Monday, August 15, 2011
The Dissertation Countdown
For the past month, I have been working overtime to get through my dissertation revisions. There was, and is, just so much to be done before I start my new fellowship. (No news on the exact date for that, but I'm assuming mid-September.) My schedule has been to work on a given chapter for 4 days. The first day, I revise the introduction and some of the chapter text. The next day is devoted to the remainder of the chapter text and compiling all necessary bibliographic data. The third is for the conclusion and figures, and the fourth is for revisions.
It's a pretty intense schedule, and I wouldn't normally recommend it, but the work absolutely needs to get finished, ideally before I move. I need to get all this done ASAP so that once I get settled in my new residence/place of employment, I can begin work on the next thing: finding another job! Oh, and writing conference papers! And figuring out the logistics of my defense, and...and...and...
There's just so much coming down the pike. That's another reason that I was particularly intent on finishing off a sizable chunk by early August, so that I could afford to take a weekend...just one weekend...off to see some friends from high school. I've found that seeing old friends is one of the few things that can distract me from dwelling on all the crappy stuff that seems to dominate my life these days. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that I'm finishing my dissertation and I do not regret my choice to go to graduate school. But the next few months are going to be super stressful, and I have yet to figure out how to turn off my brain and enjoy the ride. Someday, perhaps I'll come up with better coping strategies to deal with the frustrations associated with projects of this magnitude, but for now, I consider myself lucky to have a group of people to whom I can turn for support and distraction.
Now all that remains is 3 chapters of my dissertation.
And an abstract.
And acknowledgments.
And a table of contents.
And getting the binding done.
And on and on and on...
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For the past month, I have been working overtime to get through my dissertation revisions. There was, and is, just so much to be done before I start my new fellowship. (No news on the exact date for that, but I'm assuming mid-September.) My schedule has been to work on a given chapter for 4 days. The first day, I revise the introduction and some of the chapter text. The next day is devoted to the remainder of the chapter text and compiling all necessary bibliographic data. The third is for the conclusion and figures, and the fourth is for revisions.
It's a pretty intense schedule, and I wouldn't normally recommend it, but the work absolutely needs to get finished, ideally before I move. I need to get all this done ASAP so that once I get settled in my new residence/place of employment, I can begin work on the next thing: finding another job! Oh, and writing conference papers! And figuring out the logistics of my defense, and...and...and...
There's just so much coming down the pike. That's another reason that I was particularly intent on finishing off a sizable chunk by early August, so that I could afford to take a weekend...just one weekend...off to see some friends from high school. I've found that seeing old friends is one of the few things that can distract me from dwelling on all the crappy stuff that seems to dominate my life these days. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that I'm finishing my dissertation and I do not regret my choice to go to graduate school. But the next few months are going to be super stressful, and I have yet to figure out how to turn off my brain and enjoy the ride. Someday, perhaps I'll come up with better coping strategies to deal with the frustrations associated with projects of this magnitude, but for now, I consider myself lucky to have a group of people to whom I can turn for support and distraction.
Now all that remains is 3 chapters of my dissertation.
And an abstract.
And acknowledgments.
And a table of contents.
And getting the binding done.
And on and on and on...
