Summer 2012 Dissertation Boot Camp - DAY 2

As with most second days, we began more slowly. People lingered over breakfast a little and it was 8:45 am (15 minutes later than planned) when we began our first writing block. But this is typical; it is so nice to chat with others who really get it about the dissertation process.But once we got going after setting our goals, it felt like a solid work session.

Like yesterday, time flew by and we got to our morning stretch break with Vanessa really fast.

Vanessa Kettering (SBOS) who also works at the Writing Centre led us through a short but very energizing stretch break on the mounds. At the end, we did a walking meditation and then a group or circle massage (VERY nice!!). There was no time for hammocks this morning ... but more than a few people checked them out. Maybe after lunch...

At the end of the stretch break there was a palpable rise in energy. Some people remarked on how much more energized they felt and ready to write. Someone said, "I felt happier in the middle of the session". I know that lately, I've realized (again!!) the importance of our physical selves as part of any effort to lead a productive life, and how little time I give myself to be outside in natural light and beauty. There are physiological and emotional benefits that really support working effectively. When I remember to breathe, stretch, and pay attention to my surroundings, my mind feels more rested and ready to work. When I immerse myself in work without any physical and nature breaks, I keep working but in a plodding, unhappy manner.

Summer 2012 Dissertation Boot Camp - DAY 1

This summer’s dissertation boot camp is a 7-day camp, and held at the wonderfully-conducive-to-writing Grove House at Pitzer College. As one dissertator said after breakfast and orientation under the natural canopy of the outdoor classroom, “It’s like a vacation…”. Of course, this was BEFORE he had begun confronting his writing! But really, the broad porch, the outdoor classroom, and the old, comfortable-lived-in rooms in the house are great spaces for focusing on writing. It’s totally like a retreat from the whirlwind we call life, into a calm haven that supports writing and the building of good writing habits. 

If you’re curious about this amazing community house, check out this online project about it that was done as a senior thesis by Pitzer student, Leah Wellman Quayle.

DAY ONE: Dissertating at the Grove House

Early arrivals. Not too many got lost. So we got started early and ended up with time for a 2 hour first block of writing in the morning instead of one. YAY!!!

Everyone has a table, covered in the white butcher paper that has become almost iconically connected with dissertation boot camps. Some are in the three little rooms at the back of the house, and the rest upstairs in the poetry room overlooking the front, and the gallery space. But this is early summer in Southern California and we anticipate most people taking their laptops down to the living room and outdoor areas to write. 
...which they totally did! 

First order of business was breakfast and getting to know each other in the outdoor classroom … “just like going to summer camp!” And then to the accompaniment of the sound of planes from the flying school at nearby Cable Airport, we went over introductions, boot camp best practices and rules, and the week’s schedule.

Writing goals for Day 1

We spent some time on group work to share and discover niggling challenges that get in the way of dissertating, and ideas we have for over-coming these challenges, best practices to keep dissertation writing moving smoothly forward.

Overheard: "Wow! We have great strategies ... pity we're not so good at using them ..."

And that's the foundational goal at our week long boot camp - learning to put strategies into practice. This is the week to discover how we work best, and find ways to sustain writing when we're not at boot camp.

I found a nice image in the aeroplane interruptions that I will remember. At first I was a little bothered about having to constantly pause in discussion to wait for the sound to ebb as the plane passed. But then I realized it reminded me of when I write – without pause – and get so lost in detail and thinking with the writing that I run out of steam or ideas or both. Periodically waiting to pause … and breathe ...  creates moments of stillness that refocus the mind. (The extra burst of oxygen doesn’t hurt either).

Dissertation Boot Camp June 26th & 27th

Slide show from Boot Camp on the weekend of June 26 and 27. This was a quick, put together Boot Camp, but we had 10 people who showed up to writewritewrite and we all managed to get a lot done.





Take Aways From This Boot Camp

Make Goals Visible - write them out, put them where you can see them as you work. WRITE THEM LARGE. They will gently nag in a most friendly way, especially if you use colours - crayons or markers. We had 'pure colour pencils' - imagine only the inside of a colour pencil without the wood!

Write Mini Goals - on the way to the main goal for the day. If you want to complete a chapter, you might want to write some interim milestones to get to that goal like the different sections for the chapter. That way you can track your progress to the end of the chapter through the day. This also makes the writing process more concrete and gives you specific writing tasks to work at. Do them, one by one by one ... and voila! Suddenly you're at Chapter's End!

Cross Goals Out along the way. As you meet each mini goal, what satisfaction there is in crossing them out with a big fat marker! DONE! .... on to the next.

Hydrate. Remember to drink water as you work. When you're feeling tired, more often than not it's a lack of water. Keep a large mug or bottle of water next to you so you can take large swigs from it as you work. Coffee's ok, but really .... your body desires water.

Breathe. You'd be surprised how often you stop breathing when you are really focused on writing. Take Breathing Breaks: Stop - Sit up straight - Focus on your breath - Breath in and feel your ribcage expand - Hold - Breath out through your mouth for a count of 8. Close your eyes through this process to give them a rest from the screen/paper. Repeat a few times. This takes just a few minutes, but can re-energize your body and mind to work again with renewed focus and energy. Especially if you have a drink of water before you resume work.

Greetings from Boot Camp / Writing in the Summertime

Dissertation picnic

Our recent Boot Camp was a great success and we welcomed several new first-timers to the dissertating ranks. As we all head into summer, that long stretch of even-more unstructured time, with even more tantalizing things to do other than write your dissertation, here are a few things to keep in mind to help you keep writing (using photos from the most recent Boot Camp!)

Many thanks once again to Nancy Sassaman, helping us make time for Vitamin D.

So much of the writing process happens indoors, cramped over a desk, carpal tunnel extravaganza. Make time for getting outside for brief walks and stretch breaks. You can continue thinking about your work. You can hop on the cell phone and call someone who is supporting you in your writing efforts. You can even bring a draft with you and look over it as you go. But it is important to make time to get outside. It may not seem like much, but it can recharge your batteries.

At the start of each reading / writing /editing /dissertating session, determine what your goals are for that day and write them down.

Choose reasonable, doable goals. Prioritize them. Then start chipping away at them. In the beginning, you'll pick goals that are too ambitious. Everyone does. Don't worry about that. Do your best, and over time, you'll start to refine your sense of what can be achieved in a given period of time. A lot of the process of writing your dissertation is discovering how you work - what you need, how long it takes, what you can reasonably expect. Make goals and fake deadlines, do your best to stick by them, and adjust them as necessary.

Take each day at a time and step by step, you'll finish the diss.

The advice that nutritionists often give to people trying to lose weight: If you have a day where you just blow your diet and go to town, you might feel like you've just lost all the ground you've gained, ruined your diet forever, and should just give up. But it's just one day. So what if you have a bad day? You can start over the next day.

Dissertating is the same way. Have a weekend where you fall of the wagon and get absolutely nothing done? Have a whole week that you just blew off? A whole month that got by?

Then put it behind you and when you wake up the next day, begin again. You can't control the time you lost last week / month / semester / year. But you can control what you do with the time you have left. So don't continue to beat yourself up - it isn't productive. Instead, focus on what you can do NOW.

Dissertating...the universal language

Write your goals in whichever way speaks most clearly to you. Use whatever language, colors, words, images etc that best helps you to directly and clearly motivate yourself. Do you like checkboxes? To Do lists? Rewarding yourself with bits of chocolate? Now is the time to find out.

Whiteboard ode to Stuart Smalley: You're good enough, you're smart enough

Remember when you were younger and a Ph.D. just sounded so grandiose, so intelligent, so far away? And isn't it nuts that you are now about to get one? It can feel so surreal. At times, it helps to play it down in your head, so that the doctorate feels more normal, more doable, because everyone else around you is doing one too. At other times, it's nice to just take a moment and take it all in...what you are doing is incredible. Very few people actually get this far. It's amazing! It's wonderful!

Dissertator, Thou Art Loosed!

Take a moment to take it all in. You're doing this!

Catherine typing on a laptop balanced on a bag, balanced on a sidedesk chair.

One of the great things about the image above is what you can't see: that Catherine here began her day at the Boot Camp by typing on a cardboard box. That's right, a cardboard box. On the first day of the Boot Camp, we had more people than desks, so Catherine was a good sport and found a long box that, when put on end, was just about the right height for a desk. So she balanced her laptop on it and began typing away. Later, she graduated to using another chair with an attached desk as her mobile laptop desk.

This is great for two reasons. One, it shows you that really, when you have to, you can write anywhere. And two, it shows that having a sense of humor and being flexible can help shake up your patterns and keep your writing interesting.

If you feel like you're in a rut, try shaking up your routine. Write in a new coffee shop. Find a different part of the library to make camp. Try your bathtub. Lie on the floor. Take a draft to the gym and read it on the stationary bike.

The next time you find yourself making excuses for not working on your dissertation ("Oh, I can't write now, I don't have my favorite pen"... "Oh, I would work on my dissertation now, but I forgot my laptop".... "I can't actually work now, because I forgot my iPod") Just remember: Cardboard box.

Encourage your friends to make you "dissertation music" mix CDs and playlists!

If you concentrate better with wordless background music, here are some sample "Writing Music" albums that dissertators have recommended:

The Piano Soundtrack- Michael Nyman
Gattaca Sountrack - Michael Nyman
Last of the Mohicans soundtrack
The English Patient soundtrack
Lost in Translation Soundtrack
The Essential Yo Yo Ma
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - Mozart
Vivaldi
Philip Glass
Bond (violin group)
African Suite - Abdullah Ibrahim
One Cello x 16 - Zoe Keating
Creating Pandora stations based on instrumental songs you like

And remember....even though it may feel like it, you're not alone

So the summer is here! You've got good weather to write in. You can do a beach day of research (Six words: To Do List in the sand!) There are so many opportunities to make headway on that dissertation. Go for it!

Next Boot Camp: April 24 and 25

Feeling stuck in your process? Giant pencils are scientifically proven to help lift writing mood.

Is 2010 or 2011 starting to look like a great year to graduate? Then let us help you reach your dissertating goals!

The CGU Writing Center is offering a Dissertation Boot Camp on Saturday, April 24 and Sunday, April 25. It's free, it's motivating, and it's two whole days to stop beating yourself up and come and get work done with people who know exactly what you're going through!

The Boot Camps fill up fast, so get thee to the Writing Center to put down a refundable deposit to hold your space.

You bring the laptop, the books, the paper, the work: the Boot Camp provides the coffee, lunch, yoga, space, and occasional reminders to TURN OFF THE INTERNET. :-)

Hope to see you there!

Drop and Give Me 20 Paragraphs: The Dissertation Boot Camp

Dissertating: like Les Miserables, only without the singing

On Saturday, February 6 and Sunday, February 7, the CGU Writing Center hosted its most recent Dissertation Boot Camp! There were a few changes this time around, including booking two houses to hold more campers.

At the end of the first day of yoga, Marie reminded the class of an important dissertation adage.

All grad students are perfectionists...to some extent, that's why we've succeeded this far in academia. But there comes a point in the dissertating process when perfectionism will cripple you. You have to let go - dare to be adequate. The dissertation doesn't need to be the best document known to man, it just has to be finished.

It has been scientifically proven that snacks bring words to the brain

As usual, the campers toiled the day away fueled by chocolate, coffee, and miscellaneous fruit.

Harrison Ford made a brief appearance.

Marie pie-charting the day away

For this Boot Camp, we booked the Graduate Student Council House as well as the CGU Writing Center. The GSC house has a full kitchen, several rooms, comfortable couches, a relaxing backyard, and great atmosphere. Thanks for opening your space to us, GSC!

The balancing act... a skill dissertators must use all the time.

For this Boot Camp, we were graced with not one, but two days of yoga! Marie lead the group on Saturday and Nancy Sassman returned to lead the group for Sunday.

Fearless leader pose.

While it rained and hailed outside, boot campers practiced yoga inside the dry comfort of the GSC house. Thank you again, GSC!

Give the baristas a chuckle! You might even get a free cup o' joe out of it.

We also have some Dissertator T-shirts left! Come by the Writing Center to buy one. They cost $12.50. They are available in several sizes, in white and red.

Use a fabric marker to check off the year of your graduation. Surprisingly, this feels like more of a commitment than any of the official forms!

Once again, the Boot Camp was a great hit! Thanks to everyone who came and shared their experience and brain power.

The next camp will be in April! If you've passed your qualifying exams and are working your dissertation, come join us!

Boot Camps for the Fall

Come on by the Writing Center on Tuesday, Sept. 15, from 3-6 for our Open House!

Due to the overwhelming success of the Dissertation Boot Camp, the CGU Writing Center is proud to offer not one, but two more Boot Camps for the fall semester!

That's right! More coffee, more yoga, more real-determined-people-typing-like-demons on a weekend morning!

The next boot camp will be:

Saturday, October 3rd and Sunday, October 4th

You can come for one or both days. To register for the boot camp, please stop by the Writing Center and bring a $50 deposit check, which will be returned to you when you come to the boot camp.

Due to the size of the Writing Center and to help foster a tight-knit sense of community over the weekend, the boot camp is limited to 12 people. Because there are far more people who want to participate than we have room for, it is really important that those who sign up come - which is why this time we are requesting a deposit to hold your place.

If for some reason you cannot attend either day, as long as you notify the Writing Center by 9 a.m. Friday, October 2nd, you will receive your deposit check back. Otherwise, your $50 will be used to buy more giant pencils for the Writing Center. (kidding?)

The Writing Center's entry in Claremont's 2009 4th of July parade

If you can't come to this boot camp or it fills up before you can sign up, don't worry! There's another one scheduled for the winter:

Saturday, December 12th and Sunday, December 13th

Hope to see you there!

Dissertation Boot Camp

Are you looking at this blog right now, when you should be writing?!

On Saturday, July 25th and Sunday, July 26th, the CGU Writing Center had its first official Dissertation Boot Camp, open to all students at CGU who are ABD and working on their dissertations. The camp filled almost immediately, so there is really a demand at CGU for this type of event.

The "hard core" writers in the back room.

The idea for the Boot Camp originally came from a trip Tara made to the Graduate Writing Center at Yale. (CGU's Writing Center and Yale's Graduate Writing Center are some of the only graduate-only writing centers in the U.S.) Tara met with the center's director, Elena Kallestinova, who told her about Yale's Dissertation Boot Camp. Tara liked the idea so much, she brought it back to CGU!

The philosopher and mathematician gravitated to the middle room.

Campers arrived early in the morning (8 a.m.!) and staked out workspaces in one of the Writing Center's rooms.

Campers came prepared with coffee mugs, book stands, laptops, and roller bags.

All of the tables were covered in butcher paper so that you could jot down ideas, sketch, or write notes to yourself throughout the day.

A sample work station.

One room had background music playing, the others were silent. Tutors Tara and Eric worked in the front room, making camp near a cabinet and on the sofa.

Whatever is happening in this picture, it is *intense*!

Some people like to spread out.

Like the earlier test run, the boot camp featured a very Californian take on the typical boot camp experience....yoga under the oak trees and fresh sushi!

On Saturday, Nancy Sassman lead the group in a one hour yoga session.

Nancy leads the crew in Warrior II.

On Sunday, boot camper Marie lead the group.

A shady respite from dissertating.

After stretching and relaxing, it was back to work!

Fingers furiously typing.

At 12:30, everyone broke for lunch. This was a great opportunity to meet other people at CGU who are also working on their dissertations, hear about their projects, and commiserate!

Sharing advice over chow.

At 2:30, everyone headed to the back yard for a stretch break, in this case, involving Affirmation Frisbee (great idea, Fay!)....where it doesn't matter how bad you are at throwing or catching, because everyone will find something positive to say about it!

A common sight during Affirmation Frisbee...picking up the frisbee.

It was a very productive weekend for everyone! The Boot Camp was so popular, we hope to offer it at least once a semester in the future. Stay tuned for the next one!

The end of a long, productive weekend!

Dissertation Boot Camp Test Run

You didn't think it'd be *all* drill sargeants and pushups, did you?

On Saturday, June 6, we did a test run for the Dissertation Boot Camp, which will run Saturday, July 25 and Sunday, July 26 (to give the most people a chance to attend, we may have different sign-ups for the different days - let's see how the RSVP list goes).

The schedule for the test run was as follows:

8:00 a.m. - Begin by writing out your goal for the day.
9:00 a.m. - Work, work, work.
10:30 a.m. - Yoga session with Nancy Sassaman
11:00 a.m. - Work, work, work.
12:30 p.m. - Lunch / phone / internet break (Sushi)
1:00 p.m. - Work, work, work.
2:30 p.m. - Outdoor "Affirmation Frisbee" break
3:00 p.m. - work work work


We met at the CGU Writing Center and made camp in the two tutoring rooms, each with butcher-papered tables. The rooms were stocked with candy and junk food (turns out, too much!) and the kitchen was stocked with coffee, tea, juice, and sushi.

We learned that sushi + wasabi = alert grad students.

We also learned that Cheddar Cheese Pringles are pretty much carbohydrate meth. So we're going to skip them next time.


The rules:

- No cell phones
- No internet*
- No talking

* Because using the internet is sometimes necessary during writing, we designated a time during lunch that allowed internet and phone use. The idea is: if you feel you have to get on the net, write down what you want to check up on, then move on. When the internet break comes, then you can look it up.

Fay had a fun variation on the internet rule: every time she was tempted to use the net, she drew a heart next to her laptop. The hearts added up pretty quickly!


Although we originally planned to have a "quiet room" and a "background music room," everyone wanted music, so we left the doors open and used iPods and a docking station to play classical / instrumental / wordless music (including Mozart, Irish trad, and cellist Zoe Keating).

This worked really well, so when we do the real deal, everyone should bring their iPods and their favorite writing music.

The group turned loose on the back lawn for energy / stretch breaks. We were incredibly lucky to have the talents of Nancy Sassaman to lead us in a yoga session underneath the oak trees.

Imagining what life will be like when the dissertation is done...

Nancy has agreed to come and do another session for the real Dissertation Boot Camp in July, and we are so thrilled to have her!!!

Nancy demonstrates "Happy Baby" pose, a great counter-pose to "Been Sittin' On My Butt All Day Typing" pose

The lawn behind the Writing Center is ideal for picnicing, group frisbee, and hopefully....croquet. If the Writing Center can get ahold of a cheap croquet set, there will definitely be some mallet-whacking at the next Boot Camp!

So, mark your calendars: July 25-26 2009: Dissertation Boot Camp.