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Archive for the ‘following through’ Category

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 sense that [...]

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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 had [...]

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This morning as I was reading a paragraph here and there in Newsweek, I swear I saw the words “put off finishing his dissertation” rise off the page in 3-inch-tall block letters, or so it seemed. 
Procrastinating on one’s dissertation isn’t unusual, but to get your name in Newsweek because what you’re doing to procrastinate is [...]

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If you’ve been teaching this past year, isn’t it a joy not to have to work on lectures or grading?  Maybe you have the house/apartment/office to yourself. 
So–how are you doing on your summer writing?
If you are almost ready to get started, but not quite there yet, perhaps you had a project dumped on you as [...]

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If you’re like me, you don’t have uninterrupted time for writing.
Maybe you work full time in a demanding job or work two demanding part-time jobs or you take care of your children.
And when you get to the point when you do have time to write, you’re exhausted.  Just brain dead.
And that, of course, is the [...]

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When my writing starts to come together, I am relieved, but I’m also anxious about what comes next. 
My first response to those feelings of relief and a fluttering of anxiety almost always is to flee and to eat. 
Be grateful if you don’t feel these urges.  Or pat yourself on the back if once you would [...]

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Feeling anxious is no picnic, but it’s pretty common among writers.
When I’ve been struggling with my writing and finally feel that the fog may be starting to lift, here’s what comes up for me:
1. I feel relief.
2. And I feel anxious.
I feel relief because once again I’ve made it through.  And getting to that point [...]

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Think of those times when you’ve had a breakthrough in your writing.
This comes after you’ve been struggling to clear the fog from your brain.  And then the fog lifts. 
It’s a great moment, right?  Then what do you do?
A client told me that she was putting in less time on her dissertation each day than she [...]

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Want to feel calm, even fulfilled, while increasing your productivity?  And meet a dissertation deadline?  Read on.
Recently, I blogged about how a client achieved greater productivity in her writing. 
She and I had collaborated over what steps would most likely yield success.  Sticking to her plan gave her the success she wanted–she met her deadline by increasing her [...]

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Dissertation writers occasionally come to an impasse, unsure of which way to go next.  You’ve probably been in this position.  You want to move forward, but it may seem prudent to wait—wait to see what your committee chair or mentor says, wait until you have a lot more time to read or go through your [...]

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