How To Finish Your Dissertation in the New Year

New Year, renewed dedication to your goals. What do you want to accomplish this year? Use these first weeks of January to articulate your mission. Do you want to finally finish your dissertation? You can! Here's how:

1. ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT. State clearly what you want from the universe, and from yourself. Be specific. Write out your goal. For example -- if you are in the final stages of the PhD process and need to make that final push -- write: "I want to finish a draft of all five chapters and submit them to my advisor and committee this summer."

2. MOVE FROM "WANT" TO "WILL". Rewrite what you want using the word "will". Your statement now becomes: "I WILL to finish a draft of all five chapters and submit them to my advisor and committee this summer."  Feel the shift internally. You WILL do this. This attitude shift is forward thinking, and does not dwell in the past.

3. CREATE A PLAN TO GET TO WHERE YOU WANT TO GO. A coach, writing buddy, or support group can help create the plan and keep you accountable. But you can do this alone, too. Set aside time to make the plan. Sit down with your current version of what you have, a calendar, and a sense of optimism.. and plan it out! What will you do each month to get to the goal? From each month's goal, what needs to be done each WEEK? What will you do THIS week?

4. TAKE ACTION. Just do it, whatever it is. Move forward boldly. Stay dedicated and focused! You can do it.

With best wishes for 2007,
Dissertation Diva

Comments

[Denise]

Thanks for a great blog site: reading it has been helping me get back on track with my dissertation after a long holiday/working to pay the bills break. But I do have a question about this post. I am working on wrapping up my prospectus, and when I have set deadlines as you suggest on my prospectus, it has ended up stressing me out so much that I don't get anything done at all. And normally I'm a person who works well to deadlines. My advisors have suggested that the prospectus, as a conceptualization phase of the dissertation, is not necessarily suited to setting hard deadlines, but part of me wants to set firm deadlines to get the thing done, and I feel guilty when I fall short of self-imposed expectations, then begin to worry this is indicative of my ability to finish the whole dissertation. What do you think or suggest about this dilemma?

Thanks again,
Denise

[Dissertation Diva]

Denise,

Thank you for your comment and question. I've posted a response here, as a blog post: http://dissertationdiva.typepad.com/dissertion_diva/2007/01/deadline_dilemm.html