Help with Dissertation Motivation

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InYourHead

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Alright guys, so I need help. Big time.

I am in the process of working on my dissertation, mostly the lit review section right now. The problem is that I'm not actually doing any work on it. I have the time, but when I sit down to do it (which I do, several times a week), I just get overwhelmed and nothing gets done. I've tried breaking it up into smaller segments, but even that isn't helping. It's getting to the point where I feel so bad about it, it's starting to make me depressed. I don't know what else to do. Going ABD terrifies me.

Please help, any suggestions would be much appreciated it. What have you done to help you get through this?

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Alright guys, so I need help. Big time.

I am in the process of working on my dissertation, mostly the lit review section right now. The problem is that I'm not actually doing any work on it. I have the time, but when I sit down to do it (which I do, several times a week), I just get overwhelmed and nothing gets done. I've tried breaking it up into smaller segments, but even that isn't helping. It's getting to the point where I feel so bad about it, it's starting to make me depressed. I don't know what else to do. Going ABD terrifies me.

Please help, any suggestions would be much appreciated it. What have you done to help you get through this?

"There is no try...Only do."
-Buddha

If you are really not that interested in your topic (which makes me wonder why you picked it in the first place though), you made need to do a little ACT on yourself. :smuggrin:
 
Alright guys, so I need help. Big time.

I am in the process of working on my dissertation, mostly the lit review section right now. The problem is that I'm not actually doing any work on it. I have the time, but when I sit down to do it (which I do, several times a week), I just get overwhelmed and nothing gets done. I've tried breaking it up into smaller segments, but even that isn't helping. It's getting to the point where I feel so bad about it, it's starting to make me depressed. I don't know what else to do. Going ABD terrifies me.

Please help, any suggestions would be much appreciated it. What have you done to help you get through this?

I ran into a similar problem early on with my dissertation--my topic area, most broadly, has a LOT of research, so I had a very hard time narrowing things down and coming up with specific ideas/hypotheses. Every time I thought about getting started, my mind would get pulled in a dozen different directions. Not fun.

Eventually, I just had to make myself sit down and start writing something. I told myself that it didn't matter if I deleted it all the next day, but I had to start getting things down on paper. I began with the intro, but a couple days in, I just allowed myself to write whatever I felt like writing that day. If I wanted to write about assessment, I wrote about assessment; if I wanted to write about treatment and outcomes, I wrote about treatment and outcomes. It required a little more editing than I was used to when all was said and done to tie everything together, but had I not done it that way, it probably never would've gotten finished.

And keep in mind, for the first half of this process, I still had no idea what my actual research idea was going to be. But the more I wrote, the clearer it became, until one day while driving home the idea just hit me.

So, ultimately, my advice is just to sit down and write something, anything; doesn't matter what it is, just get stuff written down. Don't stop to edit or revise, just write.
 
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Alright guys, so I need help. Big time.

I am in the process of working on my dissertation, mostly the lit review section right now. The problem is that I'm not actually doing any work on it. I have the time, but when I sit down to do it (which I do, several times a week), I just get overwhelmed and nothing gets done. I've tried breaking it up into smaller segments, but even that isn't helping. It's getting to the point where I feel so bad about it, it's starting to make me depressed. I don't know what else to do. Going ABD terrifies me.

Please help, any suggestions would be much appreciated it. What have you done to help you get through this?

Just start writing. It doesn't have to be perfect. When you start doing it things will come together. If you sit around obsessing about not doing it you will be ABD.

For a while I smoked a tobacco pipe and drank coffee...my way of coping during data collection.
 
I find that writing a pretty detailed outline, citations and all, helps keep me organized and gets the ball rolling. Also, jump on motivation. If an idea for a sentence or angle comes to mind, stop what you're doing and write it down (unless what you were doing was dissertation writing, of course).

As a professor in our program said: once it's done, you never have to do a dissertation again!
 
"There is no try...Only do."
-Buddha

If you are really not that interested in your topic (which makes me wonder why you picked it in the first place though), you made need to do a little ACT on yourself. :smuggrin:

Oh yeah, a mention of ACT ftw! :D

I agree, though. And I echo what everyone else says, start small (I started by creating outlines, then added to them, etc). I dealt with a LOT of challenges re: my dissertation, and had many hurdles, but I managed to get it done. This may be a helpful resource : http://www.abdsurvivalguide.com/. Good luck!
 
I'm a big fan of starting out on the easiest stuff to give myself a sense of accomplishment, and then working my way up to, say, the discussion. So I often start out with the references, then the methods, then reporting the results (assuming they are done, of course, as the analyses usually don't fall into the "easy" category!).
 
Like others have said, just start writing. It is a gradual process before you really get into it, so don't be hard on yourself. Make yourself write for 45 minutes for two days, then an hour the next few days, and adjust the time depending on your motivation and deadlines. From doing this you will feel great that you got something done, and during the day you will start to feel like you need to write to get that good feeling of accomplishment. In a sense, you will develop a kind of addiction to the good feelings of having accomplished some writing on your dissertation. This worked for me when I wrote a psyc research book.
 
Even though I am really interested in my dissertation topic, I too ran into this problem, especially during the very early drafts of the first three chapters. I have two recommendations you may want to try.

It sounds like you may have at least done the reading for the literature review already? If so, pick your favorite article and write about that. It'll be the most interesting to you, get the ball rolling on writing something, and perhaps will spark ideas about connections to other articles and other topics under the branch of your dissertation focus.

I know I am a person who works best under pressure and I have a really difficult time structuring dissertation work time myself, I end up putting things off until the last minute. Maybe you are like this too? If you have a good relationship with your chair or a dissertation adviser, ask them to set up more deadlines for you, perhaps based on page number or on by certain topic covered in your lit review. That way there is at least a time motivation. They don't even necessarily have to read it or review it when you turn those pieces in, but at least there will be some sense of external obligation.

Hope this helps! Hang in there!
 
Even though I am really interested in my dissertation topic, I too ran into this problem, especially during the very early drafts of the first three chapters. I have two recommendations you may want to try.

It sounds like you may have at least done the reading for the literature review already? If so, pick your favorite article and write about that. It'll be the most interesting to you, get the ball rolling on writing something, and perhaps will spark ideas about connections to other articles and other topics under the branch of your dissertation focus.

I know I am a person who works best under pressure and I have a really difficult time structuring dissertation work time myself, I end up putting things off until the last minute. Maybe you are like this too? If you have a good relationship with your chair or a dissertation adviser, ask them to set up more deadlines for you, perhaps based on page number or on by certain topic covered in your lit review. That way there is at least a time motivation. They don't even necessarily have to read it or review it when you turn those pieces in, but at least there will be some sense of external obligation.

Hope this helps! Hang in there!

That's a great strategy, and one that worked particularly well for me. Especially with dissertation topics that have a lot of available research, it can feel overwhelming if you're trying to summarize and conceptualize everything in your head. Picking one article and writing about it is a great way to give yourself something on which you can more easily get a mental handle.

And yep, starting with smaller tasks (like the aforementioned one-article summary) is a great way to get yourself doing something, especially when you really don't feel like working. Just be sure that you don't fall into the avoidance habit of working on your table of contents three hours a day for a week.

I was also a big fan of self-reward, especially on weekends.
 
Alright guys, so I need help. Big time.

I am in the process of working on my dissertation, mostly the lit review section right now. The problem is that I'm not actually doing any work on it. I have the time, but when I sit down to do it (which I do, several times a week), I just get overwhelmed and nothing gets done. I've tried breaking it up into smaller segments, but even that isn't helping. It's getting to the point where I feel so bad about it, it's starting to make me depressed. I don't know what else to do. Going ABD terrifies me.

Please help, any suggestions would be much appreciated it. What have you done to help you get through this?

I am a fan of timelines with built-in rewards. Also, I suggest starting out with more unpleasant or difficult things. If you can get over that hurdle, then the other stuff seems like a piece of cake to write.

Take advantage of momentum. I couldn't plot a certain amount of time each day. If I was on a roll Friday late in the day, I would keep going until I reached a more natural stopping point (instead of going out to dinner or something).

Finally, if one format for typing is becoming uninspiring, try other format. Instead of a blank page in Word, start typing within an email or something different. It helps get the creative juices flowing...

Good luck! It is a good exercise in discipline.
 
Oh and another thing - work with this project in the way that you typically work the best.

Personally, I hate spreading things out. I blocked almost a full weekday each week and big chunks of the weekend. The other days I didn't even think about my dissertation at all unless I was feeling inspired. I work best with large chunks of time instead of "1 hour a day" (which to me sounded like a terrible way to work).

So schedule your time in a way that you have been successful with for big projects in the past.
 
I just thought of something else that helped me, although it may not be feasible or practical if you don't have your dissertation/articles in laptop format. I would get out of my house to work on dissertation. It was just too easy to say "one more television show" or "I'm going to clean this first, then I'll work." I had to get out. I elected Starbucks and Panera (not sure if this is restaurant is outside of California), and I would turn off the internet on my laptop so that I couldn't then waste time surfing the web while out. It helped me focus on exactly what I had in front of me, and I got a little treat each time I went (cheers for reinforcement schedules). Although if you are someone who gets distracted easily by people watching, this plan could backfire as well. But perhaps give it a shot.
 
I just thought of something else that helped me, although it may not be feasible or practical if you don't have your dissertation/articles in laptop format. I would get out of my house to work on dissertation. It was just too easy to say "one more television show" or "I'm going to clean this first, then I'll work." I had to get out. I elected Starbucks and Panera (not sure if this is restaurant is outside of California), and I would turn off the internet on my laptop so that I couldn't then waste time surfing the web while out. It helped me focus on exactly what I had in front of me, and I got a little treat each time I went (cheers for reinforcement schedules). Although if you are someone who gets distracted easily by people watching, this plan could backfire as well. But perhaps give it a shot.

Oooh, I agree with getting out of the house, too. I found a "work buddy" (a grad student in another field) to go to coffee houses with, and we'd sit and do work together. The "stimulus" of another person sitting on a laptop was motivating. Plus, caffeine helps :love: And yes, eudaimon, panera is outside of California...although, I wish there was one closer to where I currently live in CA.. (also, wish there was a closer In N Out :cool:)
 
How about also trying a little ADHD coaching? Take your task "write my dissertation" and starting chunking it into more manageable exercises such as "intro," "analyses," "chapter 2" - whatever. Then pick one, say "introduction" and chunk again into 5 things you have to do. Now rank their critical importance with an A-B-C (As being most important, Bs being moderately so, and Cs can wait (e.g., "fix the grammar"). Start chiseling away at A, reward yourself with some mindless C, then hit up B! Just a thought...

Also, schedule your work in your planner. Commit to it. And build in rewards. I work in a coffee shop when I work on mine but you can bet there are a few biscottis and lattes built in! Set up your own schedule for it - DRO, fixed interval, fixed time, hell even punish yourself if you don't work on it! :luck:
 
Read some dissertations/thesis similar to your own. It might give you some ideas where to start or how to tackle it (and maybe even if you some citations to read and "borrow")
 
I second the suggestion about panera and starbucks. That's how my dis got done.

Also, it is very helpful to talk to your friends in your grad school program about these issues. You can support and motivate each other.

Finally, you mentioned feeling depressed. I suspect you don't mean that you meet criteria for MDD, BUT don't underestimate that value of seeking professional therapy to cope with this time in your life. I know grad programs tend to fall in one camp or the other one on this issue: 1. Everyone in the program is in therapy 2. Everyone in the program thinks that they don't need therapy because they have it all figured out. I went to a program in category 1 and benefitted a great deal from working with a therapist to work through all of the complex emotions surrounding the dis process, grad school, etc.

Lots of luck!
Dr. E
 
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