Working hard helps, but if your job is anything like mine (grad student) inevitably work can be quite an emotional/mental challenge in and of itself which may o

Working hard helps, but if your job is anything like mine (grad student) inevitably work can be quite an emotional/mental challenge in and of itself which may or may not help. So i tend to turn to exercise, running hard with music is akin to meditation for me, the physical pain forces everything else out of my head. At the end of a good workout i'm buzzed from the endorphins and often i find that i've unconsciously/subconsciously come to some useful realisation. Personally at least i think my unconscious (if that's a thing) deals with problems far more effectively than my voluntary thought processes. it just needs some peace to get on with it