Becoming Doctor Jones

Both of my brother-in-laws, who work in the restaurant industry, are happy to work seven days a week. Imagining chopping vegetables for eight hours straight and then having to cover someone on my day off is downright appalling to me. But they are both of the opinion that a weekend (or other two-day break) breaks up their routine in a bad way. Another way of putting this is that Mondays are terrible precisely because you’ve had time off. You’re not used to working, and now you have to get used to it, and fast.

I really believe that working five days a week is best for me. But there are other ways of working it out–writing six or seven days a week, writing every other day, two days on/one day off . . . it’s worth experimenting, especially at the beginning of the dissertation writing process to find out what patterns keep you in your groove.

Another advantage of experimenting with your work habits is that you will confident that you’ve chosen the best process for you, which can be comforting when you discover other people’s habits. I usually have a reaction like “how could you possibly work that much?” and people tend to react to me like, “it’s amazing how you’re able to make so much time for things besides work!” As far as I can tell, there’s usually a bit of jealousy on both sides. But what other people do is not important. It’s only important that you aren’t ignorant of your own best practices.

Sometimes when I’m trying to start working, I get this fluttery feeling. Sometimes that feeling makes me want to clean something, sometimes it makes me want to find comics to read on the internet, sometimes I want to call a friend, and sometimes I want to play a computer game.

“Just for a minute,” I say to myself. “Just to clear my head and calm me down.”

What happens next is embarrassing. With each successive game, I get more and more agitated, telling myself I just need to win one more time and then I’ll get back to work. All the while I’m more and more alarmed at how much time is passing. “Oh, sh**! 3:00 already!”

So I’ve started a new ritual to deal with the flutters. It’s very simple–I’m not into incense or mantras or meditation, though I don’t see any problem with using those techniques to get in the mood for working. All I mean by ritual is that I do the same thing ever day before starting work, to calm me down and get me focused on the task at hand.

I read five pages of The Craft of Research. It’s a guide to writing that I enjoy reading. It’s clearly written, infused with a you-can-do-it! attitude, and relevant to what I’m trying to accomplish.  I think reading anything that you like, that you think is well-written, could be great–even if it wasn’t related to your dissertation specifically. It should be something you know well (this ritual should not be suspenseful), something you like, and, most importantly, something that doesn’t spark any wild emotions.

My last post about breaking a no-work period by making tiny goals got me to thinking about the best time to make daily goals.

For me, the answer is hands-down at the end of the workday, especially if I’m transitioning between activities.

For example, when I’m researching, I don’t find it that difficult to pick up where I left off the previous day. I organize my files by publication date, and then simply read them in order. If I don’t write down “Begin reading sources from June of 2004” at the end of my work day, chances are I’ll figure it out and start reading the next morning anyway.

But, when moving between chapters, starting a new revision cycle, or approaching the introduction or conclusion of a chapter, I need that plan in place. Otherwise, I sit down in the morning with a panicked, overwhelmed feeling that rarely leads to productive work.

I have a calendar just for dissertation matters, and if I use it to plan my next day’s work, I start the day with a specific, reachable goal. In the calendar box for tomorrow, I wrote “make a list of reasons supporting my conclusion” and “make a new outline” (based on the list of reasons). So I know exactly what I will do tomorrow. I will sit down at the computer, open my chapter and a new document. I will read the chapter, pausing to write down reasons in the new document.

It doesn’t sound hard, does it?

That’s the idea.