Hi Jennifer, I think it might be this: https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586692/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1515064673&sr=8-1&keywords=Cal+Newport+Deep+Work
book about exactly the kind of distraction-free deep thinking you need for a dissertation! Good luck, I am hoping to start a doctorate myself in the next few months. Wishing you all success!

@Jennifer- so glad you are finding time-tracking useful! It really is enlightening to see where the time goes. A reasonable number of people who send me their time logs do wind up color-coding for different categories. I think some people are more visual than others, and the different colors really help them get a picture of their lives. I am not technically competent enough to figure out how to do colors in excel (I kid you not) so…no color-coding for me.

Oops – I meant _Dark Work_!

I have been using your time tracking method and it has really helped my productivity and focus – especially in seeing where my time is actually going and how long it takes me to do things. Thank you! @Tana I am curious what “Dark Shade” is. I like the idea of also having a color-coded way of seeing the different qualities of work time because I need to spend a lot of time on dissertation work and it is too easy for admin, emails and other less brain-intensive projects to take up my time, especially if I am tired.

@Tana – thanks for letting us know your strategies for making time tracking more productive! I agree that figuring out categories can, at times, be frustrating. It really doesn’t have to be exact, but figuring out how to categorize certain bits of time can go a long way toward making you feel like you’re making the right changes. I agree that chatting with kids in the car is a different thing from listening to an audio book in the car, is different from sitting there stewing about traffic.