Summer 2012 Dissertation Boot Camp Day 3

Today was MOTIVATION focus day.

We started the day with a workshop on motivation by Kim Perkins (SBOS). Kim is a 3-time inline skating champion, who is currently a doctoral candidate herself working on the topic of competition.

It was a thought provoking, challenging workshop for many of us. However, understanding procrastination not merely as putting off doing something, but going deeper into exploring our procrastination styles was useful. Do I procrastinate because I am avoiding something, being a perfectionist, or simply because I like and am habituated to the thrill of last minute rush?

Kim shared a wonderful image about deadlines from author Douglas Adams (of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy fame) who was brilliant at missing deadlines, and who said how he loved the sound of deadlines whooshing past!

... dissertators know that sound!

So with Kim's framing questions we began thinking about setting deadlines that work. Clearly, this is not a thing to be solved in a morning, or even a week. But it began stirring up the mud, raising questions, feelings, illuminating habituated patterns of behaviour we have, deep seated issues and concerns. I think in the days and weeks to come, if we return to this worksheet a few times, we might begin to get glimmerings of ideas that will work for us.

No short cuts ... just an ever evolving process.