It
is difficult to write when you are worried, depressed, etc., even happy events
such as births or weddings can make concentration tricky. But another way to
look at your writing is that it can also be an escape. You are creating a small
safe world that you can go to and get away from the problems/ distractions.
Some things I want you to keep in the back of your mind when life happens to
you, and it will at some point…
First,
get some support (I say this a lot don’t I?). Reach out to people and share
what is happening, it makes a huge difference to have someone say “I
understand, you are in my thoughts.” Particularly, reach out to your chair, let
him or her know what is going on – work together to come up with a plan while
you are going through this. Perhaps, you can discuss reducing your workload for
a quarter.
You
can also take a leave of absence if the pressure just feels too much – talk to
academic advising about it, if you think you need this. The biggest thing is
-do NOT follow the temptation to hide in your cave and not tell your chair what
is happening. The absolutely worse thing to do is wait until the end of the
quarter and then tell your chair about it. They may be kind, particularly if
you have been able to do something on your paper, and pass you. But realize
that if you have not made any progress, they may have to give you an
unsatisfactory (2 consecutive Us or 3 Us ever, gets you dropped from the
program).
Treat
your dissertation as you would if it were your job that you were getting paid
to do – you would certainly inform your supervisor of any issues that would
affect your work, wouldn’t you? Do the same with your doctoral work.
I
just talked to my Maggie’s surgeon and all is well, she did great with the
surgery. (I highly recommend having pet insurance – it will cover most of the
costs!) Next time we will get back on task and return to the topic of the 2nd
committee member.
Hi Dr. Stadtlander,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to hear about Maggie! I hope she is all right and feels much better by now. It always amazed me how quickly my dogs recovered after surgery...
Take care, Paula
Dr. S. -
ReplyDeleteI recently lost my dog, Maggie, and hold you both in my prayers as she recovers. Her loss hit hard and unexpectedly towards the end of last quarter and interfered greatly in the catching up I was trying to do from my own illness a couple of weeks before. Life happens, and we each need to decide where to put our energies and efforts.
I tell my students how proud I am of them for making the decision to pursue higher education, but, since the majority of them are non-traditional, I know school is not at the top of the priority list. "You do what you need to do." And I practice what I preach, by doing the minimum, when that is all I can do.
I try to work for fifteen minutes a day (it usually stretches to at least an hour), but if there is something I can do to benefit my dissertation in fifteen minutes week it is what I must do that week.