If you want to complete the dissertation quickly (and I hope you do), the best way to do this is to sharpen your focus. What this means, exactly, is that you put yourself on a timeline, and you focus on as few things as possible until you meet your timeline.
This doesn’t mean that you suffer. I never want you to do that. What it does mean, though, is that if you really, really want to finish, you have to take action that will support your goal.
Just like you can’t expect to be physically fit because you once spent 15 minutes in the gym, you can’t expect that you’ll finish the dissertation if you never work on it.
Sharpening your focus may mean making some tough choices about where you spend your time and how you allot your energy, though even small changes can have big impact.
Part of the reason the dissertation process becomes painful is because people take too long to do it. I’ve worked with students who have been in ABD hell for more than ten years. TEN YEARS. That is an ungodly amount of time to spend in limbo around anything, much less your professional career.
Most of the time, people get stuck in the dissertation process because they have lost the focus on finishing. They have other conversations going on in their heads- ones like "now it’s been so long, the project has to be a million times better than before" or "I’m too embarassed to contact my advisor to try again" or "after this next thing, then I’ll get back to the dissertation"
Not to be overly harsh, but here goes: you’re either on track to finish, or you’re not. If you are on track to finish, keep going until you finish. If you’re not on track to finish, set some other goals to focus on.
Aim for congruency in what you plan for and what you actually do. That’s a good tip for the dissertation- and for life.
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