I was going through a set of media inquiries yesterday and came across one from Dr. Lynn K. Jones, who was asking what keeps ABD’s in their ABD state?
I had a few thoughts about this (as you can imagine) and wrote to Dr. Jones right away. I offered to share some of my ideas with her (and I’ll share some of them with you, below)- and I also offered to put her in touch with any of you who wanted to share your specific stories or situations about why you’re still ABD.
If you want to write Dr. Jones directly, please email her at Lynn @ LynnKJones.com (I’ve separated this out so it’s not as easy for spam bots to harvest, but you’ll make it all one line.) Share with her your stories and reasons for why you’re still ABD.
Here are my thoughts, coming from my 9 years of dissertation coaching experience, and my 400+ people I’ve helped finish:
Typically, people remain ABD for one of three reasons:
1) They don’t know how to finish- this means they don’t know what they should do, exactly, to get the dissertation done
2) They don’t have the discipline to work steadily- this means they know what to do, but don’t (for whatever reason) apply themselves consistently
3) They have not made the dissertation one of the top priorities in their lives, so it always ends up at the bottom of the list (on the days where it even makes the list at all.)
The reality is that the dissertation is just like any other goal. You have to have a plan, you have to work that plan, and you have to make reaching this goal a top priority. The longer you remain ABD, the longer the list of reasons (and excuses) for the ABD condition.
Life happens, I get that- but if stressors are going to happen anyway (and they probably are) wouldn’t it be better to face them as a PhD than an ABD? I think so.
If you find yourself feeling uncertain about what to do, without the discipline to do it, or finding the dissertation is not as high on the priority list as it should be- you need to make some changes. You will never finish the dissertation unless these three elements are aligned and working together.
