A giant construction project disrupts the lives and the commute of many people who use the Washington DC (or Capital) Beltway and the business routes between the Beltway and the Dulles International Airport. This same construction project also raises hope among many travelers that one day they can take the metro the full 30 miles [...]
Archive for the ‘finishing the dissertation’ Category
The cost of keeping score in a relationship
Posted in academic, boundaries, cleaning, decluttering, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, distractions, family, finishing the dissertation, happiness, housecleaning, tagged dissertation coaching, dissertation writing, email decluttering, family life, Gretchen Rubin, Jonathan Haidt, relationships, reward for writing, score-keeping, unconscious over-claiming, writers on October 1, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
A Saturday alone is a gift. My husband is gone for the weekend, and I am writing. As a reward to writing first, I promised myself a bit of email-inbox decluttering. To see if I should read it or delete it, I clicked on Gretchen Rubin’s “5 Mistakes I Continue To Make in My Marriage.” [...]
Precommit to Write: The Nothing Alternative
Posted in accountability, boundaries, commitment, determination, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, distractions, finishing the dissertation, following through, getting started, mental toughness, motivation, perseverance, planning, productivity, resilience, restart writing, self-discipline, self-sabotage, showing up, using your strengths, writing schedule, tagged decision fatigue, dissertation coach, John Tierney, nothing alternative, plan for writing, precommitment, Roy Baumeister, schedule, setting boundaries on September 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
What could help you have an easier time starting to write and sticking with the writing? In the new book Willpower, psychologist Roy F. Baumeister and New York Times science writer John Tierney present research that willpower is limited, in part because you use the same resource for so many different things. Since you can’t [...]
Decision Fatigue: When It’s Finally Time to Write, What Have You Got?
Posted in commitment, demands, determination, discipline, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, distractions, finishing the dissertation, following through, getting started, mental toughness, motivation, perseverance, planning, productivity, re-start, resilience, self-discipline, self-sabotage, using your strengths, write more easily, tagged decision fatigue, dissertation, dissertation coaching, ego depletion, John Tierney, mental toughness, Roy F. Baumeister, self-discpline, willpower, writing on September 25, 2011 | 2 Comments »
When did you first hear of “decision fatigue”? Perhaps, like me, it was when the New York Times Magazine published an article on decision fatigue and you started getting emails from your friends and family with links to that article. In fact, you probably received many links, and maybe the term “decision fatigue” has even [...]
What you need to finish your dissertation
Posted in accountability, determination, discipline, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, finishing the dissertation, following through, goals, mental toughness, motivation, perseverance, resilience, self-discipline, showing up, success, using your strengths, tagged dissertation, dissertation coaching, grit, Hailee Steinfeld, long-term goals, mental toughness, perseverance, resilience, True Grit on September 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
You have a long-term goal—say, writing a dissertation or a book. And the going gets tough. This is one huge project. It’s a long haul—it may mean months or years of coming back to that same project. It’s been going on for quite a while. Have you stuck with it? Have you kept coming back [...]
Summer Writing Goals
Posted in determination, discipline, dissertation writing, finishing the dissertation, following through, resilience, showing up, strategies, tagged goals, perseverance, resilience, summer writing, summer writing goals, willpower, writing on August 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
How has your summer been so far? Are you meeting your writing goals? Or are you uneasy as you look at the calendar? Unfortunately, the best of intentions at the beginning of summer can sometimes get waylaid. If you have met your writing goals or if you are on track to meet them, congratulations and [...]
Hard Choices: What finishing the dissertation requires of you and what it can give you
Posted in academic, accountability, advisor, choice, determination, dissertation advisors, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, family, finishing the dissertation, mental toughness, motivation, perseverance, resilience, self-discipline, setbacks, writing, tagged dissertation, dissertation advisor, dissertation coach, grit, hard choices, juggling dissertation with work and family, Memorial Day, mental toughness, writing on May 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I have coached many people who write dissertations while juggling the demands of family life. It’s difficult to juggle the daily demands, but to give up a holiday with one’s family is a particularly hard choice to make. As the Memorial Day holiday approaches here in the U.S., I am thinking back to a Memorial Day weekend [...]
Perfectionism be damned!
Posted in academic, accountability, commitment, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, finishing the dissertation, getting started, mental toughness, perfectionism, procrastination, productivity, reasons for not writing, self-sabotage, tagged dissertation, excuse for not writing, fear, mental toughness, perfectionism, procrastination, self-sabotage, writing on April 10, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Perfectionism gives you a perfect excuse never to write. Perfectionism not only slows productivity, but it also makes sure that your dissertation will never meet your expectations. Put up with the messiness of writing You have to go through the stage of writing “abominably repetitive, colloquial sentences,” as a dissertation client once described the [...]
Writers and Spring Break–Sail on, Silver Girl
Posted in academic, accountability, boot camp, boundaries, commitment, dissertation boot camp, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, distractions, finishing the dissertation, momentum, productivity, start writing, strategies, structures, success, time management, write more easily, writing schedule, tagged discipline, dissertation boot camp, dissertation coach, dissertation coaching, self-care, solitude, Spring Break, structure, thesis, use fail-proof writing strategies, Weight Watchers, writer’s retreat, writing on March 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Are you one of the lucky ones with Spring Break in the offing? Have you been thinking and hoping and waiting for Spring Break? Finally, you say, I’ll make some headway on my dissertation or book. Visualize how it will work when you have none of the usual demands that take your time and distract you [...]
