I don't know if I'm ready to work from home. I have done nothing on my diss since my exams in June, and today I announced to my husband that I was going to actually work on it today. So far I have vacuumed and Febrezed the carpets and couches and done some other cleaning and straightening. I excuse it by saying that because we moved and things are not all in place yet. The fact is that home carries with it a lot of distractions (but the office does, too), and I don't know how things are going to go this fall. It is going to take major adjustments in my work habits. Last year was a bit shocking because I was out of coursework for the first time since, well, five years old, and I also was not teaching, which I had done for four years prior. Teaching was fantastic this summer, but the fall is a whole different animal: online class. And working on the dissertation, something I have also never done before. I feels like a huge unconquerable monster looming over me. And that is not conducive to self-motivated work. I am taking a class two days a week, and I now think that it will actually help keep me on track with two guaranteed days a week on campus and some required work that will force me to schedule time for the diss.
I have also considered going to the public library to work, which I am still doubtful about because when I took Rebekah, the lady who was painting the Sesame Street characters on the wall in the children's section glared at me when Rebekah was rocking in the rocking chair that is in the children's section and I guess being too noisy asking for me to read books to her. Maybe I don't understand children's library ettiquette, but I assumed that the short tables and chairs and picture books and the section itself separated from those of interest to adult library patrons indicated an invitation for reading aloud and, horrors, rocking in the rocking chair. When doing my own work, I would not take her, but I am holding a grudge. Sad, because she has asked to go back, except for some reason she thinks that the library is Walmart. She asks to go to Walmart to look at books.
I am going to start following the guidelines from Bolker's Write Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day today--I have been finding reasons to put it off for a long time, but I can't afford to say I'll do it tomorrow. My mom is coming next week, but I have to stick to the plan, whether that becomes working all except those couple of days or actually working on those days, too. Either way, I'm starting now. After lunch.
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3 comments:
Oh, Sarah! I love fellow procrastinators...it's not that we're lazy or unmotivated, it's just that it's such a huge task, we hate to pick back up because it's so involved. A few years ago, I put off my thesis quite a bit (and did a lot of housework in the process) and wound up needing an extra semester. So, I understand where you're coming from, albeit mine was not as involved as a dissertation; but I do know MA students who were supposed to graduate a semester or two before me and are STILL working on their thesis. Good luck to you. I hope you get started and can't quit!
I could have written this post so many times during the writing of my dissertation. I'm afraid I don't have any good advice--I still can't believe I'm almost finished--but I will tell you that cleaning floors does seem to be a common procrastination technique for dissertators. Even my adviser warned me about it when I was starting off.
Good luck, and get to work! :)
Want to come over and help me organize my office, which I've decided I must do before I can get back to writing myself?
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