Read a great article today regarding a productivity tip from Jerry Seinfeld. In this post, the author explains Jerry Seinfeld’s approach to creating a new habit and sticking with it.
Jerry suggests that, to create a new goal-directed behavior, we should take a wall calendar and mark an X on it each day we complete the behavior.
So, in your case, you might have a goal of working on the dissertation one hour per day. So on day 1, you’d mark an “X”, and day 2, you’d mark an “X” and so on. After time, you will have a chain of X’s, each representing one hour of successful goal directed behavior.
The tip, simply, then, is “don’t break the chain”- when you’ve gotten a string of “X’s” going, you will be motivated to keep adding to the chain.
This is really good advice, because it’s always easiest to keep executing a good habit, than it is to stop and start again. (Consider something like going to the gym or exercising regularly. If you do it often enough, it becomes routine, though it is much more difficult to get started again once you stop. The dissertation process is like that, too.)
As we wind down another summer vacation, it’s time to start gearing up for the Fall. And Fall, typically, may mean a return to graduate school or a return to regular hours spent on the dissertation. If you are looking for a new way to stay motivated, consider this daily chain approach.
(There are web-based tools and applications you can use to build your own chain if you’re looking for something more high-tech than a wall calendar- see don’tbreakthechain.com, or joesgoals.com)
Now is as good as time as ever to start a new dissertation work habit that will help you get it done.
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