Nearly every day I receive email from people who are making no or next to no progress on their dissertations. They are scared of the future and ashamed of having let so much time go by. They complain about feeling isolated–working far from their universities, having little contact with their advisors, and having no colleagues [...]
Archive for the ‘advisor’ Category
To Make Progress on Your Dissertation, Stop Hiding Out
Posted in academic, accountability, advisor, dissertation advisors, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, fears, getting started, isolated, isolation, re-group, re-start, restart writing, self-sabotage, Smart Tips, write more easily, tagged connect with others, dissertation coach, hire dissertation coach, invest in your future, isolation while writing dissertation, Smart Tips for Writing, stop hiding out, writing coach on August 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Summer Productivity Tips: Use the August Hype for Successful Writing
Posted in academic, accountability, advisor, boundaries, coaching, dissertation advisors, dissertation boot camp, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, distractions, motivation, New Year's Resolution, productivity, restart writing, tagged dissertation boot camp, dissertation coaching, juggling dissertation, marketing, motivation, success is a habit, successful writing, summer productivity, use the hype, working full time, writing, writing habit on July 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
What does August have in common with January and New Year’s? If you are an academic writer, a PhD in academia, or an ABD, the last half of summer and August, in particular, may be the calm before the storm, the last best chance to do some serious writing before classes start and maybe before your [...]
Road Blocks to Finishing Your Dissertation: Slacking off, Celebrating too Soon, Determined to be Perfect
Posted in academic, advisor, coaching, discipline, dissertation advisors, dissertation boot camp, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, distractions, finishing the dissertation, following through, getting started, mental toughness, perseverance, productivity, reasons for not writing, resilience, restart writing, self-deception, self-sabotage, setbacks, using your strengths, tagged challenges, completing, distractions, finishing the dissertation, letting your strength get you in trouble, messing up, momentum, overwhelm, paralyzed, perfectionist, slacking off, slowing down on July 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
When the end of your dissertation is in sight, what will you do? If you’re struggling just to get started on your dissertation, the question “What will you do when the end is in sight” must sound rhetorical at best and silly at worst. Nevertheless, I’ve learned from my clients that minefields await writers when [...]
“We are what we repeatedly do”: Are You a Writer or . . . . Something Else?
Posted in academic, acting as if, advisor, coaching, commitment, determination, discipline, dissertation advisors, dissertation boot camp, dissertation writing, following through, getting started, goals, inertia, perseverance, procrastination, re-start, research, restart writing, Smart Tips, structures, writing, dissertation, tagged daily routines, get started writing, habit, practice, repeat, write daily on April 21, 2009 | 4 Comments »
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” —Aristotle How are you doing with building your writing habit? Are you writing your dissertation? It’s easy to play around on email or to read and even respond to blogs, but sitting down and starting a writing session is hard. [...]
6 Tips to Help You Stop Procrastinating and Finish Your Dissertation’s Conclusion
Posted in academic, advisor, coaching, criticism, dissertation advisors, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, following through, getting started, perseverance, procrastination, re-group, re-start, regrouping, restarting, Smart Tips, start writing, writing, writing, dissertation, tagged diplomacy in dealing with your committee, procrastinating on writing conclusion, writing conclusion to dissertation on September 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Procrastinating on finishing your dissertation’s conclusion? If so, you have company. Writing the conclusion can be a time when many people clutch. Needing Feedback? One reason why many dissertation writers start to slow down when they’re at this point is that they aren’t getting feedback from their advisor or mentor. If you don’t have a [...]
An Academic’s Well-Lived Life: Perseverance, Loyalty, Gratitude, Love
Posted in academic, advisor, brave, choice, coaching, courage, creativity, criticism, dissertation coach, following through, football, grateful, gratitude, perseverance, positive psychology, top strengths, using your strengths, tagged model for a professor, others matter, perseverence, teaching by example on July 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
By now, you’ve probably heard that Randy Pausch died Friday at the age of 47. Though known in the field of computer science, he had gained world-wide fame from his wise, clever “last lecture” at Carnegie Mellon in the fall of 2007. At that time he had been told that because of aggressive pancreatic cancer, he [...]
Hard Deadlines: Are You Being Squeezed Out of Your Doctoral Program?
Posted in academic, advisor, coaching, deadline, dissertation advisors, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, fears, Smart Tips, strategies, tagged finishing the dissertation, hard deadlines, working with advisor on June 8, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Is your university enforcing hard deadlines for finishing dissertations? Are you getting any signals from your university about what might be ahead for you? Has your advisor become more critical of your work? Every day I talk with dissertation clients who are trying hard to finish their doctoral degree. This week several people sounded a similarly [...]
Conflicting Demands: Family, Holidays, and Dissertations
Posted in advisor, choice, coaching, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, family, tagged hard choices on May 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I always look forward to Memorial Day week-end. As I enjoy the current Memorial Day holiday here in the U.S., I am thinking back to a Memorial Day week-end a few years ago when I had to choose my dissertation over the holiday week-end with my family. In my Washington, DC suburb, Memorial Day has always [...]
One Way to Get a Response from Your Dissertation Advisor
Posted in advisor, alliances, coaching, courage, dissertation advisors, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, relationships, Smart Tips, writing, tagged dissertation advisor, feedback, response, strategy on May 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
What do you want from your advisor that will make your life as a writer easier? Great feedback, some feedback, or maybe just feedback once in a while? How about an email saying hello? If you’re not getting feedback or not even getting answers to your straight-forward questions, here’s one idea. I’m not advising that [...]
Whose Dissertation Is It?
Posted in academic, advisor, coaching, discourse, dissertation advisors, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, resources, Smart Tips, writing, writing models, tagged accepting help, commenting on writing, procrastination, revisions, rewriting, talk to your advisor on November 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
An ABD student wrote to me about her advisor’s generous rewriting of the dissertation text. According to the student, the advisor doesn’t change the thought, only the language. The ABD student recognizes that the advisor’s writing is superior to her own, Her question is if the advisor has rewritten a lot of the language of [...]
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