To date, that has been true. In order to get the most out of the Ph.D. experience, one needs to stay motivated and on top of everything. Doctoral work can take a very long time, and the length of time one stays in graduate school depends on the advisor, the nature of the research, and the amount of time one is willing to commit to the project. My time in the lab is spent doing chemical reactions, researching the literature, and keeping track of the chemical inventory. While this seems like a short list, it s really more time consuming than it looks.
Reactions can take anywhere from five minutes to four days.
Looking for and reading papers means doing time-consuming literature searches and then getting the paper and reading it. I will not begin to even tell you about about the chemical inventory. Surprisingly I do. A good skill everyone should learn in college is time management. I go to the gym to vent out frustrations spawning from the lab.