extreme makeover: dissertation edition

I've spent the better part of this year trying to make over my life into dissertation-life (okay, I did a few other things too.) For 19 years, my educational goals were set by other people, manageable (because they were set for the whole class and I was always at least average in any given class, all goals were achievable), scheduled on a calendar with deadlines, and checkable-offable. Now, in the 20th year, I'm done with coursework (aside from some masochistic "extra" classes) and in the no-man's-land of dissertation writing. It's a real thing. On this graph, I'm right between "the post-quals slump" and "friend from undergrad who didn't go to grad school shows off his/her new BMW."



So, I started making over my life at some point in the winter. I joined phinished.org, and there heard about three tips:

1) The Pomodoro Technique. Essentially, this is a system whereby you schedule and record your efforts in 25-minute blocks (tomatoes, after a 25-minute tomato-shaped kitchen timer) with 5-minute breaks in between them. I've gotten the most out of the Activity Inventory (a to-do list) and, of course, having a regular schedule. Before I started doing this, I was probably only putting in 2 hours a week on my disseratation (proposal) (project). No joke. After, I've consistently put in at least 5-6 hours per week. It may not sound like a lot, but it adds up and allows me to make progress over time. I started out saving tomatoes for just the dissertation stuff, but then the other things I was supposed to be doing fell behind, so I started doing it for any project that's deadlineless. I don't actually use a timer, I use mytomatoes.com, which logs all the work you've done. I've done 150 tomatoes that were properly registered by the website since the beginning of April (at which point I got tired of counting).

2) How to Complete and Survive a Doctoral Dissertation.
I got this out of the library. It was published in 1981 (the year I was born), and is AMAZINGLY relevant and useful today-- including facts about the oversupply of PhDs and the toughness of the job market that are still true, if exacerbated by 30 years of them not really changing. Just skip the part about the "machine room" where you get your computer printouts of statistics. For the first few chapters, you will revel in his descriptions of how stupid, evil, lonely, useless, and tedious the dissertation-writing process is. Then, darn, you have to start actually doing something (assembling a massive "file," which I haven't done yet, but will try to). The best part of the book was the necessary and sufficient reason for completing a doctorate: "The candidate is deeply interested in his specific discipline and has every intention of pursuing a career within the field immediately upon completion of the thesis." Since this applies to me, I don't need to worry about all the "bad" reasons, like having an exciting topic, sunk-cost fallacy about years of your life, people expecting me to do it, or fear of quitting.

It also has the best quote ever: "Your husband may be intractable about not supporting your need for dissertation space, but a good provider, father and lover. You'll need him, and want him, at a later date, after the doctorate is conferred." The book is big on putting everything else on hold and finishing in a year or two.

3. How to Write a Lot
This is a very quick read (you don't necessarily need to buy it.) It mainly says that good writers stick to a schedule of writing 4-15 hours per week, and protect that time from other things. I started writing, but not necessarily at the same time every day- my schedule's too variable for that (though I can see the benefit of doing it.) This book also gives lists priorities for faculty and students. Below is mostly the student one, with 2 and 4 mixed in from the professor one since I have to do them. I like the idea of finishing what I've started before starting new things (not that I've ever finished much of anything for real, but you know, someday.)

1. Projects with deadlines
2. Revising manuscripts/resubmitting manuscripts
3. Dissertation project
4. Reviewing other people's articles
5. Writing new stuff to publish
6. Miscellaneous

Now, the only thing standing in the way of me finishing articles is this Chinese IFLIP class I'm taking- I feel like it's of limited usefulness/pedagogical effectiveness, but since I paid $75 I'm sticking with it. For one more week.