week 8

The Dissertation Journey: A Practical and Comprehensive Guide to Planning, Writing,

and Defending your Dissertation

Organizing Yourself

Contributors: By: Carol M. Roberts

Book Title: The Dissertation Journey: A Practical and Comprehensive Guide to Planning, Writing, and

Defending your Dissertation

Chapter Title: "Organizing Yourself"

Pub. Date: 2010

Access Date: April 1, 2021

Publishing Company: Corwin Press

City: Thousand Oaks

Print ISBN: 9781412977982

Online ISBN: 9781452219219

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452219219.n7

Print pages: 67-74

© 2010 Corwin Press All Rights Reserved.

This PDF has been generated from SAGE Knowledge. Please note that the pagination of the online

version will vary from the pagination of the print book.

Organizing Yourself

Organizing yourself

Organizing is what you do before you do something so that when you do it, it's not all mixed up.

—Christopher Robin in A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh

Successfully completing your dissertation requires organization and planning. Working hard is not enough, you must also work smart. Working smart means organizing a place conducive to writing and developing a time schedule to which you faithfully adhere even if you lack inspiration. Knowing yourself, the peaks and ebbs of your energy patterns, is also essential to efficiently getting the job done. Working smart also requires maintaining balance in your life. Today, many doctoral students are married with children and hold full-time jobs, making it essential to balance dissertation activities and other life obligations. This chapter offers suggestions for organizing your workspace, your time, and yourself for effective dissertating and for maintaining balance in the process. Think of these suggestions as options. Try them out to see which ones work for you.

Organize Your Workspace

It is extremely important that you find a suitable place for dissertating where you can be productive. Determine where you do your best work, and plan to be there each time you work on the dissertation. Your dissertation workspace may be your office at work, your office at home, or a separate area in your home designed exclusively for your dissertation work. It should be quiet, private, and free of interruptions and distractions such as posters, TV, fish tank, portraits, and pleasure books. Let the answering machine take phone messages while you work. If music helps you write, then keep CDs or your iPod handy. Relegate to this office only those activities related to the dissertation—no writing letters, paying bills, or surfing the Internet. Having a single-minded focus makes you much more efficient. Wherever you work, make sure you have the following:

• Computer and printer • Comfortable, ergonomic chair • Sturdy, decent-sized desk • Good lighting • Appropriate reference materials (dictionary, thesaurus, style manual, etc.) • Necessary materials (printer ink cartridges, etc.) • Bookcase • Filing cabinet • File folders • Writing materials (pens, pencils, sticky notes, tablets, etc.) • “Ideas” notebook to jot down ideas that come to you

An organized workspace dedicated exclusively to your dissertation study goes a long way toward maintaining optimum efficiency.

Organize Your Time

Because no deadlines are imposed on you while writing the dissertation, time can escape quite easily. Completing a dissertation requires that you manage your time well. Realistically assess how much time you can devote to your dissertation study. It is a big challenge to find time in an already busy daily schedule. The reality is that you have to make time. Those who don't, relegate themselves to the title ABD (all-but- dissertation).

Planning and scheduling time are the keys to making things happen. Planning is deciding what to do.

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Scheduling is deciding when to do it—picking the time to do the activities. It is more like a commitment, whereas planning is the intention. Scheduled things tend to happen. To be truly efficient, create at least three scheduling plans. First, design an overall dissertation timeline, which helps you see the big picture and keeps you on track. Second, create a time schedule to which you commit so many hours each day or week. Third, create a to-do list—a daily reminder of the tasks that need to be done each day. The following describes these three techniques and offers some recommendations to make them work for you.

1. The Dissertation Timeline

The Gantt chart—a useful method for creating a dissertation timeline—can be as detailed as you wish. To construct a Gantt chart, list the major phases or specific activities of the dissertation down the left side of the page. Across the top, list the time for completing the entire dissertation process. Then, create a bar graph that shows the beginning and ending times for each major phase or activity. When creating this long-range plan, it helps to work backwards from commencement. When do you need to turn in the dissertation to your graduate office? To do that, when would you need to defend? To do that, when would you need to get it to the committee? See Appendix A for an example of a Gantt chart.

2. Time Schedule

Creating a strict schedule of hours each day or week to work on your dissertation is essential. I cannot emphasize this enough. No real progress can be made without ongoing involvement with your study. Otherwise, you spin your wheels trying to figure out where you left off the last time. Try to schedule as many unbroken hours as possible for uninterrupted concentration. I find that in a block of two hours, I can make considerable progress. As much as possible, maintain daily progress—even if it is only 15 minutes at a time. This way your mind stays focused and your subconscious working. It helps to set a goal for how much work you will accomplish each day or week and to keep a record to determine if your goal was met. This keeps you moving and motivated.

Remember

• Plan each day. Block out 30 minutes, an hour, three hours, or whatever time you can to work on your dissertation.

• Choose a scheduling strategy that works for you. You may choose to work in terms of hours and minutes worked or pages written. Figure out which works best for you.

• Stick to your schedule.

3. To-Do List

In the time management literature, experts suggest myriad techniques for managing a To-Do list. Some recommend listing everything that needs to be done and reviewing the list first thing in the morning to confront items that still need to be done. Others recommend keeping a short, doable To-Do list. They say you should place only three to six items on your To-Do list and make sure you accomplish them. This forces the habit of finishing what you place on your list and results in a feeling of accomplishment.

One good way to be efficient is to write out a To-Do list every day. Separate your To-Do list into A, B, and C priorities. A items are your high-priority activities; B items may be urgent but not as important; C items are those that would be nice to do if you get the time. Start with the A items—the ones that must be done. Then move to the B items—the ones that probably should be done. C items are least important. Don't work on a C just because it's easy to do. Check off items as you complete them to give yourself a sense of accomplishment.

Another way to prioritize your To-Do list is found in the book Time Tactics of Very Successful People by Griessman (1994). He suggested you prioritize by asking the following questions of each item:

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• Will it help me do my thesis or otherwise make my life better? • Does it have a real deadline that will cost me if I miss it? • Is it a command from someone I can't ignore? • Will it help me fulfill my potential? • Will it matter a year from now?

It makes little difference which type of priority technique you use as long as it works for you. The main thing is to develop the habit of first things first.

Helpful Hint

Be sure to keep your To-Do list handy, on your bulletin board or day planner or in your purse or pocket.

Working Smart

Working hard is not enough—you need to work smart to ensure that the hours you schedule for dissertation work are truly productive ones. Developing efficient habits and routines and applying the various techniques described in this book are some of the ways you can work with the least amount of wasted time, motion, and money. Here are some recommendations for working smart.

1. Work on Your Dissertation during Times That You Are Most Productive

Are you a night owl?

or

Are you an early bird?

Pay attention to your biorhythms. Determine the hours most productive for you and try to schedule those hours for dissertation work—your number one priority. If you're an early bird, consider rising two hours earlier than usual; if a night owl, stay up two hours later. Schedule routine tasks for your low-energy periods and your dissertation tasks when you're alert and energetic. It's more productive to work with your daily rhythms and ride your energy peaks.

2. Learn to Say No

Learn to say no to nonvital, trivial requests. In the book Secrets for a Successful Dissertation (Fitzpatrick, Secrist, & Wright, 1998), the authors expressed this idea well:

Are you able to say no to favors, fun times, fund-raising, chair positions, family reunions, and frolicking in the park on Sunday afternoons? Because if you are ever going to gain control over your days and nights, and manage your time efficiently, the first lesson to learn is to say no. Say it regretfully, say it remorsefully, say it with clenched teeth, or say it with joy—but say it loud and clear. The world is Full of Time Zappers who will steal your time if you allow them, so put all your good deeds on hold and use the word no freely. You'll be glad you did. (p. 97)

Practice making responses such as, “I'm sorry, I'm not available that night,” “I can't do that task today, but how about next week?” “How about asking John instead?” or “What would you like me to give up to do this?” Be gracious with people, but be firm with time.

Your dissertation year is not the time to be president or chairperson of anything, take on additional responsibilities, give a presentation, or attend a conference. Eliminate unnecessary activities and accept only those obligations you consider absolutely necessary. You must be ruthless with your time and energy. Learn to say no when you should, and learn to say it without guilt.

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Life can get away from us through thousands of little dribs and drabs.

—B. E.Griessman

3. Schedule Frequent “Joy Breaks”

Throughout your working time, stop and do something pleasurable. Stretch, move about, take some deep breaths, play with your dog, make some tea, or take a walk. These activities energize you and keep you focused. Also, the mind is quite remarkable. When allowed to wander, it often comes up with creative ideas and decisions. You must let your body and mind rest to do your best creative work.

4. Know Your Timewasters

Two useful tasks to maintain maximum efficiency are (a) determine those things that waste your time and (b) work on reducing or eliminating them. Develop a mind-set that judges every activity in terms of whether it brings you closer to completing your dissertation. People must learn to respect your time as much as you do. Make a list of 5 to 10 timewasters in your life and then prioritize in order of importance. Determine what you think might be the cause(s) of each timewaster and generate some possible solutions to reduce or eliminate each one.

5. Reward Your Efforts

Behavior persists when it is rewarded, so give yourself rewards along the way. When you meet a deadline, have coffee with a friend, do a crossword puzzle, rent a movie, buy yourself an ice cream, or do something else that makes you feel good about your accomplishment. Tell yourself you can't do that thing until you accomplish the allotted amount of dissertation work. Punishments can also work. Some people find it useful to say, “If I don't get this done by that date, then I can't do ________.”

Maintain Balance

Finding the right balance between your dissertation and the rest of your life is difficult. All work and no play puts considerable pressure on you. It causes illness, depression, burnout, and exhaustion. Most doctoral students I have known report the first thing that goes is their fitness routine. They also mention the strain the dissertation causes in family relationships.

Having a life beyond the dissertation is important. To finish, you need to put the dissertation first. This means putting other life areas on hold from time to time. However, you needn't always give up other important life activities and devote every waking moment to your dissertation. Working all the time will likely lead to burnout.

One way to get a handle on balancing your life while dissertating is to write down all the things most important in your life (health, family, friends, hobbies, fun, etc.). Then you can identify strategies to help keep them in balance.

Strategies for Getting a Life While Dissertating

1. Take Care of Your Body

Because you must be well to do your best work, remember to get plenty of rest and eat nutritious meals. Also, there is considerable evidence about the benefits of deep breathing and regular exercise to your well-being. The extra oxygen sent to the brain provides energy and helps you think more clearly and creatively. It is also considered a stress buster.

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2. Increase Family Support

To maintain family support, block out hours during the week for family and friends. For example, agree that Saturday nights are available for socializing with friends, Wednesday and Friday nights plus Sunday are reserved for family time. Such a plan maintains positive and healthy relationships with the important people in your life. In addition, it cuts down on the guilt so many students feel when these vital relationships are ignored. If you stay true to these time commitments, your friends and family can readily adjust to the schedule.

Another recommendation is to keep your family and friends informed about how you're progressing on the dissertation and even involve them as much as possible. Children love being a part of something so significant in your life. Let them experience your university campus firsthand, and include them in all celebratory activities.

Organizing effectively is critical to your success in the dissertation journey. It takes time to learn to be efficient with your time, but it's well worth the effort. I do hope you try some of these techniques.

The key to completing a dissertation is not brilliance or even inspiration, but organization.

—David Sternberg (1981)

Summary

Make organization and planning a top priority in your dissertation journey. It is important to organize your workspace so you can concentrate and be productive. It is equally important to organize your time to maximize energy and keep on track. Create at least three scheduling plans: (a) an overall dissertation timeline, (b) a daily or weekly schedule, and (c) a To-Do list. Work smart by developing efficient habits and routines such as (a) working at a time when you are most productive, (b) learning to say no, (c) scheduling frequent joy breaks, (d) knowing your timewasters, and (e) rewarding your efforts. Maintain balance between your dissertation and the rest of your life by taking care of your body and increasing family support.

Following the guidelines and recommendations presented thus far puts you firmly on the path and ready to begin the climb to the top. The next chapter helps you acquire the skills of using the Internet and technology to conduct research throughout the various phases of writing a dissertation and offers tips to keep you sane and productive in the process.

• dissertation • routines and habits • Gantt charts • working time • working hours • keeping track • habits

http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452219219.n7

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