Getting out of your head

Notes from our discussion at the last Dissertators group meeting.

I wanted to get us talking and thinking about things we do that make us feel good. Because most of the time, we think and talk about the big D - what I've done, what I have to write, feedback I've received, why I am putting the next chapter on hold ....

In between of course life is happening, we're experiencing and doing far more than just our dissertation. But in our memory all that becomes part of a generally cloudy background. So I thought I'd switch perspective and we could talk about things we do that make us feel good. The dissertation process is about being slow and steady. Nothing much to celebrate. Well, sometimes we stop and feel good that we completed a paragraph, a page, a chapter; these are important milestones along the way. But the distance of the journey stretches out always ahead of us.

So, having something whole and entire to celebrate is important so we can experience, and remember, and breathe in the feeling of completion. It’s important we do not forget how this feels.

And we can give it to ourselves by paying attention to and celebrating the small but powerful things we accomplish. Here are some things that came up in our conversation:

• The weekly yoga/pilates//gym session
• Completing a scrapbook (Anne said it’s like a legacy, and therefore in many ways like her research and dissertation)
• Hiking – the accomplishment of starting out and getting to a specific place; there is enough effort to make the reaching of the destination a cause for celebration.
• Learning a new song in choir practice and getting to the aha! Moment of ‘getting it’.
• Starting a philanthropic project to build more communication in extended family and hearing from a family member after 15 years of no contact
• Getting back in touch with an old friend
• Walking the dog.

Also we noticed that quite a few of these things we recalled, that stood out for us as something that made us feel good, were things that involved us physically – walking, singing, breathing, scrapbooking. There is movement and a mind-body connection in all these activities. Others were activities that connected us with other people. All of them are activities that take us outside of our heads and definitely outside of our work.


Read more about the importance of remembering and making time for your whole self:
The NHS (UK) - article on a study of how physical activity reduces stress
The Franklin Institute - information and  tips on stress relieving methods that take you outside of your head.

To outline or not to outline

To create a good outline you need to have a pretty good idea of the flow and structure of the chapter/section/dissertation.

But ….. one gets a good idea of the flow and structure of the chapter/section/dissertation by making an outline. I think of this as ‘messy outlining’.

The proverbial chicken and egg dilemma.

The first option rarely seems to work for dissertations because part of the writing process is about surfacing your ideas and making discoveries (even though we live with the illusion … delusion? … that we have it all worked out when we become ABD).

The second option might work better for dissertators. We write at different levels of detail; sometimes we’re thinking about the larger argument that spans an entire chapter, and other times, we focus on the flow of ideas within a section. So here, ‘messy outlining’ works really well.

Let’s say you’re in the middle of writing and the section you’re working on just does not feel like it’s coherent; the direction of your ideas is not clear. This is where you can stop and make a mini outline:

1. What is my claim or the main idea I am asserting?

2. What are the different points I am making that leads to this claim?

3. In what order should I arrange these points?

I like to do this by printing out what I have written for that section and then numbering different chunks of writing to identify the discrete points or thoughts. Then I consider the best order for these numbered chunks. Sometimes I end up cutting out the pieces and moving them around! It really helps my tired mind to think more clearly to physically move the ideas about. I’ve tried doing this on screen, but scrolling up and down, and cutting and pasting is not as effective as laying out a few printed pages and scanning it visually … and actually cutting and re-arranging. I seem to see better (especially when I am tired and have been grappling with the ideas for a while) because all the ideas are laid out within my range of vision. Chad shared that he does something like this as well and finds it works.

Give it a go and see if it works for you. And share any variations you discover that work.

Advice for Dissertators

Stumbled on a very informative page about dissertations on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when I was avoiding the writing pact I had made with myself.

The page is a great resource for tips and techniques on how to manage life after ABD to keep yourself on track to write your way through to the end of your dissertation. Check it out here.

The UNH page also has some fun stuff - here is a list of dissertation idioms from their page. I've added a few more from our Boot Camps.

• A good dissertation is a done dissertation.
• What do you call a grad student who barely squeaks a lousy dissertation past her committee? Doctor.
• You ain't painting a masterpiece.
• It's not the last word on the topic; it's the first word.
• Dare to be adequate!
• Life happens ... and sometimes so do dissertations.

Here's an informative and entertaining website. The person it belongs to seems to be a statistics or math professor who is generously sharing his experience getting his Ph.D.

http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/
He has a really comprehensive website - here are just a few items from the list of posts/articles:

The Illustrated guide to a Ph.D - really puts what we're doing in perspective. I think I will print this series of drawings out to reinforce the idea that a good dissertation really really is a done dissertation! There is an entire world out there waiting for us to continue exploring.

Other posts that look intriguing:

• A Ph.D. thesis proposal is a contract.

• 3 qualities of successful Ph.D. students.

• 3 shell scripts that can improve your writing.


• Productivity tips for academics.


• Tips, tricks and applications for the iPhone.

• HOWTO: Use Skype for home phone line service.


• Recommended books and papers for grad students.

• Academic job hunt advice.

There are also TONS of links to statistical methods and short cuts for those interested