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 [...]
Posts Tagged ‘self-sabotage’
Perfectionism be damned!
Posted in procrastination, academic, productivity, self-sabotage, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, getting started, commitment, mental toughness, accountability, reasons for not writing, finishing the dissertation, perfectionism, tagged procrastination, writing, dissertation, mental toughness, self-sabotage, fear, perfectionism, excuse for not writing on April 10, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Is Your Dissertation One of Your Big Rocks?
Posted in accountability, coaching, dissertation boot camp, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, distractions, following through, mental toughness, planning, self-deception, self-sabotage, showing up, structures, take charge, time management, tagged Big Rocks, dissertation, distractions, late summer chaos, prioritize, self-sabotage, summer writing, time management, where you have control on August 15, 2010 | 1 Comment »
August can be a time of scrambling A friend who was taking her family on a trip to Europe was rushing to get everything done. She said, “All I have to do is just get to the plane.” I know what she means—what a wonderful feeling it is to settle in and stare into space, [...]
Assess Your Dissertation Writing Habits and Make Some Changes: Time for Spring Cleaning
Posted in coaching, academic, distractions, productivity, self-sabotage, dissertation coach, determination, choice, courage, perseverance, writing, dissertation writing, getting started, discipline, time, self-deception, re-start, re-group, restart writing, regrouping, restarting, following through, start writing, time theft, mental toughness, housecleaning, cleaning, take stock, accountability, showing up, time management, take charge, write more easily, finishing the dissertation, habit, practice writing, writing schedule, tagged change writing process, develop a writing habit, distractions, find time to write, make time to write, mentally tough, self-sabotage, take control, time management, write daily on dissertation on March 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Change is happening in the Washington DC area, not just in Congress, but here in my backyard. Spring is here. Tulips are pushing their way above ground. The trees are dropping all sorts of little colored pellets on my deck and front walk. The first days of Spring are a great time to assess your [...]
Writing a Dissertation? Don’t Try This at Home
Posted in discipline, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, distractions, getting started, perseverance, planning, productivity, self-sabotage, start writing, strategies, tagged dissertation coaching, make deals with yourself, self-sabotage, write first before getting comfortable, write first each morning, writing the dissertation at home on November 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Now that Halloween is over, it hasn’t taken long for me to eat all of the left-over chocolate-covered raisins that the trick-or-treaters rejected in favor of Snickers. Having all of these tidy little packages of candy in my house once again reminds me of the dangers of home. It’s just tempting fate to stay [...]
Use Humor to Re-group and Start Your Dissertation Writing Session: Practice Resiliency
Posted in coaching, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, flow, getting started, laugh, momentum, re-group, re-start, regrouping, resilience, restart writing, restarting, self-sabotage, start writing, using your strengths, write more easily, tagged dissertation, dissertation coach, keep the writing going, keep your perspective, playfully firm self-discipline, practice resiliency, re-starting dissertation writing, Resiliency, self-sabotage, sense of humor, writing on October 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
How was your writing today? You couldn’t get a flow going today during your writing session? Some writing sessions are like that–you start off more slowly, maybe because you’re tired, it’s the end of the week, or maybe because you didn’t prime the pump, didn’t try to induce a good mood, or didn’t practice resiliency [...]
Do You Use the All-or-Nothing Distortion?
Posted in academic, coaching, determination, discipline, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, fears, flow, getting started, gremlin, momentum, perfectionism, procrastination, re-start, reasons for not writing, restart writing, self-sabotage, Smart Tips, writing, writing, dissertation, tagged ABD, acknowledging success, all-or-nothing distortion, distorting experience, flow, perfectionism, procrastination, self-sabotage on September 21, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Even though you may have a stated intention of working on your dissertation and making steady progress, you do everything and anything to sabotage yourself. Could this be you? If this sounds familiar, read on. A dissertation client is having great trouble moving forward. Every week when we talk, there’s been another obstacle which has [...]
Caught up in Fearing Failure, Avoiding Risks, Watching Time Slip Away?
Posted in academic, coaching, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, perfectionism, procrastination, Smart Tips, writing, tagged dissertation, fear, fear of failure, mental toughness, perfectionism, perfectionist, procrastination as protection, self-sabotage, writing on September 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A dissertation client told me that that a couple of years ago her professor suggested they plan to publish together. But the graduate student could never get herself to devote even a day to work on this project. She kept putting it off. Now she feels like it will never happen. And why would the [...]
What if Dissertation Writers Had the Focus of Tiger Woods?
Posted in academic, anxiety, brave, coaching, courage, determination, discipline, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, fears, focus, getting started, mental toughness, momentum, re-group, re-start, self-sabotage, struggling, top strengths, using your strengths, writing, writing, dissertation, tagged flow, mental toughness, self-regulation, self-sabotage on July 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
When I’m in line at the grocery, I read the latest celeb magazines. If there’s an article about Tiger Woods, I’ll read about his wife and his yacht and, of course, his relationship with his father, but I’ve never been interested enough to take the time to see what are golf’s and Tiger Woods’s hold [...]
How I Avoid Writing: Procrastinating on the Dissertation
Posted in academic, coaching, discipline, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, distractions, following through, goals, mental toughness, perseverance, procrastination, re-group, restart writing, self-deception, self-sabotage, top strengths, writing, writing breaks, tagged dissertation, procrastination, self-regulation, self-sabotage, writing on June 19, 2008 | 2 Comments »
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 [...]
