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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Well, it’s close to the end of another academic year. How is your dissertation process going? Is it moving forward? Staying the same? Or are you losing ground?

As you may know, I’ve been working with dissertation writers since 2001. My stance has always been that once you start the dissertation you should do everything you can to finish it. I still believe that, but with a twist.

What’s the twist? That you should aim to finish as quickly and happily as you can.

Now, most of the people who criticize me often suggest that quick, happy, and dissertation just don’t belong in the same sentence. And for most dissertation writers, that is probably true. But the people I’ve had the privilege to work with over the past seven years have been proof that you can finish the dissertation more easily and quickly, if you just take the right actions in the right order.

What actions, what order? Well, I’ve laid out some clear pathways for you on this blog, in my newsletter, and in my books. Conservatively, I’ve written or produced more than 1,000 pages of content on finishing the dissertation- a gathering of material which is about ten times the size of a completed and well finished dissertation.

So the point is, the information is here for you. Whether you use my methodology, or someone else’s, it doesn’t really matter. What is important is that you finish, and that you do it as quickly as possible. The longer you are ABD, the longer you will be ABD.

If your dissertation is important to you, and you want to finish, then take the right actions in the right order and get it done. If you don’t care anymore, or never really cared in the first place, cut bait and spend your energy somewhere else.

The first decision you have to make is whether you want to finish. If the answer is yes, then you must become unstoppable in your quest to finish. Do whatever it takes, no matter what it takes. A little bit of suffering early on in this process may keep you from years and years of suffering when the *()&(*& dissertation just never gets done.

As you move into summertime, do something differently this year. Take massive radical action to make massive radical progress.

Remember this, from a well known quote: "There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstance permits. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.”

 Be committed. Accept no excuses. Actively seek results.

 

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