1. Work when you want to
I am not a morning person. I rarely arrived at the lab before 11 am, but I would often stay late so I still got the work done.
It looks good if you arrive early and do the 9 to 5, but why care how it looks?
If you work directly with others who rely on you being there at a certain time, then you have to be there. Otherwise, just work the hours that suit you.
2. Change the name of your to do list…
… to “things not to forget to do”. That way you can see it as a helpful assistant, rather than a demanding boss.
3. Don’t make promises
Naturally, you want to impress your supervisor; show you’re a hard-worker, and that you can get things done fast.
So it’s always tempting to under-estimate how long things will take, give the best-case scenario… but then if you can’t deliver, you’ll be left making excuses.
Or, if you set a realistic deadline, you can end up thinking it doesn’t need to be done until (insert date), and justifying procrastination.
Instead, don’t make any promises, focus on the process, do things meticulously, and the results will come naturally.
4. Ask for stuff
Are you using a 10-year-old computer to do data analysis? Do you need a highly specialised textbook that costs 200 dollars?
Don’t be afraid to ask for stuff. Some academic departments do still have money! You might not get it, but you should still ask.
5. Start again
Sometimes a a chapter can end up in such a mess that it’s beyond editing. This happens if you write without really knowing what you want to say, or if you write while still doing the basic research.
Often the best way to move forward is to start again, from a blank page, with a clearer idea of what you actually want to say and free from the unstructured mess of the original.
6. Admit what you don’t know
Never be embarrassed. If you admit what you don’t know, it gives you the freedom to ask questions.
7. Read less
But read with purpose. What are you trying to find out?
Take the time to get to know one paper and to understand it fully. Then you’ll be able to easily understand related papers sharing common ideas.
7 1/2 Over to you…
Got any tips you want to share? What have you found to help you work more effectively? No matter how obvious it might seem to you, even the tiniest thing can make a big difference.
Share your research and writing tips below!
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I think listening to Psych up mix CD helps me to be motivated !!
hi everyone,
I have been doing a PhD for the last four years and often told myself to sit down and start writing. In this time I wrote some articles, sample chapters and papers for presentation which amounted to way more than my thesis was ever going to be. The problem was of course to somehow extract the parts that I could reuse and find a way to then possibly rewrite the parts that didn`t fit the argument in the thesis. What really helped me was scrivener, a programe designed mostly for profesional writers/novelist etc, but really great for PhD thesis as well (and not too expensive). The good thing about it is that you have a folder structure of documents that make up a project. the project in my case contains anything that was part of my research, like interviews, photographs, maps but also all my previous writing on the subject. I then made a chapter outline for the thesis as detailed as I possible could in the folder structure. next I decided on the number of words each section should have and set them as targets. I played a little around with it until it added up to the 100000 words that is my overall target. setting targets is really easy and you can always see the target and what proportion you have already written at the bottom of the editor, which is really helpful. The next step was probably the most important. I went through everything I had ever written and whenever I thought, this is good, I should use it, i copied it into the section where it was appropriate. when I had done that I ended up having about 25000 words of 100000, which gave me a boost of motivation. Now I simply sit down and write a section a day, most of which are between 1000 and 3000 words. It feels good to have the little bar in the corner that everyday goes from red to green when the words fill up. and at the end of a day I look at the bar for the whole project and see the overall progress. the programe has a lot of additional features, but for the outline and to set targets its already worth its money…(I am not the programmer or in any way connected to it btw
Not a comment related to this post, but instead the blog in general. I stumbled across this blog around about the time I realised I was running out of time and money and needed to finish my thesis. It turned out to be a breakfast epiphany as I had 3 months left, and that was the writing time advertised on this blog. I followed most of the tips presented on this blog, met the deadline, and had the thesis accepted with very few corrections. Any thoughts on extending the scope of this blog to include Post-Doctoral writing dilemmas?
NCS (Australia).
well I think all the same principles should apply! Do you mean to include writing journal articles and funding proposals?
Generally guidance on post PhD writing, as once that hurdle is out of the way, the system generally expects you take things (including writing) to the next level.
http://macfreedom.com/
^^^may be of use to some (or else switch-off wi-fi/pull out cable)
Though I have another two years to go, recently I have been booking unoccupied meeting rooms in which to read/work/lie-down.
Very good tips shared! TQ.
I started my Hours Per Week table last week. Basically, I set how many hours per day I should make, to total up to targeted Hours Per Week, after taking into accounts my other responsibilities (I am a mother of three very young children and a wife). It works well for me because I have self discipline problem. It ticks me to squeeze my unimportant things and spend what ever time I have to do my chores so that I can reach my study target. I end up being very motivated to see my achievement. Hope this will last till my finishing line.
I have question: How should I read journals? How many per day? Heard some tips to read 10 journals per day. All I can do for now is max of 2!! Am I well behind? Pls help.
I’m working on my background research right now and found learning to speed read helped somewhat (I at least use my finger/highlighter to trace as I go). I’m no expert but I easily crunched through 20 or so journals / conference papers in the past two days, where as before I couldn’t focus long enough to do two a day! I used the exercises here: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/07/30/speed-reading-and-accelerated-learning/
I also did the timer trick mentioned by several others while I was reading, taking a 5 minute break every 25 minutes, and then a longer break every 4 of those or so.
I find it easier to concentrate on being efficient at any task if I put a time on it. Say, I’ll tell myself “bet you could sort through this pile of papers in 1h”. Then I’ve got some sort of challenge and focus on getting the task done, rather than chat to an office mate who walks in.
For it to work, the time has to be realistic..
If I am in a rut, I use an egg timer and set it to 20 minutes. Even monkeys can concentrate for 20 minutes, or so a zoology lecturer told me. I give myself permission to go and do something else after the 20 minutes is up if I still can’t focus, but I have to work until the bell rings. 9/10 by the time the 20 minutes is up I am refocussed and enthusiastic again.
I started last September and have done 1628 hours to date. Roughly 38 hours per week (would be about 40 hours if not for about two weeks off for Christmas/holidays). Provided I reach the finish line, I’ll know exactly how many hours it took!
Use a countdown timer (an extension of working when you want to):
Even though research is inherently messy, I like things being as quantifiable as possible. So (even as an undergrad) I set my stopwatch for a given number of hours each day. I pause it whenever I check email, get a drink, etc. This way, I am free to work and take breaks whenever I feel like it, but I will still reach my quota by the end of the day. Even though some days that might not be until just before bedtime.
This is obviously only works provided you are strict and don’t ‘cheat’ on yourself. Even though it’s about quality of work and not quantity, I can rest easier knowing that even if my day felt unproductive I still did the same amount of work as on days that SEEMED more fruitful. I track my hours in my diary each day. Once the average for the week is the same then I’m happy. It’s also nice to be able to look back at all the hours you have put in and it helps me predict how many hours (and therefore weeks) are required for any given task.
Cool! Just out of interest, have you ever added up all your hours, right from the very start?
amazing! will try to do this.
This might seem ridiculous but….: get RID OFF INTERNET + TV. Rip off the cables, give them to a friend or leave them far from where you are working. Litte tiny detail, but made a MASSIVE diference to me. Waking up (morning, noon..) and having absolutely nothing distracting me, not even morning news while drinking coffee… makes a huge difference. At least for me. The day suddently has, actually, 24h. It changed my whole mindset, overall I’m much much more focused on writing….I have zero distractions (house is so silent actually)… so there’s nothing else to do really, but to work on the thesis..
Not ridiculous at all… I did exactly the same!
I found this really helpful too. The week before last I banned myself from my computer and internet in order to work my way through a book I really needed to know inside out. Without the promise of instant gratification in the form of mini internet breaks, I had my focus back. I’ve missed it. The internet is brilliant and ultimately an essential tool but it’s definitely changed how I work and impacted (negatively) on my attention span. Something I need to work on. I also deleted my facebook a few months back, and found that helpful too. It’s like putting blinkers on.
True!!! Especially the INTERNET!
Agree,agree agree! My working table only consisted of my computer (minus the internet)and myself! I finished my qualitative data analysis only in one month just by staying away from the internet