One of the benefits of being a grad student is that nobody cares which 60+ hours of the week you work.

You can start your day at noon and stay in the lab or the library carrel until two o'clock in the morning, and as long as the work gets done, nobody cares. If you're single and most of your friends are also grad students, there's a good chance nobody even notices. You can go an entire week without talking to anybody except the night janitor who empties your office trash, or consuming anything except coffee and M&M's from the vending machine. You can live in your own little bubble, just you and your thesis. Everything else-- your friends, your family, your health-- tends to take a back seat.

No matter how compelling the demands of the thesis, however, it is vital to maintain a sense of balance in your life. The Order of the Grad Student is a rule of life, based loosely on the Rule of St. Benedict, designed to help us all keep a little perspective in our lives.

One of the most basic aspects of the Rule is the idea of having a schedule which includes time for work, sleep, recreation, and spirituality. Members of the Order are free to design their own schedules to suit their own circadian rhythms and the demands of their particular fields; however, all of these elements should be included.

Ecclesiastes 1:13-18

13 I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men! 14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

15 What is twisted cannot be straightened;
what is lacking cannot be counted.

16 I thought to myself, "Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge." 17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
the more knowledge, the more grief.