{"id":5072,"date":"2016-09-15T09:00:47","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T21:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/?p=5072"},"modified":"2016-09-20T11:25:34","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T23:25:34","slug":"what-to-do-when-youre-feeling-overwhelmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/?p=5072","title":{"rendered":"What to do when you\u2019re feeling overwhelmed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When I first started my PhD, the enormity of what I had to do would often overwhelm me. I knew that I had to break my research project down into smaller steps, so I did that early on.\u00a0 Yet I still get overwhelmed every now and then.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/overwhelmed.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-5074\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/overwhelmed.jpg?resize=500%2C333&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"overwhelmed\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/overwhelmed.jpg?w=1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/overwhelmed.jpg?resize=150%2C100&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/overwhelmed.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/overwhelmed.jpg?resize=750%2C500&amp;ssl=1 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I have found that a small phrase or quote can often help put my project in perspective and get me researching again.\u00a0 Here\u2019s one that worked well for me:<\/p>\n<p>Research is doing small, manageable steps:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Pose a question,<\/li>\n<li>Collect data to answer the question, and<\/li>\n<li>Present an answer to the question (Creswell, 2008, p. 3).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>This helps me to see that no matter how big I imagine my research project to be, it really is just a set of basic steps. Now I see my research as doable.<\/p>\n<p>How do you deal with feeling overwhelmed? What works for you?<\/p>\n<p>If you would like to ask me a question about writing your thesis, or finding the motivation to write, I would be happy to answer. Please write your question in the comments box.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>References:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Creswell, J. W. (2008). <em>Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research<\/em>. (3<sup>rd<\/sup> ed.). New Jersey: Pearson.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I first started my PhD, the enormity of what I had to do would often overwhelm me. I knew that I had to break my research project down into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[58,55],"class_list":["post-5072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-category-3","tag-organisation","tag-tips-tricks"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/overwhelmed.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p83npQ-1jO","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5072"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5075,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5072\/revisions\/5075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}