Procrastination OR Life in 15-minute Segments

Don’t you hate it when people start articles on procrastination by telling you what it is?

As if we don’t know exactly what it is, how it gets in our way, and the challenges of getting past it.

Harumph.

Well, I’m not going to do that to you.

What I am going to do is share some recent research about what makes it easier to procrastinate and, therefore and thusly, what might help to move through it.

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Is This the Year of Your Dissertation?

Towards the end of old year/beginning of the new, thoughts tend to turn toward making resolutions for how this year will be bigger, better, or otherwise improved over the last.

Did you find yourself making New Year’s Resolutions for your dissertation work?

And how’s it going….?

We discussed this topic in one of end of year UnDissertation group discussions, so those folks know how I feel about Resolutions. (Clue for those not there: Not fond of them. Dis-spiriting things ;-)

But if you are one of those people who — in good faith — created a Plan of Action for the next year and are already having some challenges in sticking to the Plan….

Or if you are feeling like you wish you could do such a thing, but haven’t….

Have I got the alternative for you!

Cheryl Miller has this great free session she calls creating a “New Year’s Theme”.

I’ve participated in this session in previous years and found it very useful for wrapping my head around a simple, but powerful, theme for how I wanted to live the next year.

So I would invite you to check out participating in this session — it’s today!! — and you can found more and sign up here.

Feel free to share your Themes for the Year — you just may inspire someone else!

Beating the Giants: What Could You Achieve if You Didn't Know It?

In our UnDissertation group call today, we were taking about goal-setting and staying focused on the present — the Now of each moment.

This is video that I think beautifully captures how focusing on the Now can result in achievements beyond our expectations, without necessarily having to pre-set an amazing goal.

Watch the video and then reflect for a bit on what it took to achieve that amazing goal —- and please do share your reflections! Where does goal-setting fit in? How do your goals contribute to reaching your best performance? Do they?

Stuck?: The 45-second Flow Refresher

One of the most common problems in writing a dissertation is..well…writing.

I don’t need to be telling you that, eh?

Sometimes you’re working away, trying to meet that deadline, but just can’t get engaged with the beastie.

Or you run into a block and ++ frustration about how to get past it.

Well, I happened to run into what Havi Brooks, at the Fluent Self, promises is a 45-second solution to getting your Flow re-started.

I’ll share the essence of it, but do go and read her whole article on Solving the “but I just don’t time!” problem at her blog. (Besides, her blog is totally fun and right on target. ;-)

And do share whether this technique worked for you! I’m dying to hear how it works out (it got me doing this post, so maybe….?)

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Your Dissertation Literature Review: What's Your Story?

We’ve been having some discussions recently in our UnDissertation Group calls and online Discussion group about how to write a literature review that includes what’s needed, leaves out what’s not needed, and doesn’t leave you or your reader all wrapped in unnecessary detail.

One of the issues we’ve been exploring is Story.

Even a non-fiction, serious research review is a Story (or needs to be).

After all, what you’re doing is guiding your readers to where you need them to be to understand:

• why your research questions and answers are important; and

• why you’ve designed your study in the way you have.

To get them there, you need to construct a “story line”, that includes such elements as:

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