is flow and sustainable momentum. This isn't a permanent destination. Life happens. Research setbacks happen. The goal is to spend more time in this quadrant and develop the skills to return here when you drift away.

Busy & Burned Out (High productivity, low wellbeing)

You're ticking all the boxes and your CV looks impressive, but you're running on empty. You work evenings and weekends, feel guilty when you rest, and perhaps rely on caffeine to start the day and wine to end it.

This quadrant is particularly dangerous because our culture celebrates it. We call it dedication and hard work. But it is fundamentally unsustainable. Doctoral candidates in this state report making deliberate trade-offs, disengaging from desired activities and compromising essential resources like sleep in favour of doctoral work. This continuous depletion leads to burnout, characterised by cynicism and emotional exhaustion.

This quadrant’s key characteristic is high output subsidised by your health. If you don't change something soon, you'll crash into Stuck & Stressed, or worse, face serious health consequences.

Calm & Coasting (Low productivity, high wellbeing)

You're not stressed. You're attending meetings, doing some reading, but if you're honest, you're not really engaged anymore. Progress is slow, and you've lost that spark.

The key characteristic here is that you are comfortable but stagnant. The critical question is, do you want to stay here, or do you want something more?

Stuck & Stressed (Low productivity, low wellbeing)

This is the worst-case scenario. You're not making progress, and you're not feeling good either. Anxiety floods in every time you sit down to work, leading to procrastination, which leads to more anxiety. It's a vicious cycle.

This state arises from a disastrous convergence in which high demand depletes critically low resources. Financial stress, lack of funding, and heavy caring responsibilities are directly correlated with greatly increased risks of depression and failure to progress. The lack of academic progress itself contributes to feelings of worthlessness, creating a self-perpetuating negative cycle.

This quadrant’s key characteristic is paralysis and overwhelm. This isn't laziness or lack of intelligence. This is your nervous system responding to an overwhelming threat. When your brain perceives too much uncertainty, too many deadlines, or too much to do, it can shut down as a protective mechanism.

Let's look as some evidence

How does the Productivity-Wellbeing Grid link with existing frameworks

You might be wondering where this grid came from. I developed the Productivity-Wellbeing Grid specifically for doctoral researchers like you, based on years of supervising postgraduates and observing the common patterns that emerge during the research journey.

Interestingly, after creating this framework, I discovered it has a lot in common with Anthony Grant's work in coaching psychology. Grant has spent years developing models that look at how goal-striving, wellbeing, and engagement interact in workplace settings (Grant and Spence, 2009; Grant, 2012; Grant, 2017). His research shows how people function at different levels of performance and vitality, which maps beautifully onto what I've observed in doctoral students.

The key difference? Grant's frameworks were designed for workplace coaching contexts. The Productivity-Wellbeing Grid translates those principles into your world as a researcher. It speaks your language, addresses your specific challenges, and reflects the unique pressures of doctoral study.

I've also been intentional about keeping this framework non-clinical. This isn't about diagnosing mental illness or labelling you with a condition. Instead, it focuses on the functional states you actually experience during your research journey: those times when you're stuck and stressed, those periods when you're busy but burned out, those phases when you're calm but coasting, and those wonderful stretches when you're focused and flourishing.

Think of this grid as a contextual evolution of established coaching psychology models, adapted specifically for the realities of your doctoral experience. It's designed to be a self-reflective tool that enhances your awareness and helps you take intentional action, not a diagnostic instrument that puts you in a box.

The beauty of having this research backing is that you're getting a framework that aligns with robust psychological theory whilst remaining accessible and immediately practical for your daily research life.

The stakes are higher than you think

Research on 690 PhD candidates reveals that your position on this grid is associated with your likelihood of completing your doctorate. Students experiencing high burnout with moderate engagement had considered dropping out at a rate of 74.7%. Compare that to those with high engagement and low burnout, where only 7.2% had considered quitting.

Yes, it's important to feel better and be more productive, but this ultimately translates into whether you finish your PhD at all.  Different quadrants carry dramatically different risks, which is precisely why generic advice fails. The intervention that helps someone in one quadrant maintain their success might be entirely wrong for someone in another quadrant who's at risk of dropping out.

Figuring out why you are in the quadrant you are in

The Study Demands-Resources (SD-R) model shows that whilst study demands (the “bad things” at university) deplete your energy and lead to stress, study resources (the “good things” at university) boost engagement and performance. Your position on the grid is influenced by the balance between these demands and resources.

This theory underscores the grid’s vertical axis: when demands exceed resources, wellbeing falls (and you become Stuck & Stressed or Busy & Burned Out); when resources are available, students thrive even under pressure (Focused & Flourishing). Resources can be seen as the positive contribution made by physical, psychological, social and organisational aspects of studying. In other words, the things that contribute to achieving your goals and supporting personal growth.

While the Productivity-Wellbeing Grid won’t tell you why you are in the quadrant you are in, it provides you with a basis of reflection. Once you identify your position on the Productivity-Wellbeing Grid, the personalised actions you take will increase your “resources” and move you closer to a position of Focused & Flourishing.

Why traditional advice fails you

Here's why generic productivity advice often doesn't work for doctoral students: different quadrants need completely different solutions.

If you're Stuck & Stressed, telling you to "just manage your time better" is useless. You don't need better time management. You need to break through the paralysis first. If you're Busy & Burned Out, more productivity hacks will make you feel worse. You don't need to do more. You need to do less and rest more.

Think about it: Would you give the same medical advice to someone with a broken arm as to someone with the flu? Of course not. Yet we offer the same productivity advice to all doctoral students regardless of their current state.

Moving between quadrants

Here's something crucial to understand: you will visit all these quadrants during your PhD, and that's absolutely normal. It's not a sign of failure.

You can move between quadrants quickly (days or weeks) or gradually (months). A health challenge might temporarily drop your productivity. Good progress on a dataset might boost both your wellbeing and momentum. A tight ethics deadline might push you temporarily into Busy & Burned Out. This is the reality of doctoral research.

The power lies in awareness. You can't change what you can't see. Just by identifying where you are on the grid, you gain clarity. You stop beating yourself up for not responding to advice that wasn't meant for you. You understand why that colleague's strategy doesn't work for you.

Quadrant-specific strategies

If you're Stuck & Stressed

Your priority: Stabilisation and resource building.

First, seek professional support if you're experiencing severe distress. Then focus on injecting basic resources:

• Prioritise sleep above all else
• Use approach coping (tackle the problem directly rather than avoiding it)
• Break tasks into absurdly small steps
• Seek structural aid (financial, logistical) before expecting major goal attainment
• Remember: You need to stabilise before you can optimise

If you're Busy & Burned Out

Your priority: Boundary setting and recovery.

Transition from unsustainable high output to sustainable performance:

• View boundaries and recovery as productivity tools, not impediments
• Schedule protected non-work time as seriously as you schedule work
• Identify what truly restores you (not just passive rest)
• Learn to say no to non-essential commitments
• Reconnect with why you started this PhD journey

If you're Calm &  Coasting

Your priority: Re-engagement and challenge.

Leverage your stable wellbeing as a foundation:

• Set specific, short-term research goals with your supervisor
• Use structured planning and prioritisation
• Schedule challenging work during your golden hours
• Add accountability through peer groups or writing circles
• Reconnect with the aspects of your research that genuinely excite you

If you're Focused & Flourishing

Your priority: Optimisation and maintenance.

Use your energy audit results to refine your system:

• Continue protecting your boundaries and golden hours
• Document what's working so you can return to it when things get tough
• Support others who are struggling (this reinforces your own practices)
• Stay vigilant for early warning signs of drift into other quadrants
• Regularly check in with yourself using this framework

Your starting point: Do an energy audit

Irrespective of which quadrant you are in, here’s something practical you can implement immediately. The foundation of both productivity and wellbeing is energy. Energy is even more important than time, motivation, or discipline. You can have all the time in the world, but if you don't have energy, you won't use that time effectively.

Most of us have absolutely no idea how our energy actually works. That's where the energy audit comes in.

Find out exactly how to go about tracking your energy in this blog post titled “Energy management: The secret weapon in academic productivity”.

It's not either/or

The myth that you must sacrifice your wellbeing for productivity (or vice versa) is just that: a myth. PhD students can work at the pace of their ambition without sacrificing their sanity. Yes, there will be sacrifices. Yes, there will be challenges. But being locked in a room for five years, working 12-hour days, or pushing yourself to burnout is not the only path to a doctorate. In fact, it's often the path to dropout, illness, or a thesis you're no longer proud of.

The Productivity-Wellbeing Grid offers you a new way to think about your productivity and wellbeing throughout your doctoral journey. It gives you:

• Language to describe what you're experiencing
• Clarity about where you are and why traditional advice might not be working
• Direction for what specific actions you need to take next
• Permission to acknowledge that your situation is unique

Most importantly, it reminds you that movement between quadrants is normal. You're not failing when you drift away from Focused & Flourishing. You're human, navigating a challenging endeavour. The skill lies in recognising the drift early and having the tools to navigate back.

Taking action today

Start with awareness. Reflect honestly on where you are right now. Not where you wish you were, not where you "should" be, but where you actually are. This requires courage, but it's the essential first step.

Then begin your energy audit. Set those reminders right now. Track for three days. The insights you gain will be invaluable, regardless of which quadrant you're starting from.

If you're struggling, please remember: you're not alone, and it's not your fault. The system is imperfect, the demands are high, and the support is often insufficient. But you do have agency. You can optimise what you have control over whilst you advocate for better circumstances.

And if you're flourishing, celebrate that. Share what's working. Support others. Your success isn't luck; it's the result of finding a sustainable balance that works for you.

Need more?

In a recent Live Workshop, we unpacked the Productivity-Wellbeing Grid as one of our monthly live workshops that members of the Research Masterminds Success Academy attend. Join the Success Academy and get access to the recording as well as two helpful AI tools, the Productivity-Wellbeing Grid Navigator, which helps you find your spot on the grid and reflects with you as to what your next steps are. And secondly, the Energy Tracker, which enables you to identify trends in your energy use and determine how to make the most of your available energy. Find out more about the Research Masterminds Success Academy here.

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Acknowledgement: The author gratefully acknowledges the late Professor Anthony M. Grant (1954–2020) for his pioneering contributions to coaching psychology and for developing the wellbeing–engagement and performance–wellbeing frameworks that have inspired further conceptual developments in related domains.

Thank you for the cover photo created by Gemini 2.5 Flash and Quang Nguyen Vinh from Pexels, based on the original Productivity-Wellbeing Grid.

This blog post was created through a collaborative process. I provided the initial ideas, draft content and related research, and AI (Claude.ai) assisted in restructuring and refining the material. Final edits and insights are entirely my own.

Views expressed are my own and do not reflect those of my employers.