Fellow PhD student referred to all of the research-y stuff I do that doesn't count towards our graduation requirements as "side quests", and now I see that my Skyrim strategy of leaving every quest marker "on" on the map is also the reason I am still a student at age 30 😭
@janeadams I disagree with that (to a point). Maybe it doesn't count towards your graduation requirements, but doing a PhD is first of all about growing as an independent researcher, developing your critical thinking and finding your way in (work) life.
Requirements are there and you should of course complete them, but I suspect those other things will be helpful in the future (of course if you spend 90% of your time on things outside your PhD project, maybe you should change your PhD topic!)
