Working 9-5

If you’re anything like me part of the reason you chose academia is to avoid the 9-5 grind. Academics generally seem to harbor a slight distaste for the corporate world. We certainly didn’t get into academia because we’re interested in making money. For this reason, unless you’re a graduate student in Business, you likely don’t approach your Thesis or Dissertation project like a CEO managing time, resources (human and material), and tasks. As a Liberal Arts student, I like to view my Dissertation as an artistic endeavor. I’m not a structured individual. I’ve always observed that academics have no sense of time. Time exists as a continuum or a social construct. However, waiting for the Muse to strike you with the inspiration you need to make timely progress toward your Thesis or Dissertation is not a strategy for success. Prior to this point in your academic career, your work has been structured for you by professors, who set due dates and class schedules via syllabi.

By the time you’ve reached the Thesis or Dissertation stage, you’re working independently with direction from your committee, but your chair will not be setting deadlines for you and e-mailing you for submission. You and your committee have outlined a tentative schedule for completion, which will change, but it’s your own responsibility to keep yourself on task as an emerging scholar. As you begin to structure your Thesis or Dissertation project, it’s likely you’ll feel uncertain about how to begin. You’ll experience uncertainty at every stage of the process and this is very beneficial personally, professionally and intellectually, but can also be overwhelming. Creating a schedule for yourself, structuring your time, will help to combat the confusion and give you a feeling of confidence, amidst the uncertainty. This will also allow you to manage tasks much more easily by setting yourself daily, weekly, and monthly goals. You’ll be forced to segment your work into manageable tasks and this will give you a feeling of accomplishment.

Measuring actual progress toward the ultimate end goal (graduation) becomes much easier. Setting hours for yourself ensures you are less susceptible to burnout and overwork and more likely to complete your Thesis or Dissertation and enjoy the process. Most importantly, a schedule is a contract you make with yourself, motivating you to continue. Motivation rather than inspiration leads to completion. Drafting a schedule is the initial step toward taking responsibility and ownership of your own work. Some days, you’ll sleep in too late. Some days you’ll have a doctor’s appointment. Some days your cat will sit on your keyboard and delete a chapter. Some days you’ll accidentally binge Parks and Rec for 10 hours. Some days you’ll fail and not get even 5 minutes of your allotted 4-8 hours of work done. Begin again the next day. Most days you’ll succeed.

- Tiffany