Should I get all the other stuff out of the way before dissertating?
Progress report on the dissertation:
I've been doing a fair bit of reading over the past six months or so and have compiled about, oh, 60 pages of single-spaced notes, but I know that I have only scratched the surface. Part of the problem is that I feel like I am starting from Square One with this dissertation. I have to learn a whole new literature that is in many ways only marginally related to all the stuff I crammed in for the comprehensive exams. I haven't yet started fieldwork (and probably won't until at least this summer if not later) so right now it's just reading, reading and more reading.
In the meantime, I am still teaching and working as a research assistant in an almost totally unrelated field. The two jobs pay the bills but they also get in the way of the dissertation. I feel like I need to get all that work out of the way before I can sit down to dissertation work, but often that means leaving it until late at night. I'm curious as to how other people have dealt with this problem. It's a little difficult right now since it's sort of crunch time for the research assistantship job (we are doing final edits for a collection of conference papers in preparation for submission to a publisher).
So what are your dissertation research rituals?
In the meantime, I am still teaching and working as a research assistant in an almost totally unrelated field. The two jobs pay the bills but they also get in the way of the dissertation. I feel like I need to get all that work out of the way before I can sit down to dissertation work, but often that means leaving it until late at night. I'm curious as to how other people have dealt with this problem. It's a little difficult right now since it's sort of crunch time for the research assistantship job (we are doing final edits for a collection of conference papers in preparation for submission to a publisher).
So what are your dissertation research rituals?
1 comment:
I hear you on this. I posted earlier about getting away from all the books and jumping into writing even when I don't feel ready. It's a challenge not to get sucked back in to reading, though.
With 60 pages of notes it sounds like you have quite a lot of material to start sketching some ideas on paper...and that might help you feel like you're really getting under way with the dissertation (or help you realize that you already have).
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