Ask Jennifer Doran about her dissertation writing, and the doctoral candidate at the New School for Social Research lets out a long sigh. "It's really hard to find time," she says. "After classes and teaching and patients, it can be exhausting."
Doran isn't alone. An Association for Support of Graduate Students survey of 100 graduate students showed that finding time to write is one of the most difficult aspects of completing a dissertation.
But with determination and a helping of inspiration, Doran and some of her fellow doctoral candidates have hit upon a few techniques that can make writing time seem a little less elusive:
Book a writing date with yourself.
Before he completed his doctoral degree last September at Loyola University in Baltimore, Matt FitzGerald, PsyD, marked appointments for dissertation writing time in his calendar. "I'd make a big deal about it," he says.
Doran sets aside large blocks of time for dissertation writing. "Two hours doesn't work for me," she says. "I need a full weekend or even three days." She tries to capitalize on making time in between semesters. "Over the summer is when I can really work on research and writing."
Candice Crowell, a doctoral candidate at the University of Georgia, needs at least an hour. "Even if I'm not motivated when I start, eventually I'll get into it," she says. "I don't use that time to do anything else — no reading or research."
Laura Reid Marks, a doctoral candidate at Purdue University, takes a different approach. "I set aside writing time every day, even if it's just 30 minutes," she says. "That way, I don't get disconnected from my work and I make progress, no matter how small."
Lay the groundwork.
Finding time to write isn't as daunting if you've done good prep work, Doran says. She uses Excel to create spreadsheets containing citations and her notes from research articles. "I work from a big database," she says. "It's not like sitting down and staring at a blank page."
Daniel Reimer, a doctoral candidate at the University of Nevada, Reno, set up an Excel tracking sheet to help him monitor word counts. "It helps to see your cumulative record," he says. "And I can use it to identify what makes me more productive on certain days."
Before she starts writing, Crowell outlines all her subheadings as best she can and picks one to write about that day. "I used to freestyle it, but having an outline helps me to be more cohesive," she says.
FitzGerald took an organizational tip from his dissertation chair. He suggested that at the end of every writing session he plan what to work on the next time he started writing. "That way you don't have to sit down and think, ‘Where do I go now?'" he says.
Find writing buddies.
Structured writing time with other students helps Todd Avellar, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Santa Barbara, stay on track. "We'll work for an hour and then take a 10-minute break to chat, but not about our work," he says. Then the group puts in another hour writing.
But choose wisely when picking writing partners. "Some people are just too discouraging or negative" to be helpful in a writing group, Avellar says.
Jennifer Vencill, now an intern at the University of Utah, had fellow students who held her accountable while she wrote her dissertation at Texas Tech University. "I wanted someone to check in with," she says. Not only did she rely on her graduate cohort members, but Facebook even played a role. "Someone created the page for our program and anyone could come on and set a goal for the day," she says. "I found it helpful."
Find your best writing space.
Seeing other people busy working drew FitzGerald to do his writing in coffee shops. "Having activity around me helped," he says. If the other patrons' conversations became too loud, FitzGerald pulled out a pair of noise-canceling headphones.
Reimer writes while traveling every week between Reno and the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, where he has a part-time job. "If I'm stuck on a bus or a plane, I can get a lot done," he says.
Reid Marks prefers her on-campus office — a perk of being a graduate teaching assistant. "At home it's easy to get distracted," she says. Facebook and her two dogs are the biggest offenders.
"I work the best at home," Doran says. "The solitude really helps." Doran lives in New York City — not exactly a bastion of peace and quiet. She also relies on noise-canceling headphones.
Crowell has a writing room at home but says she has yet to use it. "I like to write in bed," she says. She recommends writing retreats. She went to Unicoi State Park in Helen, Georgia, for a week and revised her dissertation proposal as part of a qualitative research certificate program at the University of Georgia.
"I plan to do that again when I'm writing up the results," she says.
To list or not to list?
"I really like the action of checking off a to-do list," Reid Marks says. Her record of writing tasks includes such items as completing a specific section or developing an outline for an upcoming section.
Instead of making a checklist, FitzGerald measured his progress in the amount of time he devoted to writing. "I would block out time and that would be my accomplishment," he says.
Reward yourself.
"Give yourself some creature comforts," FitzGerald says. He'd always spring for a $5 latte during his coffee shop writing sessions. "The regular coffee was cheaper, but the latte is what made me happy," he says. Similarly, he sometimes bought prepared meals instead of going grocery shopping as an incentive to spend time writing.
When Vencill met her writing goals, she occasionally took a day off. "That's a great reward when you're able to do it," she says.
For Avellar, writing progress often merits a kickboxing session. "I treat myself to a workout," he says.
Not-so-great expectations.
"Be prepared for imperfection," Crowell says. "I know I'll have at least five drafts of my dissertation, so the first one isn't going to be perfect." FitzGerald adds, "Editing can always fix whatever you don't like."
Don't forget your passion.
Writing his dissertation led Avellar on a soul-searching path. He had done interesting research with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations but recognized that his true career interests lie elsewhere.
"I want to focus my scholarship around bullying," he says. "It's not the type of research I've had an opportunity to do so far, but now the reins are in my hands."
Reid Marks's dissertation is on the risky behaviors among African-American women. When time and motivation to write are hard to find, she concentrates on the end result of having completed her doctoral degree in counseling psychology. "For me, this is my passion," she says.