Balanced Academic

Some weeks, I end Friday feeling completely drained – but when I look at my planner, it doesn’t look like I did that much. I didn’t finish the draft I meant to, or submit that form, or read as many articles as I planned. On paper, it looks like I fell behind. But in reality, I’ve been doing a lot – just not the kind of work that shows up on a progress report or to-do list.

That’s because grad school is full of invisible work – the kind that fills your time and energy, but rarely gets acknowledged.

What Counts as “Invisible Work”

Invisible work is all the effort that keeps your academic life running but doesn’t produce something measurable. It’s the emotional and cognitive labour that happens in the background:

• Helping labmates troubleshoot analyses or edit drafts.
• Supporting friends and colleagues who are stressed or burnt out.
• Sending emails, booking rooms, preparing lessons and talks.
• Locating and organizing data before analyses.
• Preparing for meetings and managing the stress and emotions that follow them.
• Thinking. Thinking about your research questions, your analyses, your upcoming meetings, past meetings, assignments, your to-do list.

These everyday tasks likely won’t make it onto your CV or planner, but they’re the glue that holds your grad school experience together.

Why It Matters

Invisible work can be one oof the biggest contributors to grad school burnout. It consumes time and emotional energy but doesn’t “look” productive, which can leave you feeling guilty or behind.

Academic culture doesn’t help. We’re surrounded by the message that productivity means visible output: publications, presentations, polished deliverables. When the work you’re doing doesn’t fit that mold, it’s easy to assume it doesn’t count.

But it does. Invisible work is what makes visible work possible. It’s the scaffolding that holds up every paper, dataset, and dissertation chapter.

How to Acknowledge & Balance It

Recognizing your invisible work won’t make your workload lighter, but it can completely change how you relate to it. Here are a few ways I’ve been reframing it:

• Name it. Start by acknowledging it when it happens. “Today I didn’t write, but I spent two hours helping a labmate fix their syntax – that’s still progress.”
• Track it. I keep a running note labeled Behind-the-Scenes Work – not to add pressure, but to give visibility to the mental and relational effort that never makes it into my planner. I also add a bullet on my daily to-do list called Extra task and check it off whenever I’ve done some invisible work (which, honestly, is ever day).
• Adjust expectations. If you’ve been doing more invisible work, let that influence how you plan your visible tasks. Your capacity isn’t unlimited and it’s okay to recalibrate.
• Communicate boundaries. Invisible work can often be disguised as “small favours.” Learn to say, “I can’t right now, but maybe next week.” Protect your deep work time without guilt.
• Celebrate it. Recognize it in yourself and other. Share it with peers or supervisors when reflecting on your week – normalizing this kind of effort helps everyone feel less behind.

The Takeaway

Not every week is going to look busy on paper. But when you start to acknowledge the invisible work – the mentoring, troubleshooting, mental prep, searching, organizing – you’ll realize you’ve actually been doing far more than you thought.

Grad school isn’t about producing, it’s about sustaining. The invisible work is what keeps everything else moving, even when it doesn’t look that way from the outside.

If you’re feeling behind this week, try this: look back on your week and name three things you did that no one else might have noticed but that still took effort and intention. You’ll probably realize you’ve accomplished more than you gave yourself credit for.

If this post resonated with you, I’d love for you to stick around. Subscribe for weekly reflections and strategies on grad school productivity and wellbeing. Like, share, or leave a comment: What invisible work has been taking up your time lately?