Dissertation motivation!

melancholly · 19 February 2008 at 12:49AM

been updating my endnote library today - has 642 references in it atm...... i'd guess about 450 will be in my thesis..... much as i hate endnote, that many by hand is too horrible to think about! best thing to do is do a search and download lots in one go (i wouldn't ever type in all that info myself!! far too lazy!)..... then hope that you don't have to edit the output styles!

Ferris · 19 February 2008 at 1:48AM

this probably isn't the place to say i wrote almost all of my MSc dissertation between midnight and 3pm of the day it was due in... and then got 70% for it. needless to say, my only motivation was a very impending deadline.... not really a good way to work.

that was certainly an experience which will live with me, possibly forever. the highlight was definitely emailing my supervisor at 9am to update him on how it was progressing and complaining about being tired, only for him to bring up a nice cup of tea to the computer room to keep me going...:rotfl:

i then proceeded to do the same thing for my PhD research proposal...

leopard. spots.

kevinbarry · 19 February 2008 at 11:22AM

There's an article on "Gather", entitled "How to Increase Your Motivation and Tackle Procratination: A Practical Guide for Students", at:

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977244196&nav=Namespace

It might be of help.

vixarooni · 19 February 2008 at 11:28AM

My dissertation doesnt have to be in untill december. Trouble is i finish my exams soon, and wont be doing to college. I will feel like my uni life is over, but then it wont be because ive gotta write that stupid thing.

I havent got any idea on what it is going to be on either. I think my overall mark for my exams and assignments will be my key motivator as to how hard i try on the dissertation!

SueMaggie · 19 February 2008 at 11:35AM

I've been a procrastinator all my life, particularly when it comes to writing anything (which is a bit of problem as I make my living writing), but a lot of my procrastination is to do with perfectionism and thinking that whatever I write won't be as good as I want it to be.

A couple of quotes that really helped me are:

"You must decide which you like better, the perfectionism within or the flawed pages at hand" Allegra Goodman

"Excellence not perfection" Anon

Plus working in short spurts helps me get started. So I would start a typical day by working for 45 minutes in any hour and then having a 15 minute break. As the day goes on I tend to find that I get into what I'm doing and end up working longer at a time.

I reward myself with a quick web surf in my "off" 15 minutes (which is why I'm here now) and then go back to what I'm doing.

Hope this will help someone, even if to let you know that the world is full of other procrastinators!

david5064 · 19 February 2008 at 11:51AM

i did my dissertation last year! biggest nightmare of my life but once you start you get into it and as its a topic u have devised yourself you shud find it interesting. make it this way too and write about stuff u neva thought u wud write about. and once uve finished its the happiest day of your life!
trust me!!

sali_mali · 19 February 2008 at 12:39PM

Melancholly - I'm having a bit of trouble with my methods actually because I've done a 'dry' dissertation so no lab work. So far I'm thinking 'Went to the library, read lots of journals... err... now I'm writing...' I don't think that's quite what they're looking for though haha.

Yes, Endnote is a PITA but it's a good way of keeping track whilst writing up. The stupid computer system won't let me edit the output syles though so I think I'll just use it to keep track and then re-write them all by hand after! God, I hate references.

Ferris - You're insane! :eek: I like working under pressure, but an entire dissertation in 3 hours?! I'd have a nervous breakdown about halfway through! 30% of mine is on Approach and Technique anyway, so I'd lose that if my supervisor hadn't been seeing progress throughout the year.

Good luck to everyone else still struggling. I'm just off for a nap (another sleepless night last night :rolleyes:) and then I'll be camping out in the library. Probably be back for a moan later!

melancholly · 19 February 2008 at 1:16PM

ok - so what were your inclusion criteria for papers? how did you do your literature search - i.e. what databases did you search and what key words did you use?

can you think of it as a meta-analysis then - i don't know what area you're in to recommend anything too specific, but someone must have published a meta-analysis in a similiar area that you can base your methods section on? it may end up being a very short section.

Ferris · 19 February 2008 at 3:11PM

sali_mali wrote: »

Yes, Endnote is a PITA but it's a good way of keeping track whilst writing up. The stupid computer system won't let me edit the output syles though so I think I'll just use it to keep track and then re-write them all by hand after! God, I hate references.

Ferris - You're insane! :eek: I like working under pressure, but an entire dissertation in 3 hours?! I'd have a nervous breakdown about halfway through! 30% of mine is on Approach and Technique anyway, so I'd lose that if my supervisor hadn't been seeing progress throughout the year.

that really would be insane... actually it was between midnight and 3pm, so it was in its own way insane, but 15 hours rather than 3. i was a gibbering wreck by 3pm, the printer wouldn't print, the CD burner wouldn't burn, and i had to get over to the library to get it bound and back to the department to hand it in by 4... that certainly was insane... luckily my supervisor was very cool with me, probably because he later proved he was just as much a procrastinator as me

IMO the best way of doing references is to simply keep another Word file where you add the references that you've mentioned in that session of writing. obviously the best thing would be to update the reference list every time you write up a reference in the main text, but that would disrupt your momentum, so at the end of the session is just fine. it allows you to keep an up-to-date reference list and get it all in alphabetical order as you go along (much easier to do with 3 or 4 references at a time than with a whole list.... so when you finish the main text the reference list can just be stuck on the end as you'd done the sorting and formatting as you go along.

and then back it up. about 30 times. email your updated reference list to yourself, your mum, your friends every day.

now if only i could follow my own advice...

pavlovs_dog · 19 February 2008 at 3:21PM

well today i sat down and just got on with it. sorted through all the ideas i'd scribbled down on random bits of paper, organised my notes, put everything into a file, finished my list of books to read etc.

its funny, but whilst the task ahead of me is daunting because ive left it late to start :rolleyes: i feel more motivated now because i have a much better idea of what i need to do next than i did a few hours ago.

mad but true!

Dissertation motivation!

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