Dissertation Organization
A staggering amount of academic work is required to earn a doctoral degree. Writing up and organizing those works can take up a large chunk of your time, which could make it difficult to focus on other aspects of your research. While there are many different ways to get organized for your dissertation, these tips should help you get started.
Find The Right Environment
It’s critical that you find the best place where you can be productive. Where do you do your absolute best type of work? For some people, they will need absolute silence, and for others, they prefer a study hum and bustle of activity around them. Do you need office space, or do you work best from the kitchen table? In most cases, the best kind of space will be quiet, and free from distraction.
One of the most critical parts of finding the right environment is making sure that you are comfortable and have the right furniture. Perhaps the most important piece of furniture is an ergonomic chair. It’s important to make sure that your working environment allows you to maintain an ergonomic neutral position.
Ideally, this will mean that you have adjustability in your furniture such as your chair, a keyboard tray, and desk which allow you to place your screens at the right height, and reach everything that you need to reach.
Manage Your Time
It is also critical to organize your time. The dissertation process comprises several components: writing, meeting deadlines, completing forms, getting approvals and signatures, submitting proposals, data collection, and so much more.
To make significant progress, you will need to schedule a time for your dissertation each day. It’s also critical to make sure that you track your time and build on your progress. How much time is enough? There’s no easy answer to that question; however, you will want to make sure that you block significant time so that you can get focused and make progress each day. We recommend scheduling at least one or two hours a day to focus on your dissertation. Work on your dissertation when you are in your best frame of mind for writing. For example, some people thrive very early in the morning, whereas others hit their writing flow late at night.
Even though you are scheduling time for your dissertation each day, don’t discount how much you can achieve by writing in short spurts as well. Inspiration will hit you at times, and when it does, you need to capture it. Even if you can’t write at a certain point in time, there are several ways that you can catch your ideas.
For example, you can use the voice recorder on your phone and begin to speak into the phone to capture your ideas during times that you are not writing. Make the most of these time frames, which will add and build on your overall progress.
Consider keeping track of the hours and minutes that you are writing, or in terms of pages written. The point is that you are tracking your overall progress and keeping the ball rolling.
Recap:
- Schedule time for your dissertation each day.
- Write during times when you are in the best frame of mind for peak performance.
- Write during short spurts of time, or capture your information by recording your voice when you can’t write.
- Measure your progress daily. You can measure progress in terms of minutes spent writing or pages written.
Manage Your Tasks and To-Do’s
In addition to managing your time, it’s also critical to manage your tasks for your dissertation.
Have you ever looked at a massive task list and just frozen without a good place to start? This can be what your face when you embark on a dissertation because there are so many moving parts that you need to keep track of. In addition to time management, you will also need to consider how you are going to manage your tasks.
One of the most simple ways to manage your task is to use a basic to-do list. To-do lists can be daily, weekly, and monthly. Some people advocate for separating your to-do list into high priority and Urgent items. One of the benefits of using a to-do list is that it is a way for you to manage your progress and provide satisfaction once you have completed a task.
The good news is there are many ways to maintain a to-do list. It’s important, however, to make sure that you are to-do list does not become more complicated than the tasks that you need to finish. The to-do list should be a simple way of managing your tasks, which allows you to track your progress. For some, the easiest way to maintain a to-do list is to keep a written Journal. Smartphones also had several free to-do list apps, as well as computer and email programs such as Microsoft Outlook. The benefit of electronic to-do lists is that they often can provide reminders and allow you to easily update or change the list items. For daily dissertation tasks, we recommend keeping your to-do list short, with 3-6 (or even fewer) items for the day.
One of our favorite to-do lists, which we also use as an outliner for research is Dynalist , which is a simple text-based software that allows you to keep track of tasks online. Dynalist also offers mobile apps so you can stay on top of your to-do list wherever you go.
Other effective ways of task management are to use kanban boards. Kanban boards are effective because they are visual, and allow you to move your tasks from one category to the other. Combine words are an effective way to group your tasks under themes or progress. Post-it notes on your wall. For example, you can have headings of to do, doing, and done. You can post your tasks under each one of these, and achieved the physical satisfaction of moving the completed notes into the done column. This is a simple and cost-effective way for you to manage your task.
There are also several online kanban board software options. Trello is one of the most popular kanban board options. Our favorite kanban and project management software is Nifty PM due to its numerous capabilities and project management options. If you have Microsoft Office 365, you may also have access to their free kanban and task software call the planner. Plantar is an excellent kanban software, and links directly with your Microsoft account so it is easy to connect your tasks to your calendar, and keep track of them. Since many people already have access to the software, it can be a simple and effective tool that you can start using immediately. To check out Microsoft planner, go to tasks.office.com.
At the end of the day, the most effective task management system for you is going to be one which is easy for you to implement, and sustainable. When in doubt, keep it simple.
Recap:
- To-do lists are a simple, effective way to manage your tasks. They can be written, or online. Dynalist is a free to-do llist that you can use to track your progress.
- Keep daily to-do lists short. No more than 3-6 items per day.
- Kanban boards are a visual way to manage your tasks which allow you to group your tasks into different categories or levels of progress.
- Whichever method you use, make sure that you can access it quickly, and that it is easy for you to manage your tasks. Do you want to set a low barrier and make it easy, and even enjoyable to complete and track your progress towards your dissertation.
Manage Expectations
You need to manage your expectations when you are completing your dissertation.
In addition to budgeting your time correctly, you also need to make sure that the time you are spending on your dissertation is worth it. You want to get the most bang for your buck.
As we already mentioned, one strategy is to work when you are the most productive. When is your brain turned on, and what are the most productive times for you to work. Save those times for your creative work, and do routine tasks like formatting when you are not at your peak time.
Next, guard your time. If you schedule an hour a day working on your dissertation, make that our sacred, and don’t let interruptions take time away. Make sure that your friends and family know that you will be working on your dissertation at this time and that you won’t be available to do anything else. It will be hard to do it first, but it will help you maintain Focus and consistently produce work.
Manage your own expectations, as well. Rest and take breaks. If you work straight through for 6 hours, you will not be very productive, and you will likely have to redo much of the work you have done anyway. Make sure that you schedule short breaks and incorporate physical activity when you can.
How can you do this easily? Every 20 minutes, get up, stand, stretch, get a drink of water, or walk around. You’ll find that you’ll feel more refreshed when you get back to work, and you will be able to do better work.
Manage yourself to write your dissertation. In other words, use the carrot and the stick. Reward yourself when you are on track and when you make progress. Make it very easy for you to write your dissertation. If it takes you 20 minutes to get set up each time you sit down to write, it will be more difficult to start the writing process. Think about ways that you can remove as many barriers as possible to getting started.
At the same time, work on eliminating poor behaviors that distract you from your dissertation. This includes getting lost in social media, watching TV, or going down and the Internet rabbit hole for many people. If you find yourself doing some of these activities, label it in your mind, and recognize that it is a time-wasting activity.
To recap, how can you manage expectations when writing your dissertation?
- Work when you are the most productive.
- Guard your time.
- Rest and take breaks.
- Make good behaviors easy, and poor behaviours hard.
Conclusion
Planning out how you’re going to spend your time is a critical step in writing your dissertation. If you don’t manage your time and tasks well, you’ll end up working on the wrong parts of your paper and, consequently, leave the important stuff until the last minute.
Follow these tips to become a dissertation organization master, and get it done on time!