Catching Up

Well, I can't believe its been almost 10 months since I posted to this blog. I took on new responsibilities at work and my dissertation went on the back burner. I had hoped to graduate this May, but that is not going to happen. So, I have to pick myself up and start again.

Not finishing is not an option!

So, let's review what has worked well in the past.

1) writing at least 200 words a day worked well.
2) spending an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening writing worked well.

I am still working on the Literature Review. I've gotten really tired of this section. So, on the advice of my Chairperson, I am going to start writing the Methodology chapter to take a break.

On the positive side. the first chapter of my dissertation was one of six winners of the Christian Business Faculty Association Dissertation Showcase. I presented the paper at the CBFA annual conference in Indianapolis this past November.

On Target with WR Time Tracker

I accomplished my writing goals for today. I was able to put in 5 hours of work on my dissertation. This allowed me to write about 4 pages of material, which is the most progress that I've made in several weeks.

I used WR Time Tracker, a free web-based project management application, to keep track of my progress through the day. You can have as many activities pertaining to your dissertation as you like and keep track of how much time you spend on those activities. A very nice feature is that it gives you a pie chart so you have a visual representation of how much time you spend on each activity (see screen shot to the left).

In addition, I detailed a proposed outline for finishing this section of my literature review. Here it is:

(1) Fukuyama review
(2) Define apocalypticism (2 branches)
(3) Pervasiveness of both branches
(4) Apocalyptic terror brings these branches together (first time in modern history to face this kind of threat - Kurth)
(5) Summary of sub-section
(6) Summary of section

Actually, I finished the Fukuyama review today. May goals for tomorrow are:

1) on hour of writing before work tomorrow. This means I'm up at 4:00 am.
2) in that our I will define the two branches of apocalypticism
3) tomorrow evening, I will spend on hour revising and planning my writing for the following day.

Recommitting to the Process

I really do want to finish my dissertation, but I've made little progress in the past month. So, I have to change things up. Today, I signed up for The Secrets of Dissertation Success coaching site. It has valuable practical helps in various media forms and 2 email coaching sessions per month for a relatively low cost. Follow this link to find more.

Step two: I revised by time line as follows:

9-May	Graduation!!!
1-Apr	Revisions complete
15-Mar	Final Defense
1-Mar	Chapter 5 finished
1-Jan	Chapter 4 finished
1-Nov	Proposal Defended and Accepted
25-Sep	Chapter 3 finished
25-Jul	Chapter 2 finished
25-May	Recommit to process

Step 3: I have to make promises to myself that I can deliver on. I think I really need to invest 20 hours a week to meet the schedule above. So, that means 2 hours a day Monday through Friday and 10 hours over the weekend. I am going to try this, quick track of the time I am spending, and revise as necessary. I plan to write at least 1 hour before I go to work and I'll use an hour in the evening for reading and preparing my writing session for the next day.

Step 4: I'll journal my daily promises here and to monitor if I am keeping them.

True Confessions

Since my last major post entitled If You Keep Doing What You've Been Doing, You Will Keep Getting What You Have Been Getting, I haven't been following my own advice.

I started out well writing 200 words and rewarding myself. However, gradually, I drifted back into old habits and making little progress. You might say, I started doing what I had been doing and I got the same results that I had been getting. What went wrong?

1) My environment changed - slowly. Since January, may work load at work has gradually increased, and more recently, dramatically increased. I did not read the changes in my environment and make appropriate adjustments in my commitments to the dissertation process. Consequently, in order to deal with the increasing pressure at work - I allowed myself to drift back in to my old unproductive habits.

2) I did not regularly review my commitments i.e. writing 200 words and rewarding myself and writing in the mornings before work.

What do I plan to do about it?

1) recommit myself to my commitments and attempt to stay attentive to how to adopt them to my environment. I intend to start writing 200 words with a reward and writing again in the morning. However, I may need to adjust my morning writing to burst of a few days or 1 week. It is difficult, for me, to sustain weeks of getting up at 3:00 am to write.

2) Make a small change. I often find Nancy Wichard's blog Successful Writing Tips helpful in jump starting my writing process. In her post Three Quick Fixes to Jolt You into Action on Your Dissertation (see RSS feed in left column), she proposes putting a short cut on your desktop for your dissertation so it is only one click away. Well, I cleaned up my desktop so there are only 8 icons on my desktop (including my dissertation). Then I gave my dissertation a distinctive green arrow icon. The green arrow icon makes the dissertation easy to identify and the image, for me, symbolizes forward action - get going!

Points to Ponder
Has your environment been slowly or rapidly changing around you and causing you to drop your dissertation as you, perhaps unconsciously, attempt to navigate the changes? What do you need to do to adjust your commitment to your dissertation to your changing environment?

How I Regrouped and Re-Started the Writing Even When Life Encroached

Sep 22nd, 2007 by Nancy Whichard

I’ve been on a trip, away from my writing projects and away from other job-related commitments. It’s hard to come back.

I enjoy writing my blog. I also have another writing project that is new and important to me, but re-starting takes effort.

Coming back to most writing tasks requires more of us than just doing it.

1) It takes self-awareness.
I needed to give myself permission to feel whatever it was that was getting in my way.

2) I am free to choose.
I had quite a bit of work piled up from all corners of my work life, and some of it was stressful—the kind of piddly stuff that clutters my brain and annoys me. But in my absence, the piddly stuff had grown to a nose-high level. I could groan and moan and continue to push through that work, becoming increasingly cranky, or I could give myself permission to choose.

3) Take a moment.
I needed to give myself a moment to settle in and regroup. I needed to sit quietly.

4) Write whatever comes into your mind.
Usually ideas come to me as I write, and I need to write in order to remember this. I am often surprised as I start to write that ideas actually start coming to me, just as they usually do. I tell my clients to trust themselves. Likewise, I need to trust myself. And take a moment. And remember that I am free to choose.

See this and other similar tips at Successful Writing Tips

What to do when it all falls apart?

Well, the past two weeks have been almost a complete loss as far as my dissertation progress is concerned. Work has been overwhelming. The time I would have spend working on my dissertation in the evenings and on the weekends has been devoted to meeting deadlines for work.

Consequently, I am very off target on all of my self-imposed deadlines for my dissertation. So what to do?

1) Remember to trust the process. Their are forces at work that I cannot see. Personally, I believe the hand of God is directing my path. So, I need to have faith that what seem to be diversions "from the straight and narrow path" are, in fact, God's way of taking me on a better route.
2) Get back in the saddle and keep doing the right things. Today, I spent all day reading.
3) Remember that reading is writing. One cannot write until one reads and reflects. It is difficult because I want to see text flowing on my computer screen. However, the reading and reflecting that I am doing will eventually give way to the flow.

Trusting the Process

Today I worked about 4 hours on my dissertation and wrote about 2 pages. I'm please with that progress, but progress is feeling mighty slow right now! I had hoped to finish the first chapter by tomorrow but I'm far from done.

As I was reflecting on this situation this evening, I remembered the words of Dr. Mike Hartsfield, who was the Program Director of my PhD program when I started in 2003. In reference to becoming a doctor and being discouraged by one's perceived progress he said, "You've got to trust the process." I've always taken that to mean, if you keep working hard and doing what you need to do you can trust that through that process you will eventually become a doctor.

So, in the face of this slow going, I have to just keep working hard (and try to work smart) and keep doing what I know I need to do. As I trust that process, the dissertation will get done.

Acts of God and writing a dissertation

Well, I had good intentions of writing some on my dissertation last evening, then the storms hit. My basement was flooded and I spend the night pumping and bailing water. Today we cleaned up the mess and tried to be better prepared for storms predicted for tonight. Tomorrow will be the real clean up of the basement.

This experience caused me to think about the many unexpected things that come up during the dissertation writng process - things out of your control - that eliminate writing time. It wouldn't be so bad if I was planning on taking several years to writing it - but I'm on a short time frame. I'm also off the pace I set for myself.

My solution - stay focused, recommit to doing what I know is right - write something everyday even if it is only 15 mins. Finally, trust God that he will redeem the time. He has throughout my program.

Another part of my solution is to eliminate known distractions that I can control. For instance, I was recently asked to sing at a wedding. I love sing. I have a master's degree in music, but I rarely get to do anything musical. I would really like to do this. However, it means learning new music, at least two rehearsals and the wedding. All of this falls within days of an international trip for my work which may take me away from writing consistently for up to 12 days. As much as I would like to do the wedding, it is something I can choose not to add to my schedule that will not take away from my writing time.