Slippery Slope

One of the most challenging aspects of my PhD is the fact I'm developing a pretty major project and running with it alongside the research aspect and it's tough! Avoiding being caught in the ever ending cycle of operational matters of something as new as this work is so time consuming. Attention to the academic research is critical for reasons of validation (or otherwise) but no matter how much I try to protect the time for this, the day to day operational aspects always seep through to varying degrees. It's important to give the operational work priority as more often than not it's about peoples' lives. Sometimes, like today, it can feel as though the academic 'stuff' is slipping away and I'm hanging on for my life. Can be sooooo frustrating.