528.
tonight's writing session was not much of a writing session, even though i did manage to make my goal of writing 500 words tonight. my initial thought is that 500 words isn't a hard enough goal to reach. i know. i know. i always expect way too much of myself. but to be honest, once i got to 500 words, i felt like it was okay to stop working. and i did stop working. i did nothing for the hour that followed me reaching that 500 word goal. the good thing is that i added 500 words. the better thing is that the 500 words i did add will go a long way to focusing the next section of this chapter. the negative is that i would have written more if i had set my word count goal higher. this wasn't one of those nights where i came to the office not wanting to work but did some work and some work is better than no work at all. on the other hand, when i came to the office i wasn't really sure what i was going to write. so maybe even though i felt like tonight's goal was too easy, the positive that i should take away is that at least when i write tomorrow, i'll have some idea of what i need to accomplish.
one additional positive outcome of tonight's work session is that i got an essay graded. that is an unexpected check mark on the to-do list. i don't yet feel overwhelmed by my teaching responsibilities and that is definitely a plus.
so tomorrow hopefully i will write another 500 words and be that much closer to having a full first draft for this chapter.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
dissertation digest #5
2815.
let's call this day 2 of "so...how much progress could i make if...". i was thinking this morning (don't be so surprised!) about what kind of progress could i make on my dissertation if i made a commitment to write at least 500 words per day through september 30th. this question was inspired by a post on the time-management ninja blog that i read a while back where the writer asks what could you do in a year if you really set your mind to it. one of the ideas was get in the best shape of your life. while that would be fantastic, right now, i have two goals: finish my dissertation and find some kind of job in academia for the 2011-2012 school year. so i asked myself: what kind of progress could i make on my dissertation if i made the commitment to add at least 500 words to my dissertation over the next 25 days? i'm here to say that i have taken up this challenge whole-heartedly, though i do already foresee some challenges.
the first and most difficult to surmount is the fact that i'm taking a mini-vacation starting on september 16th, and i won't return home until september 20th. so i'm going to lose those 5 days because i highly doubt that i'm going to be able to write while i'm away. if i were going on my own, that might be one thing, but i'm meeting my aunt so i don't anticipate having enough alone time to get any amount of writing done. though i have already made the promise to myself to try to do some revision if at all possible. i also need to plan ahead for this lack of writing by trying to exceed my writing goal whenever possible for the remaining days that i will be writing.
the second challenge that i've already been faced with--what about those days when i need to revise or read? so what? i can still add at least 500 words b/c if nothing else, i can add relevant quotes to my document as well as start forming an outline and the most important questions that i want the chapter i'm working on to answer.
those are the biggest challenges that i foresee, but i'll just have to wait and see what happens and how committed i am to dedicating the majority of my time and focus to getting this dissertation written.
as for today--i had an awesome day as far as writing goes. i got up and the first thing i did was write. now here's the thing--i do believe in the power of the advice "write first". i used that idea when i was nano'ing two summers ago and i met the 50,000 word goal in 30 days because of it. the reason i made writing first a priority this morning was because i wasn't able to get as much done last night as i wanted. so i set freedom to run for an hour and fifteen minutes and i'm not kidding when i say that in 1 hr and 15 minutes i wrote 1372 words. for real! it was such a fabulous way to start the day. i went to the office tonight for my regularly scheduled writing session and managed to write another 1443 words. but don't be fooled. this chapter draft is still very much a mess and is going to need lots and lots of revision. but i am grateful for the steady progress i am making in terms of getting the ideas out of my head and onto paper where i can actually work them into something coherent and organized. although today was a holiday, i feel like i've had double potions and managed to avoid snape's wrath. double potions-double dissertation writing sessions.
oh, and i almost forgot. the final verdict about last night--i do believe that i was having a mild anxiety attack. when i got home i got straight into bed and just concentrated on breathing and trying to relax my muscles and slow my heartbeat down, which was racing. after about forty-five minutes the queasy feeling went away and i was able to eventually fall asleep. it was just such an oddly timed anxiety attack because i was actually getting some writing done. i dunno. the human body is still a mystery. but the good news is that it didn't happen again today, and hopefully i can stop having to schedule meetings and such during my work out time so the exercise should help to alleviate some of my tension.
let's call this day 2 of "so...how much progress could i make if...". i was thinking this morning (don't be so surprised!) about what kind of progress could i make on my dissertation if i made a commitment to write at least 500 words per day through september 30th. this question was inspired by a post on the time-management ninja blog that i read a while back where the writer asks what could you do in a year if you really set your mind to it. one of the ideas was get in the best shape of your life. while that would be fantastic, right now, i have two goals: finish my dissertation and find some kind of job in academia for the 2011-2012 school year. so i asked myself: what kind of progress could i make on my dissertation if i made the commitment to add at least 500 words to my dissertation over the next 25 days? i'm here to say that i have taken up this challenge whole-heartedly, though i do already foresee some challenges.
the first and most difficult to surmount is the fact that i'm taking a mini-vacation starting on september 16th, and i won't return home until september 20th. so i'm going to lose those 5 days because i highly doubt that i'm going to be able to write while i'm away. if i were going on my own, that might be one thing, but i'm meeting my aunt so i don't anticipate having enough alone time to get any amount of writing done. though i have already made the promise to myself to try to do some revision if at all possible. i also need to plan ahead for this lack of writing by trying to exceed my writing goal whenever possible for the remaining days that i will be writing.
the second challenge that i've already been faced with--what about those days when i need to revise or read? so what? i can still add at least 500 words b/c if nothing else, i can add relevant quotes to my document as well as start forming an outline and the most important questions that i want the chapter i'm working on to answer.
those are the biggest challenges that i foresee, but i'll just have to wait and see what happens and how committed i am to dedicating the majority of my time and focus to getting this dissertation written.
as for today--i had an awesome day as far as writing goes. i got up and the first thing i did was write. now here's the thing--i do believe in the power of the advice "write first". i used that idea when i was nano'ing two summers ago and i met the 50,000 word goal in 30 days because of it. the reason i made writing first a priority this morning was because i wasn't able to get as much done last night as i wanted. so i set freedom to run for an hour and fifteen minutes and i'm not kidding when i say that in 1 hr and 15 minutes i wrote 1372 words. for real! it was such a fabulous way to start the day. i went to the office tonight for my regularly scheduled writing session and managed to write another 1443 words. but don't be fooled. this chapter draft is still very much a mess and is going to need lots and lots of revision. but i am grateful for the steady progress i am making in terms of getting the ideas out of my head and onto paper where i can actually work them into something coherent and organized. although today was a holiday, i feel like i've had double potions and managed to avoid snape's wrath. double potions-double dissertation writing sessions.
oh, and i almost forgot. the final verdict about last night--i do believe that i was having a mild anxiety attack. when i got home i got straight into bed and just concentrated on breathing and trying to relax my muscles and slow my heartbeat down, which was racing. after about forty-five minutes the queasy feeling went away and i was able to eventually fall asleep. it was just such an oddly timed anxiety attack because i was actually getting some writing done. i dunno. the human body is still a mystery. but the good news is that it didn't happen again today, and hopefully i can stop having to schedule meetings and such during my work out time so the exercise should help to alleviate some of my tension.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
dissertation digest #4
857.
okay, first of all, i have no idea what's wrong with me. physically, i feel absolutely wretched. this is sort of how i feel when i'm about to have an anxiety attack, but i'm not 100% sure that that's what this is. i was sitting in my office, and at about 9.30 i started feeling kind of nauseous and my head started to kind of hurt. it might be because my blood sugar is falling too low, but honestly, eating something, anything, right now does not sound very appealing at all. and my head is getting that heavy, kind of groggy feeling again, which seems to have started happening early this week. it's not lack of sleep. for someone who's writing a dissertation i get plenty of sleep. and funny that all day today, while i wasn't trying to work on my dissertation, i felt fine. so i feel like this feeling is somehow connected to trying to work on my dissertation this evening. i ended up writing 857 words. i had hoped for 1000 words tonight, but i'll take what i can get right now and i also have an idea of what needs to come next. while i was working in the office i was adding things to my to-do list. it now has 16 items on it, where it read 8 when i started working at 6.00 this evening. ugh. even now i still have that nauseous, queasy feeling. the only thing that seems to be missing that is typical of one of my anxiety attacks is the trembling. i can usually feel myself trembling a lot (more than the usual caffeine-induced trembling i'm used to) as well as the sense of being really hot. honestly, i have to find a way to make these feelings stop.
well, in other news, i'm still working on drafting chapter 3 of the dissertation. i am going to have to really work everyday, diligently, for the rest of the month (save the four days when i am on vacation in mid-september) to get to where i want to be on september 30th--a draft of chapter 3 and a draft of chapter 5. these people who say they wrote their dissertation in 3 weeks or 8 weeks, i really can't imagine how they did that. tonight was a so-so writing session. i had a lot of trouble focusing on what i was trying to write. i'm teaching online this semester, and my students have been blogging and submitting response papers since thursday. i was lax about reading posts on friday when i should have been reading and responding. i got a lot of reading of posts done today at home before going to the office to work on my own work, but when i got to the office i spent an hour (and really, i do not know how i spent an hour on these tasks) doing additional work for my class, and every time my freedom session expired i found myself going back to the course space. just going there--not doing any real work. so, it was really hard to focus on my writing tonight. i'm grateful for the 857 words and will hope for and try to write 1000 words tomorrow.
okay, first of all, i have no idea what's wrong with me. physically, i feel absolutely wretched. this is sort of how i feel when i'm about to have an anxiety attack, but i'm not 100% sure that that's what this is. i was sitting in my office, and at about 9.30 i started feeling kind of nauseous and my head started to kind of hurt. it might be because my blood sugar is falling too low, but honestly, eating something, anything, right now does not sound very appealing at all. and my head is getting that heavy, kind of groggy feeling again, which seems to have started happening early this week. it's not lack of sleep. for someone who's writing a dissertation i get plenty of sleep. and funny that all day today, while i wasn't trying to work on my dissertation, i felt fine. so i feel like this feeling is somehow connected to trying to work on my dissertation this evening. i ended up writing 857 words. i had hoped for 1000 words tonight, but i'll take what i can get right now and i also have an idea of what needs to come next. while i was working in the office i was adding things to my to-do list. it now has 16 items on it, where it read 8 when i started working at 6.00 this evening. ugh. even now i still have that nauseous, queasy feeling. the only thing that seems to be missing that is typical of one of my anxiety attacks is the trembling. i can usually feel myself trembling a lot (more than the usual caffeine-induced trembling i'm used to) as well as the sense of being really hot. honestly, i have to find a way to make these feelings stop.
well, in other news, i'm still working on drafting chapter 3 of the dissertation. i am going to have to really work everyday, diligently, for the rest of the month (save the four days when i am on vacation in mid-september) to get to where i want to be on september 30th--a draft of chapter 3 and a draft of chapter 5. these people who say they wrote their dissertation in 3 weeks or 8 weeks, i really can't imagine how they did that. tonight was a so-so writing session. i had a lot of trouble focusing on what i was trying to write. i'm teaching online this semester, and my students have been blogging and submitting response papers since thursday. i was lax about reading posts on friday when i should have been reading and responding. i got a lot of reading of posts done today at home before going to the office to work on my own work, but when i got to the office i spent an hour (and really, i do not know how i spent an hour on these tasks) doing additional work for my class, and every time my freedom session expired i found myself going back to the course space. just going there--not doing any real work. so, it was really hard to focus on my writing tonight. i'm grateful for the 857 words and will hope for and try to write 1000 words tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)