Dissertation & Thesis Tip
by Ronda Davé, PhD
Time/scheduling
Resolutions, BAH HUMBUG!!! By the time we reach adulthood most of
us know whether New Years Resolutions work for us, that is, if we
resolve to do something, we actually manage to do it. To increase
your success rate, you can choose resolutions that have a greater
chance of being kept. Psychologists have found that it's much harder
to start doing something you haven't been doing than to give up something
you're already doing. So perhaps you can find something in your life
that gets in the way of accomplishing what you want to do, be, or
have… and give it up … thus increasing the chances for
succeeding.
In terms of doing a dissertation, the most important thing is finding
time to focus. Rather than making a resolution to spend more time
on your dissertation, you might have more success if you made a resolution
to limit your time doing other things until the dissertation is done.
For example, you could resolve to limit your TV viewing to 10 hours
per week; or 5 hours per week; or whatever would make a significant
chunk of time available for other use. You could resolve to limit
your wasted commute time by car-pooling or taking public transportation
and reading en route. You could resolve to spend only 30 minutes doing
email every day. Or resolve to read the newspaper only twice per week.
Or resolve to limit whatever other time-consuming activity you habitually
do that has the potential to free up time for dissertation work.
Now of course nothing says you HAVE to use the freed up time for dissertation
work. But you might be able to coerce yourself into working on the
dissertation knowing you've sacrificed something pleasurable to do
so. The psychology at work is to first resolve to limit some activity
you like to do in order to free up time. Then, having made the sacrifice,
you may be more likely to invest your sacrificed time wisely rather
than foolishly.
So do you want to make a New Years Resolution? For the duration of
your dissertation, what can you limit or give up?
