So I have to write a dissertation. Yep, have. to. write.
I seem to have reached an impasse. I am stuck. I am staring at my computer screen and nothing is happening.
I am so close to being finished with my degree, yet I can’t seem to make myself simply sit down, shut up, and write. I make the most ridiculous excuses to avoid working – oh yes, I absolutely must shop for an oven thermometer before I can concentrate on writing. Is this a common problem? It seems so awfully mean and unfair to have to face apathy in the very last months of a degree that has taken a fair amount of concentration and persistence.
While grad school has been far from torture, it has not been a dream. We were not the best fit, grad school and I. I should have known I am not cut out for lab work. I should have known it in seventh grade. We had to take a personality test to determine which profession we are most suited for (the very concept, when applied to a seventh-grader, seems slightly absurd to me). I, being the little obsessive that I am, wrote down that I fancy the sciences and lab work most of all. The next page asked what dress code I would most prefer at work. Fully aware even then that lab workers are not generally known for their fashion sense (to put it mildly), I filled in the circle next to “business attire.” That should have served as a sign. I am not cut out for lab life. Science, yes. Lab, not so much.
So why now, now that I am so close to the next step, to moving on and dressing up am I positively mired in inactivity? Is it mental exhaustion? Fear of the future? The furthest extent of masochism? What is it? And when will it pass?
Yikes! I am not the person to ask. My Dissertation icon has been staring at me from the desktops of four computers now, not to be opened in more than three years!
It is so difficult to know what will motivate another person! While writing up the PhD, I was definitely motivated by a sense of progress: i.e. the better I felt it was going the more I did the next day. A way to get a sense of progress is to do at least one ‘item’ of the “Materials and Methods” and insert at least one graph/figure (with a brief description of why you did it and what information you got from it) in a results chapter every day.
Something that saved me a lot of time was spending a day or so thinking and outlining what I wanted to communicate to the examiners. This helped because it is really tempting to go off on a tangent and waste a day writing something that does not add anything to your story.
Based on your “personality test” results,
it is possible that you might be more productive if you wrote your dissertation wearing your interview suit. :)
…….
My husband has just reminded me that he helped a lot as well! Perhaps it is also a good idea to find a good cheer-leader!
This sounds really girly, but it usually helps me out when I have some writing to do. Buy an outfit you feel fabulous in, have a mani/pedi done (either by yourself or in a spa) while sipping a nice glass of wine, sort what needs to be done that same particular week, and then sit down and write up, or write up and then get fab. Another idea could be to get a nice massage as a pre-reward or post-reward after finishing up to X part of what needs to be done.
One of my best friends is finishing writing up her thesis, and her motivation usually revolves around either some bag, outfit, pair of shoes, or make-up she’s “allowed” to get after finishing each chapter. Then again, she is heading out to the beauty industry and needs a new wardrobe anyways.
Bora – D’oh. I am not sure I needed to hear that. Maybe fourth year is the dissertation charm?
Bronwen – While I don’t think I have enough time to procure a husband to cheer-lead for me, I do have wonderful friends who have been very patient with me, programming me as if I were a 5 year-old, “Just one page a day, one hour a day, you can do it!!” (very much along the lines of what you are saying). I am nothing short of ridiculous.
Madeline – Excellent idea! Positive reinforcement is the way to go in this case, I think. Any excuse to buy things I want but don’t need…
How about a competition, Anna? Whoever defends first, gets a drink from the other one at the next conference (hopefully Scifoo)?
When I was writing up my PhD, I found it helpful to get all the headings and subheadings for each chapter down first. It’s a relatively quick way to see progress and has the added benefit of organizing your thoughts – you end up with an outline of the whole thesis. It also breaks it up into manageable chunks I have a very short attention span!). I found it much easier to ‘fill in the gaps’ under the headings than to write a few pages of unstructured prose – it kept me from straying from the point too much!
Keep us updated on your progress. And good luck!
Bora – I like the way you think! You’re on. I am hoping to make the next conference the one in NC.
Dorothy – I like that approach. It’s less daunting to think of the thesis in small parts as opposed to one looming mountain.