===================================================
THE ALL-BUT-DISSERTATION SURVIVAL GUIDE(tm)
Devoted to practical steps for completing
your doctoral dissertation.
www.abdsurvivalguide.com
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===================================================To subscribe, visit www.absurvivalguide.com
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INDEX
1. Ben's note
2. Perils of Perfectionism
By Dr. Elizabeth A. Wells
3. Words of Wisdom
4. Inspirational QuoteSUMMARY
=========
In this issue, Dr. Elizabeth Wells shares
some ideas on working through perfectionism
so the dissertation doesn't run you.We round it out with Words of Wisdom & an
inspirational quote.<>===<>===<>===<>===<>===<>===<>===<>===<>===<>
Ben's Note
July 22, 2004
Dear ABD Survival Guide Reader,
Welcome to our first issue on the
new list hosting system. We're glad
so many of you rejoined us and look
forward to returning to our main focus
-- to partner with you so you can complete
your dissertation as soon as possible.Do you ever find that, despite your
best intentions, the dissertation work
seems to take longer than it should? If this
is true for you, check out this week's
feature article in which Dr. Elizabeth
Wells shares the pitfalls of perfectionism-
as well as strategies for moving ahead anyway.If you could use some extra support,
check out our Words of Wisdom section and
our Inspirational Quote.See you in two weeks.
Warmly,
Ben============================================
The Perils of Perfectionism:
How to Stop your Dissertation from Running You
By Dr. Elizabeth A. Wells
===========================================Do any of these scenarios sound familiar to you?
1. You pick the perfect topic, the topic that was meant
for you, the topic you can do better than anyone else.
You survey the literature, discover to your amazement
that no one has scooped it, and sit down to write your
proposal. Although you normally write very quickly and
easily, the proposal goes through four or five rewrites,
and you still don’t feel that it says exactly what you
want it to say. Your committee members read it and make
suggestions, and encourage you to file your topic
immediately. After all, finished dissertations tend to
move in different directions through the course of
research – your proposal isn’t written in stone.
You realize that you are your harshest critic and
start the proposal again from scratch.2. You start amassing research in the beginning phases
of your dissertation work, and decide that you need an
elaborate filing system or database to keep track of all
the material you’ve found. Since the dissertation is the
crowning achievement of your graduate life and the
beginning of your career as a real scholar, it deserves
organized and aesthetically pleasing file folders and
labels. Besides, you’ll be working with these materials
for months, possibly years – you shouldn’t waste time
looking for documents or jamming paper into file boxes.
You’ll get back to that research as soon as you return
from the office supply store.3. You sit down to work on a chapter or section and
realize that to do it full justice you need 6-8
uninterrupted hours to really immerse yourself in the
material and cogitate sufficiently. You also need to
pick up your spouse in 90 minutes. You decide to
postpone the dissertation work and instead clean out
your email inbox and run all the errands on your to-do
list. With those off your plate, you’ll have more time
tomorrow - no point in starting something big now.
Wait until you can do it right.4. Your operating system has some minor glitches. You
don’t lose any of your draft, but you worry that your
backup system will not be adequate for the most important
document of your life. You get on the 'net and start
surfing for a new computer system, just out of curiosity.
While you are at it, you realize that your old printer
will probably be inadequate for producing your magnum
opus. Many systems look good, but you want the best one
at the best price, and that will require more research.5. You realize after a year of research trips, that your
original filing system no longer reflects the content or
structure of your dissertation. Should you go through all
the material and re-file differently? Or will that confuse
you? Surely you need to change all the labels, to make the
new system distinct from the old. Perhaps a "master file
list" would ensure that you know exactly what files you
have created and where things might be found.6. Even though it is fourteen years old, your toaster oven
is pristine. You clean it regularly with a toothbrush and
some non-abrasive cleanser, scrubbing that removable bottom
tray that catches all the crumbs until it shines like a new
car fender. Friends and family admire it, and ask how your
dissertation is coming along.7. You are reading through your draft just before submitting
a fair copy to your committee for their preliminary comments.
You have on file the style guidelines, page formats, numbering
systems and margin specifications outlined by your graduate
office. Before you finish reading, you feel you must go back
into each chapter and make sure that all the stylistic
requirements have been met. You find a sentence that has
three spaces after a period or one which appears to be in a
slightly different size font than the rest of the text. You
worry that these are not isolated incidents but perhaps
are oversights that run rampant through your entire
dissertation. You decide to go through it all again with
the search and replace function.8. You get back comments from your reading committee.
Although your primary advisor indicates which elements
he or she thinks you need to change for the defence, you
secretly want to make all the changes suggested and take
up all the fascinating new threads and directions revealed
in the feedback process. You are supposed to make corrections
in the next six weeks. But, if you had three more months,
you could make them all.Although many of these situations are clearly humorous, I
would not be surprised if you identified with the spirit
behind at least some of them. Let’s face it, people do not
excel in undergraduate education, earn admission to
graduate school, take comprehensive exams and coursework and
file dissertation topics if they did not already possess a
formidable set of skills, many of them organizational and
detail-oriented. The thought of spending perhaps years
thoroughly researching a topic is part of what got you
to this stage, and you need to be preoccupied with your
topic to see such a project through to completion and to
devote the time and care it takes to document your research
exhaustively. Perfection is attractive to you, and has
probably been a guiding force in your academic life up to
this point. Although it comes with the territory, a tendency
toward fastidiousness does not mean, however, that you
need to spend the rest of your life obsessing over
every detail of your dissertation – but the desire for
perfection may well be one of the primary reasons why
it is not finished yet.Many people who are considered dissertation procrastinators
are often very productive, busy people who just happen to be
perfectionists. You may find that activities that other people
label as procrastination are actually your tactics to make
your life more organized, productive, and pleasant: cleaning
off your desk, planning your finances, helping your children
with homework, exercising. These are all, in fact, valuable
activities and are often necessary to make working on your
dissertation more efficient and to free your mind of other
distracting worries. However, they can also be ways of taking
control of aspects of your life that seem more manageable than
that leviathan dissertation lurking in your study. If you can
perfect your cash flow or paint your bathroom flawlessly,
then it gives you a better sense that your dissertation can
also be tackled. High standards are commendable, but when your
desire for perfection overrides the primary goal of finishing
your dissertation, you stop proactively running your life and
allow your perfectionism to control you. Here are some strategies
to make your perfectionism start working for you again:1. The truth is, your dissertation will not be perfect and
you will not be able to control it. This is frightening, but
also normal. Your department doesn’t care if your dissertation
is the most brilliant scholarship ever created. They only want
you to finish, and they’ll usually help you in any way they can.
They’ve all been there, too, and they finished. They are probably
perfectionists themselves, and they understand your issues.
Try to think like they do.2. Don’t fight your perfectionism, just channel it. Find
one small thing, whether it be making the perfect omelette
or learning all the statistics on your favorite major league
baseball player, that you can master perfectly. Make sure it
is something that you can perfect quickly and regularly,
so you can always get that sense of satisfaction and
accomplishment whenever you need it, without letting it
take over your life. Let these small and enjoyable
victories take some of the pressure off your
dissertation work.3. You can always work on your dissertation, even if you
have a few minutes. Make a list of questions, work on your
bibliography formatting, anything that is productive and gives
you a sense of accomplishment. You will have to do all these
things some time, why not now? Don’t wait until the perfect
conditions, or the right sequence of events, because they’ll never
be perfect enough. Do whatever you can whenever you can and stop
whenever you have to. Don’t worry about what you’ll do next or
how long it will take – just work and then stop. There will
always be another opportunity to work.4. Keep a computer file or a pad of paper on which you
write down everything you would like to do differently
or better with your topic/chapter/sentence as you work.
Do not take action on these or let them pull your focus,
just document everything thoroughly and keep going. After a few
months, or at the end of a chapter, read this list through again.
Only change things that are truly necessary (your advisor will
come in very handy here), and "save the rest for the book."
You will probably find that many of your ideas or criticisms
of your own work are not as compelling as they were when you were in
the throes of writing. As long as you have a place to store
your perfectionist desires, you can rest easy that there will
some day be a time and place to do it the way you want it,
and you can keep from becoming distracted or discouraged
from everything you think you "should" change right now.5. Your dissertation will never be exactly the way you
want it, but you will be the only person who will ever truly
know that. Deeply and sincerely accept this and let go. The day
you finish your dissertation is a greater day in your life
than all the pleasure you might get from perfecting aspects
of it. Later, you will remember this incredibly liberating
feeling, not the feeling that you should have done more or
done it differently.Although you may well generate great conference papers or
articles from your dissertation chapters, the only purpose
your dissertation can ultimately serve is to facilitate the
conferral of your degree. A completed degree is the only
thing that will guarantee that you can obtain and keep a job,
get tenure and promotion, and move on with the rest of your
life exactly the way you want. All you have to do is
finish the dissertation, and you hold the key to
a future of your design.Now, doesn’t that sound perfect?
=======================================
About Dr. Elizabeth A. Wells
=======================================Elizabeth A. Wells is a musicologist, author, and
speaker who finished her doctorate last year.
Although she rewrote her proposal six times and
remains deeply dissatisfied with it, her department
considered it an "ideal" proposal, and it has been
used as a model for other dissertation writers.
She finished her dissertation and won a major
fellowship for it, but secretly harbors the desire
to rewrite it all "the right way." She now holds a
tenure-track appointment at a small liberal arts
college in New Brunswick, Canada, and helps
academics with what she has learned about goal
setting, time management, organization and the
dissertation process.She can be reached
By email: ewells@nbnet.nb.ca=====================================
Words of Wisdom
====================================
I wish I knew how not to get bogged down in self pity
and procrastination. I should have just kept working
a little bit every day until it was done. It only
took me [four years], but if I was better
focused I could have finished sooner.=======================================
Inspirational Quote
======================================="Striving for excellence motivates you;
striving for perfection is demoralizing."~~~Harriet Braiker
===================
Your Own Coach
===================If you are considering whether to get your own coach
to help you reach your academic goals, send any email
to: ben16-76471@autocontactor.com=============================
BEN DEAN, Publisher, ABDSG
===============================Ben holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of
Texas at Austin. He is the founder of MentorCoach
(www.MentorCoach.com <http://www.mentorcoach.com/>), a virtual
university training Accomplished mental health
professionals to become extraordinary coaches.
Ben lives in suburban Maryland with his wife and
two young children, Walnut, their
hamster, and Rubin, their cocker spaniel.==================================
RACHNA D. JAIN, Editor, ABDSG
==================================I'm a dissertation coach and licensed psychologist
based in Maryland, with a doctorate from the
University of Denver. I'm the Editor of the
ABDSG, as well as the Author of "Get It Done!
A Coach's Guide to Dissertation Success" and
" Get it Done Faster: Secrets of Dissertation
Success". If you'd like to learn more about me
or my books, please visit my website:
www.ExcelWithEaseCoaching.com
< http://www.excelwitheasecoaching.com/>If you have
questions about this newsletter, you
can direct them to me: rachna@mentorcoach.comI'm excited to be working with you to meet your academic
goals. You can do it!================================================
THE ALL-BUT-DISSERTATION SURVIVAL GUIDE(tm)
================================================"The All-But-Dissertation Survival Guide"(tm) focuses
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roadblocks that often seem to stand in the way of
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