Author: Julia Hallas, Doctoral Candidate
It’s a new year, so it’s time for a new plan
Where do you want to be with your PhD by December 2014? If your answer is ‘the PGR9, or working on my PhD’, you might be in for a stressful and chaotic year and not achieve as much as you might expect. You need to be more specific. It’s time to get serious. Having finished my PGR9 last year, this year I have decided to work towards finishing my PhD with two principles in mind.
Principle 1 – To always be finishing my PhD
Many people say they are working on their PhD or working on a chapter. Actually, you don’t want to work on your PhD, you want to work on finishing your PhD. Saying “I’m finishing my methodology chapter” gives me a psychological lift. Each time I work on it, I’m actually finishing it, so I have an endpoint in mind, rather than some vague time this year or next year. But to make sure I could finish my PhD, I needed to know specifically what I had to do. So the first thing I did was to create a checklist of all the activities I had to complete in order to finish my PhD. And now I have a 30 step PhD checklist, with the last step being to relax and take a holiday! It may sound crazy, but every time I look at my checklist I feel calm. All I have to do, is work through it to the end, and I love to see the growing number of ticks next to the steps I’ve completed.
Principle 2 – Have a plan and evaluate progress.
The advantage of planning is that it requires discipline, and discipline reduces stress and chaos. I decided that I would break the year into quarters. and using my PhD checklist, set goals for each quarter. Twelve weeks is long enough to finish specific activities and short enough to stay motivated. So I’ve factored in some rewards for achieving my goals each quarter. Next, I set goals for each month and created a weekly timetable listed with specific actions to complete. For January, I planned actions which enabled me to finish my Ethics application and submit it to AUTEC. This, I am happy to say, I achieved. In March, I block out four hours to make the AUTEC revisions to my application. It’s important to break down steps into specific actions, and I always keep in mind how many hours it might take me. At the end of the week, evaluate progress. What did I do well? What could I do better? My perfect plan sounds impressive, but I know I won’t always stick to it. Life gets in the way. But I will try, and I’ve learned that it’s not what you do perfectly, but what you do consistently that makes the difference.
How have you planned for your PhD in 2014?
