The End (of the PhD) is Nigh Part 1: How to get things done
Writing up a PhD can be an isolating, exhausting and seemingly relentless experience. You may be running out of funding, writing papers and grant proposals, job-hunting with the prospect of moving to a new city, country or continent, and it seems cruel to also have to write a massive ol’ book on everything you’ve ever done over the last three+ years. Combined with well-meaning friends and family asking how the writing is going and what you’re doing next, it’s a miracle anyone gets a thesis finished. However, I’m here to tell you it may not be the most fun ever, but it is 100% DO-ABLE and YOU WILL GET THERE.
Here are my top tips for getting things done in your final stretch.
Shut up and write
Distraction free, dedicated writing time is so important but it can be difficult to motivate yourself if you’re alone. “Shut up & write” groups run across the US with splinter groups popping up across the UK, and involve meeting with other writers and collectively shutting up and getting on with it.
Your University may run writing retreats — a fancy way of saying you’ll be in a quiet room of writers where you are encouraged not to use Wifi or email and instead work completely on your writing goals. A facilitator reminds you to take breaks, and if you’re lucky, organises tea and biscuits.
If neither of these is an option — set up your own writing group! Ask for a meeting room in your department, library, or favourite coffee shop for a morning or afternoon once a fortnight. Send a departmental email, make a facebook group, do a tweet. It’s as simple as saying to the group “we’re going to write for an hour, stop for a fifteen minute cuppa and a chat, and then write for another hour”. There’s a more official guide to running them available here. Writing groups reduce isolation and build a network of people experiencing similar writing pain, while also having some silence and mutual understanding that you need to get things done, and having a dedicated space to do this.
Be flexible with yourself
I never had two good writing days in a row: one day I would write 3000 words, the next I would fidget with a paragraph. Embrace a combination of working in your office, home, coffee shops, and writing groups if that is what works for you. Don’t force yourself to sit at a desk if you’re not in the mood for it, and don’t beat yourself up for not always hitting your writing targets.
A colleague advised me to aim for 500 words a day. It’s a low goal, so achievable most days, and if you surpass it then you’ll feel accomplished. Reframing my goal helped my motivation more than aiming for 1000 words a day and consistently failing.
Someone also told me to try and finish each day of writing in the middle of a paragraph or sentence. While this might seem counterintuitive, it can be really helpful in reducing writers block and fear of starting the next day if you’re picking up from the middle of something.
Visualise your goals
A thesis is such a mammoth piece of work, it can be hard to feel like you’re making progress. A visual representation of what you have to do and what you have done can really help. Using the high-tech method of drawing around plates, I made a chart of my 8 chapters dividing them each into four sections. When one section was drafted, I’d colour in a bit. Slowly, the bits started to turn into a rainbow of achievement.
For a slightly more advanced data visualisation, I also used PaceMaker which plots the number of words you’ve written showing daily and overall progress.
Communicate
With your supervisors: Send timetable of deadlines of your drafts to your supervisors as far in advance as possible. If you’re not going to make a deadline tell them ASAP and give a new date. The more notice given, the more likely they’ll be able to carve out some time when your draft arrives and you’ll get a faster turnaround.
With your University: It’s likely you’ll have bits of paperwork to do, like an intention to submit form or for selecting examiners — ask your postgraduate office what you need to do far in advance. Ask them for information about formatting expectations. Take it from someone who full-blown cried when they had to reformat their thesis in Word and all the table headings disappeared. Ask early, use the required formatting.
With your pals: Don’t cut yourself off from your pals because you’re writing. It’s important to have people to moan to when things are rubbish, celebrate with when things are well, and give you some perspective on the outside world.
Harness the power of apps
There are a million productivity apps out there. The four I consistently found useful were:
A 25-minute timer to help you focus, which can be really useful to get you started if things seem overwhelming, or if you’ve been faffing around.
Sets a timer on your smartphone (or Chrome extension), and a tree grows while for the amount of time you’re not fiddling with your phone or browser. Interrupt the tree during a timer and the tree dies. No-one wants a tree to die! The app partners with Trees for the Future to plant real trees, so you’re doing your bit for the planet while helping yourself focus.
Recreates the ambient sounds of a cafe to help you focus if working in silence isn’t your thing.
Makes several to-do-lists for different projects and lets you add to them or tick things off from your phone, tablet, or computer.
I hope these things help: writing up is the worst but it is achievable and you will feel so great when it’s done. You’ve got this!
The second part of this blog will talk about how to prioritise your wellbeing and the importance of looking after yourself in the final stretch of your PhD.
Sincerely,
Catherine
