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Sep. 13th, 2011 02:16 pmI have a twelve week plan, just for my PhD. I have sorted out what I can do (sensibly, taking into account things like paid work and health) in that time and how much I need to do and when I need to do it if I want to submit in time. I have taken into account the fact that things are likely to go wrong next year (since it's the last year of the doctorate and this is when if things go wrong, they do - last time my father reached the penultimate stages of his cancer, I managed to get glandular fever and I ran out of money, for instance).
What's really worrying about my twelve week plan (I blame ADM for this plan, BTW, if blame must be laid) is that it looks quite possible I might complete it. Even with Conflux and booklaunch and other work. Even with the new review book that landed in my letterbox today and with the review I forgot I was writing and with the writing that didn't get done yesterday because I neglected it when I became absorbed in my dissertation (it's not due til this weekend, thank goodness - I allowed neglect-time!). This achievability may possibly because I overworked last year. I've done so much groundwork, and right now it's a matter of pulling things together and making sure I've covered all that needs to be covered.
I have two small (no more than a dozen books in each) batches of actual research to go. I've started sequestering material that really shouldn't belong in the dissertation but may well belong in the longer book that I rather think I may end up writing on the subject. And so the lines are clear. I can see what I'm doing and where I'm going and how I'm getting there. In twelve weeks time I am allowed to panic, however. Moments of lucidity do not last. Nor do cups of coffee.
What's really worrying about my twelve week plan (I blame ADM for this plan, BTW, if blame must be laid) is that it looks quite possible I might complete it. Even with Conflux and booklaunch and other work. Even with the new review book that landed in my letterbox today and with the review I forgot I was writing and with the writing that didn't get done yesterday because I neglected it when I became absorbed in my dissertation (it's not due til this weekend, thank goodness - I allowed neglect-time!). This achievability may possibly because I overworked last year. I've done so much groundwork, and right now it's a matter of pulling things together and making sure I've covered all that needs to be covered.
I have two small (no more than a dozen books in each) batches of actual research to go. I've started sequestering material that really shouldn't belong in the dissertation but may well belong in the longer book that I rather think I may end up writing on the subject. And so the lines are clear. I can see what I'm doing and where I'm going and how I'm getting there. In twelve weeks time I am allowed to panic, however. Moments of lucidity do not last. Nor do cups of coffee.