PhD Tedium

Isn't doing a PhD tedious. I really think this is the best way to sum up the experience. It is hard, bloo*y tedium. I find it tedious in the way I think about it all the time, in the way that certain themes of the research will be on my mind and re-visited for the next two years when I am already sick of them. I find the need for incessant motivation tedious. I find returning to my desk after some time off to work again on the same project, tedious. I find the daunting, intimidating enormity of the task as a whole tedious. Even having to remotivate and get through the tedium is tedious. The only part that isn't tedious is when you complete a chapter, or have an epiphany, or get good feedback from supervisors, or (I guess) have a paper accepted. Then, then, it is brilliant: the best thing in the world! I think one can compare working on a PhD to childbirth in the way the euphoric haze created in the unadulterated delight of achievement makes you forget the pain and horror that was the making of it, so you are more than happy to go back and do more...