By Cally Guerin
The idea of being able to create a schedule to write a thesis seems pretty obvious, straight forward and achievable. If there are 80,000 words to be written over three years, where’s the problem? Assuming five-day weeks and one month for holidays each year, that makes for 720 work days. That’s just over 110 words per day. So why do doctoral writers struggle to get this done? Clearly, there’s a lot more to it.
When I meet with doctoral candidates who appear to be busy writing, they often disappointedly say they are still working on the task they were doing last week, and the week before, and the week before that. Many start out being very optimistic about how quickly they can write certain sections of the thesis. It seems that there is something here about time management related to habits of writing, and also understanding the size of each writing task.
Those doctoral writers who report feeling that their progress is slow are at a loss when it comes to strategies to speed up. In thinking about how to respond to this, I came across Helen Sword’s recent article in which she reports on the broad range of writing habits described by all sorts of successful academic writers. What becomes immediately clear is that there is not just one time of day, amount of time nor place that works best – for each person it’s different and depends entirely on all sorts of other factors in their lives. Finding out what suits each individual – or adapting to what one’s own life allows – is part of succeeding in this world of doctoral writing.
It is sometimes too easy for supervisors and writing teachers to imagine that PhD candidates have only their thesis to work on, and can devote themselves full time to writing. But of course, many candidates are enrolled part time, they might have (sometimes substantial) work commitments, and many have family responsibilities for children and/or elderly parents – after all, the median age of PhD candidates in Australia is 35, a life stage where much of this family commitment is at its peak. Even those who are relatively free of other work and family responsibilities might have teaching duties, or may be preparing conference presentations or journal articles.
Added to all this, there is a pervasive perception – especially by those who aren’t doing much of it – that writing isn’t really ‘work’ (Murray 2012). This means that families or bosses can sometimes regard writing as less important than their own demands for candidates’ time and attention.
So, all these other commitments and responsibilities mean is that every day is NOT the same, and therefore each of those 720 days of a three-year candidature doesn’t actually allow for the same space for writing. So then, the 110 words per day plan is already breaking down.
But, the thesis does have to get written if the candidate is to get their degree. Keeping a diary to see where the time disappears to can be invaluable. I’ve encouraged participants to record honestly their use of time in the weeks before Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo); this effectively draws attention to what and when writing is disrupted by other responsibilities or commitments.
Armed with accurate information, it is then possible to work around these interruptions. Often we imagine our days being spent differently from what we actually do in reality, unaware of just how much time was really spent on particular tasks. Identifying these distractions is one thing – changing the writer’s reactions is another! Learning to say ‘NO’ is not easy. (An earlier post on RescueTime might help some doctoral writers manage their time a little more effectively.)
Of course, there is no answer to my original question, and writing can take so much longer than one expects. There are days when the writing tasks seem obvious and are quickly laid down in a decent form; on other occasions it takes an age to find a good structure that allows the points of the argument to emerge in a coherent order. One of the challenges for new researchers is to make realistic estimates of how long each writing task will take, and then match that with how much time they have available for the task (Zerubavel has some good advice on pacing writing in The Clockwork Muse, and suggests that it can be encouraging to slightly over-estimate how long tasks will take; then, if the job is completed a little ahead of time, a warm glow of success can be enjoyed).
So, if that planning for 110 words each day isn’t the answer, then would a weekly schedule of writing tasks be more useful? Some days might produce 50 good words, and then another produces 500. And many writers respond well to having some kind of accountability built into their process. I for one find that external deadlines are a very useful way of forcing me to get on with the job!
But one thing is clear: for most doctoral students, the writing is not going to happen if they are not sitting at the desk. Just getting them to the desk is part of the challenge. Have you found some other ways to make this happen?
DoctoralWriting 
I am a part-time doctoral candidate, working full-time as a teacher, so actually the concept of part-time does not mean that I have less to do; on the contrary in fact! I would agree that the biggest fight is to get myself to my desk in the first place – there are so many other things like washing, cooking, marking and watching Great British Bake Off, that simply take over my time! The best way seems to be to send my husband out on a walk on a Sunday afternoon, make a strong pot of tea, and get down to it for a few hours! Trying to get anything done in the evenings after a long day at work is just hopeless! I also find that having some longer stints in the school holidays helps a lot too – if I can also get to a library, then just being in that atmosphere helps the flow and concentration. Let’s face it, being a doctoral student whilst balancing another job and trying to write from home is the biggest challenge of my life!!
Being part time does make it even harder! In Australia, ‘part time’ always means half time, but many candidates have very full work and home schedules that make this very challenging. I like your system of carving out specific time on the weekend where the household is organised around you doing some writing/research – being accountable to someone else to demonstrate you’ve used your time well while they gave you the space can be a great incentive. And planning ahead, knowing that you will get a certain block of time to work and thinking about the specific task you want to achieve as you approach that time slot can be very effective. Good luck with meeting the challenge head on!
Agreeing whole-heartedly about the multitude of things requiring our attention while being a part time student. Being in the library definitely helps with my concentration and I reward myself with an episode of the GBBO! At home I turn off the internet when I start writing & close my study room door. Got that tip from Stephen King!
Excellent advice! Whatever you can do to reduce the distractions.
I’d like to make three easy points: first, writing at the outset without editing (over and over again) is far more productive than editing writing at the outset (over and over again). It took me some time to appreciate that iterative editing is a very real barrier to just writing and the temptation to edit lingered for some time – even after I’d ‘kicked’ the habit.
Second, I used a ‘three-by-three strategy’ whereby I’d set aside three stints of about one and half hours per day (in between teaching, building a house and being a house husband). I did a stint before getting the kids out of bed, another at lunch-time, and one late in the evening. And then, I always had the third day totally away from writing in order to ‘recharge’ my batteries.
For me, it worked but now I’d make it even more effective by infusing the Pomodoro Technique (a stint of 25 minutes followed by a five minute deliberately taken break, do that once more, and then spend the final half hour writing = 90 minutes of time with 80 minutes of writing and generally about 1,000 words per one and a half hour session). I regularly advise thesis candidates to follow this strategy that I picked up from the Thesis Whisperer although I’ve found that, sometimes, candidates have to be persuaded to just try it out. “Try it out for at least for three days – you’ve got nothing to lose and lots to gain!” Often, but not always, they become persuaded.
Third, at the point of walking away from the word-processor, I always insert three hashes at the end of the material I was working on (###). Then when I return to the work, I search for the hashes and remove them and resume from where I left off. This simple ‘trick’ not only saves time but skirts around the temptation to edit. A thesis candidate I was helping has been very smart by refining that process simply by adding a few words of explanation after her hashes. I don’t do that but it works for her.
Wonderful advice – thank you Jens! For anyone keen to try this, today is the first day of Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo), a great way to structure writing goals into your schedule and develop efficient habits.
I am a part time doctoral candidate living in Israel while my supervisors are in Australia on the other side of the world. I have been writing for 7+ years while working full time as a teacher and vice principal in a primary school and leading teacher learning. That is all aside from bringing up 3 children. What has saved me a d has brought me near to submission is getting up every morning at 4 am to try to write for an hour or 2 before going to work. I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way. At that time of day there are no interruptions, no phone calls – just a quiet house of sleepers.
That sounds like a serious commitment on your part, Nikki! The regular early starts are a great way to get some useful writing done before the rest of the day begins. Good on you for sticking with it!