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THE ALL-BUT-DISSERTATION SURVIVAL GUIDE™ The All-But-Dissertation Survival Guide™ focuses on ways to help its readers more readily overcome the roadblocks that often seem to stand in the way of completing the dissertation. It is read throughout the world. Want to become a coach?New MentorCoach Training Programs launching. Subscribe to our other no-cost ezines: Visit Ben Dean's Live Coaching Workshops in Dallas, Austin, St Louis & Detroit. INTERESTED IN WORKING WITH A DISSERTATION
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE - May 31, 2008
3. Five Secrets to Surviving Negative Feedback On Your
Dissertation
By Gayle Scroggs, Ph.D.
May 31, 2008
A Note from the Editor
Tracy Steen, Ph.D.
JUST DO IT!
If that sounds familiar, it should, because a huge sports corporation spent many millions to market that message. It showed up in magazines, on TV, and emblazoned across the chests of athletes. The message was created by Nike to exhort the sports minded, but it can also work for you. In fact, it may be just the message you need if you've been working on your dissertation for a number of years without the kind of progress you anticipated.
As time goes by, it's easy to get bogged down, but determined ABD's can extricate themselves from the bog. No matter how many years have intervened since you started your dissertation, and no matter the inertia that may be tugging at you right now, the finish line remains right where it has always been and you can cross over it.
In this issue we present a strategy for finally getting the dissertation completed so that you can move on with your life. Sure, it's easier said than done, but it can be done and you can do it.
Rekindle the Passion
What I like so much about the Just Do It message is the powerful feeling it transmits, a feeling of intensity. (And if you're bogged down, it's definitely time to turn on the intensity!) Just Do It trumpets a call for enthusiasm, commitment, and maybe even a touch of obsession--all things that move a dissertation forward.
If at this point you feel that you couldn't possibly rekindle any genuine fervor for your dissertation topic, I know you can at least summon enthusiasm for completing the dissertation in order to move on to something else. Whichever goal works for you is irrelevant as long as you maintain your commitment and hang in there with the dissertation until it's done.
Consider the fact that you and your dissertation topic have been together for a long time, and it is surely in your interest to maintain an amicable relationship until the end, no matter how tired you are of the topic that once warmed your heart. Some people stay together for the kids or the dogs or the mortgage; you and the dissertation topic have to remain together for the doctorate. So try to rekindle the romance--if not with each other, then at least with the very enticing vision of getting done quickly so that you two can separate!
Have an "Extreme Makeover"
If progress on your dissertation has been too slow for too long, maybe it's time for some major changes. Keep doing what you're doing and you'll keep getting what you're getting. (You've heard that before, but it's no less true.)
Chances are that at one time you were right on track to complete your dissertation in a reasonable period of time. Then life intervened, right? Well, this could be the time for your own intervention. You can--yes, you can--put on hold (sort of like layaway) all those things in life that stand in the way of completion. Of course it will never be convenient to alter your life in such a way, so the time to Just Do It might as well be now.
If your dissertation has gradually taken up a backburner position, bring it forward and give it the top priority it requires. Caution: the following is for the ABD who is truly ready to turn up the heat!
The kind of changes you make in order to give your dissertation top priority will depend on your individual circumstances--whether you have children, what hours you work, etc. However, if your objective is to expedite the dissertation process, a really intensive effort is required--something on the order of an extreme makeover.
For example, an easy (if initially uncomfortable) first step is simply to restrict TV until completion. (Who needs it, anyway? And banish the computer games and aimless web surfing, too.)
And if you like to sleep in on weekends, just yawn and forget about the luxury of a.m. lazing about until the final draft is complete. (With a truly intensive effort in play, you won't want to miss the incomparable productive potential of those quiet morning hours.)
If you have children, hire a babysitter to come in regularly to provide times for you to work without distractions. (The cost is minimal when compared with what you have already spent on grad school and with what the doctorate will be worth.)
If any of the above sounds draconian, it's just a start and you will need to make many more adjustments in your current life to give priority to completion of your dissertation. Life will threaten to intervene again and again with tempting invitations to take weekends off, or help with others' projects, or take on new assignments. You know what to say when these things come up, right? Until the dissertation is complete, eliminate the other stuff and stay focused.
Protect Your Assets
You have a vast reservoir of strengths going for you. They are what got you to ABD status and they will sustain you as you very deliberately accelerate toward your goal. However, as you begin to move forward with purpose, you may be surprised (or maybe not) to find that not everyone in your life is supportive.
If friends and family do not readily join together to form your personal bulwark of support and encouragement, don't be too surprised. Disappointed, sure--but not surprised. After all, change is difficult for everyone, and your transition into serious scholar mode means you won't be available to hang out with the other people in your life in quite the same way as before.
If any friendships prove particularly unsupportive and antithetical to your purpose while you are working to complete your dissertation, you may be wise to limit those associations for the duration. This is your time to get it done, so cultivate what works to advance your goal and put the rest on pause.
Tackle Your Time
If you don't tackle your time, it will get away from you.
Technology is often the culprit when at the end of the day you find yourself wondering, "Where did the time go?" You can tackle this problem by setting and maintaining some strict ground rules governing your use of technology:
• Check your email no more than twice a day, reading only what is important and deleting what is merely enticing (e.g., links to online newspaper subscriptions).
• Use a timer when you take a scheduled break so that you get back to work within 10 minutes. Breaking every hour or so is a good idea, but breaks can easily extend overlong despite good intentions if you don't have a reminder.
• Don't take phone calls while you are working. If you return calls during breaks, strictly limit them to 10 minutes. (Use timer here, too.) (Yeah, I know, but time gets away so easily….)
Don't Go It Alone
You have an advisor and that's a good thing! Don't make the mistake of foregoing frequent contact with him or her. And if you have already lost that contact, re-establish it.
If you live away from campus, consider making a trip back for a face to face meeting with your advisor to indicate your serious intent and restore the rapport necessary for a good working relationship.
That good relationship may not guarantee positive feedback, but negative feedback can be equally valuable, and Dr. Gayle Scroggs tells us how to handle it in this issue's guest article: Be sure to read "Five Secrets to Surviving Negative Feedback on Your Dissertation."
Addendum
The Just Do It strategy addresses the circumstance of the ABD who has been working on the dissertation for more years than anticipated and who would now like to finish it as expeditiously as possible. However, the strategy is applicable to anyone who wants to jumpstart the dissertation process.
Regardless of your strategy, time is on your side when it is used wisely, as indicated in this issue's Inspirational Quotes. Accordingly, time and persistence are going to take you over the finish line to the doctorate. You've shown you can do the work. It's now just a matter of time well spent….
Inspirational Quotes
Lee Iacocca
If you want to make good use of your time, you've got to know what's most
important and then give it all you've got.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift; that's why
they call it the present.
Carl Sandburg
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you
can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend
it for you.
Charles Buxton
You will never find time for anything, you must make it.
Nike
Just Do It!
FIVE SECRETS TO SURVIVING NEGATIVE FEEDBACK ON YOUR
DISSERTATION
by Gayle Scroggs, Ph.D.
You know how students get deflated when their professors give them negative feedback? Well, you no doubt have found that despite their maturity and wisdom, ABD students are no exception.
When your advisor gives you the thumbs down on your proposal or even your completed dissertation, what can you do to recover your zest and keep moving forward?
Let's look at some real-life examples that may offer you some tools to overcome the nearly inevitable negative feedback that the dissertation process entails. Claire's story, a composite of various clients in my practice, is a familiar one to dissertation coaches, and it offers some insights for those struggling with dejection from negative feedback:
"I worked for two days straight, even missing a day of work to get my prospectus in," sighed my client Claire recently. "And what happened when I got to my appointment with my advisor? Instead of going over the pages I e-mailed him, he pulled out a blank sheet of paper and said I needed to start over with a new question! I'm not making progress--I'm actually going backward!"
Claire's aching disappointment was reflected in her voice. Her usual zest had gone as flat as day-old champagne. For the next few minutes, she even considered aloud the possibility of giving it up. Yet she always returned to all the good, persisting reasons she had embarked on this academic marathon, most of which centered around the career opportunities a doctorate would bring.
But the negative thoughts continued to nag her: "Why bother to invest a lot of time trying to make this the best dissertation ever in order to get the degree? Given everything else on my plate, I should just submit a mediocre dissertation and get this over with."
Her exasperation now bordered on disgust. Not surprisingly, she wondered how she could muster up enough energy to get going again to meet department expectations.
Can you identify with Claire? Then read on, and take comfort in the thought that you have thousands of other graduate students for company! The ones who become "Dr." and continue to build a successful career are precisely the ones who learn how to accept critical feedback and keep steaming ahead.
In short, when you learn to deal with negative feedback effectively, you can celebrate it as an important milestone in your professional development because the resilience you develop will definitely come in handy for years to come in your career.
How can you do it?
Develop an attitude of gratitude.
Look for the gifts that come, perhaps disguised, in critical feedback. What
nuggets can you pluck from the negative comments that will lead you to create
a stronger, defensible proposal or final dissertation?
Claire, for example, discovered upon closer examination that her advisor had penciled in valuable suggestions in her proposal, and that by using those, she could adapt much of her original material. She further recognized that her new question would be more acceptable not only to her advisor but also to her whole committee.
Choose energizing language.
Instead of obsessing about your critiqued paper in terms of words which suck
the energy right out of you (e.g., "failure," "no progress,"
"doomed"), find a metaphor that inspires you.
Claire had been describing herself "going around in circles and getting nowhere" as her proposals were handed back with requests for changes--a view that left her unmotivated to make the corrections. When I suggested she try a more positive metaphor for challenge, one that reflected at least some progress, she recalled an exhilarating experience of climbing a beautiful but steep hill in Sicily. Yes, she had to do switchbacks, but she was always making progress toward the top. Even as she spoke, her voice became infused with energy and hope, and she found the motivation to get back to the proposal draft.
Also beware of demonizing your advisor or committee members--find a metaphor that puts them on your team if you want to channel your creativity and energy toward your dissertation instead of against your professors.
Boot the inner critic.
One of the most insidious and frequent causes of "de-motivation"
is that inner voice saying we are not good enough, that we do not deserve
success or happiness. The inner critic loves to take a faculty advisor's critique
of a dissertation and turn it into a critique of the student's self-worth.
Don't go there!
Claire learned to catch herself and remind herself that the comments were about the paper, not about her. When you feel yourself sagging, look for any negative self-statements you are harboring. Write them down on a slip of paper, burn them or trash them, and then get back to work.
You are not obligated to listen to those nattering nabobs of negativism.
(For more on how to deal with the inner critic, see my ABDSG
article of May 2006).
Develop a circle of social support.
A weekly lunchtime with other doctoral students is useful for unloading frustration,
sharing resources, and mutual accountability. Sharing your challenges and
your wins with others on the same path can keep you on track, motivated, and
connected even in the darkest moments.
Distance students can find support forums at sites such as www.phinished.org. Let your family and friends know that you need their encouragement and not "Gee, haven't you finished yet?" as you revise your work. Some students also find a dissertation coach very useful.
As Claire found, the key is to spend time with people who want you to finish! Look for those who understand you are running a marathon, not a sprint.
Choose to grow.
Finally, remember that learning to accept criticism and grow from it is part
of the development of a good professional. Granted, advisors in academia,
as in any endeavor, vary in their ability to mentor, and sometimes feedback
is less than elegant. Even so, the dissertation experience provides you with
the opportunity to develop the necessary resilience for success after graduation.
Whether you plan a career in academia or business, your ability to listen thoughtfully, to maintain your dignity and hope, and to re-inspire yourself in challenging situations will make all the difference.
About the author: "Helping others flourish at work, school, home, and play" serves as the life mission for Dr. Gayle Scroggs. In addition to coaching doctoral students successfully for years, she has developed an international client base of expats, entrepreneurs, and leaders who seek more success and joy-the "essence of life." A native Californian, Gayle realized one of her own dreams by following her heart to Argentina, where she divides her time between coaching and helping her Argentine husband with the family berry and soy farm. A member of the Mentor Coach training team, she also can be found writing and painting in Boston or Santa Cruz while visiting her two marvelous grown children. For herself and her clients, Gayle believes that life should be a wonderful adventure! For more information write gayle@essencecoaching.com and see www.essencecoaching.com