My last newsletter in a Wordle

I don't know why, but I love playing with Word Clouds.  Here is my last newsletter, which you can read here, in a Word Cloud, using Wordle.

I don't know why the word "Pussyfooting" isn't in there.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll just have to read the article!

What I Wish I Had Known About Writing A Dissertation: Win a Flip Ultra Video Camcorder!

First Annual "What I Wish I Had Known About Writing a Dissertation" Contest -- ends tonight, May 21, 2010

Win a Flip Ultra Video Camera for your dissertation writing hints!

Our First Annual "Inspirational Quotes for Writers" Contest was a big success, allowing us to turn it into an ebook for you.  So we have instituted our second First Annual Contest:  "What I wish I had known about writing a dissertation."

Here's what you could win from the raffle of entries.  And you can increase your chances with high-level multiple entries!

The Flip Ultra Video Camera

How to Enter -- it's quick and easy

All you need to do to enter the contest is go to
www.academicladder.com/facebook, and become a Fan of (or I think now you need to "Like") the Academic Ladder page, and post your favorite tips on the wall.

Note that this is not my personal page -- many of you have friended me,
but for this contest you just need to "Like" the page,
www.academicladder.com/facebook .

The winner will be drawn randomly from all who enter the contest, which
closes 9:00 PM Eastern Time, Friday, May 25th. You can post up to 10 ideas, hints, suggestions, tips, of any length, in order to be entered into the draw, we ask of course that you post different items… duplicate items won’t be counted. This would give
you up to 10 chances to win.

So become a fan (or "Like") our Academic Ladder's page and share the kind of tips that really would have made a difference to you, had you listened to them, believed them, and carried through on them, when you were at any stage of the dissertation writing process (even before you became ABD).

If you're a professor, you can tell us hints from your own experience, or also what you currently find most useful in teaching your own graduate students.

Anything you think would be useful is appropriate, but here are some categories to jog your brain and get you started thinking:

IMPORTANT NEW RULE as of 5/19:

Duplicates of others' entries will not be counted!

Check out the other entries on www.academicladder.com/facebook and make sure you're not repeating one that's already been given. Especially variations on "a good dissertation is a done dissertation" and "just do it." Make your suggestions specific. If you have a strange or what you think is idiosyncratic hint, let us know about it -- expand our horizons.

Duplicates will not be counted!

• How to pick a topic
• What courses to take to prepare for writing the dissertation
• How to get started
• Where to find templates/examples
• How to keep going and not stall out and procrastinate
• When and how and from whom to get feedback
• How to get support (writing groups, etc.)
• How to deal when you feel like giving up
• How to respond to people who ask "How's the dissertation going?"
  
• Tips on advisor/committee relations
• Anything, anything at all, such as recommended books, sites, etc., that would be potentially helpful

• Remember, these are just suggested categories; come up with something I didn't think of!!!
  

Important Note: Whatever signature you use after your quote will be included in an ebook we will create or in subsequent material, so don't sign your submission(or if you'd like, use a pseudonym) if you don't want your name used. We will not use your Facebook name.

If you don't have a Facebook account, my first suggestion is to open one, in order to support Academic Ladder! But I understand if you don't want that hassle. In that case, just email help @ academicladder.com (remove spaces from email address), and put "Dissertation Hints" in the subject line.  Or enter on my blog.

Please let us know what year of grad school you're in, or what level/year of professorship or if you're a post doc.

This time when I award the Flip Ultra Video Camera, I'm also going to buy one for myself. I keep hearing more and more about them, and they sound so cool, lightweight, and useful!





Again, to enter the contest, go to http://www.academicladder.com/facebook and start posting your hints. Those dissertation writers really need your help!




See you on the Academic Ladder Facebook Page!


P.S, if you don't have a Facebook Account, you can post here.  Don't forget; the contest ends tonight at 9 pm Eastern Standard Time!

You're not the only one not writing...

"You're in my dissertation acknowledgments" - 5 words I love to hear!

Elizabeth Gritter, a who earned her doctorate from UNC-Chapel Hill on Wednesday, wrote me today. She is a long-time subscriber to my newsletter.

"Though I have not contacted you individually before, I wanted to let you know that I mentioned you in my acknowledgments.  I've also recommended your web site to others." 

In her acknowledgment, she not only thanked the person who had told her about "the web site of academic writing coach Gina Hiatt," but added "I have benefited from Ms. Hiatt's advice about writing, and her generosity in making these communications and documents free."*

I have to say that this made my day. I (along with other Academic Writing Club coaches) have been mentioned in dissertation and book acknowledgments before, but usually by people we have coached directly or through the Writing Club. It's nice to know that my newsletters can be that helpful in and of themselves, and are actually influencing others' lives.

*All quotes are with Elizabeth's written permission.

The Academic Life: Making It

Professors:
Running Fast and Getting Nowhere?
The clock is ticking.  Will you get tenure?

The Academic Life: Making It

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Is Time Your Enemy? Conquer Time with an "Unschedule"!

Time can be your friend or your enemy. For many academics, it is a merciless tyrant. Academia can provide the luxury of not having to punch a clock. Unfortunately, this luxury makes it easy to allow that all-important project (usually writing, hereafter referred to as the Project) to slide, as you fill in your day with the humdrum and the emergencies.

The Enemy You Don't Know CAN Hurt You

In Procrastination: Why You Do It; What to Do About It by Jane Burka and Lenor Yuen, the authors suggest that procrastinators (which I'm convinced means most of us) have a strange relationship with time. They engage in "wishful thinking" -- they believe that they can magically pull and stretch time to meet their needs. They act as if time is not finite and limited.

So if time perpetually controls you, it may be because you don't understand it. You either think that:

• Small tasks will be endless (so you put off doing them)

• Big tasks will just take an hour or two (so you don't leave enough time for them.)

As a matter of fact, academics tend to overestimate how much time they have actually spent on their most important task, writing.

Another reason time controls you, according to Burka and Yuen, is that you have no idea how much time you're already spending on tasks such as commuting, shopping, cooking or emailing. Therefore it's a mystery how much free time is available for the difficult yet easy-to-put-off tasks, such as writing.

Or maybe you've voluntarily overscheduled yourself due to your "endlessly-expanding" view of time. Little by little you've used up your free time.

On the other end of the continuum are people with a lot of discretionary time. Some academics decide that they will spend all their free time on vacation working on their dissertation or publication. Graduate students take time off of teaching to write, and professors take sabbaticals or even unpaid time just to get writing time. Then all that unscheduled time increases their anxiety and makes them even less efficient!

The Unschedule

How can you tame time?

Enter the "Unschedule." The Unschedule is a time management tool developed by Neil Fiore, the author of The Now Habit.

For your convenience, I have created an Unschedule in PDF format that you can download from this link: http://www.tinyurl.com/Unschedule

Here are the rules to make the Unschedule work for you:

• Use a pencil (my rule) to allow changes
• Write down everything you must do in the coming week, NOT including your Project. Include everything; meals, sleep, commuting, appointments, and classes
• Estimate when and how long each will take and mark it in your Unschedule on the hours you most likely will do each activity
• Include recreation, leisure and social activities (crucial!)
• Look at your Unschedule at this point to become aware of How much unscheduled time is actually available
• What's missing from your life – do you have enough time for fun, socializing, and just decompressing?
• As the week progresses, each time that you work on your Project for at least 30 minutes (Fiore insists on 30, but in our Writing Club we preach that 15 is enough, and that's been proven true, time and time again by our members), mark it in your Unschedule. Remember, you don't mark it in ahead of time. It works best if you can highlight those time blocks in color. You can then total the amount of time spent working towards your goal at the end of each day and week.

Why Fill In the Time Blocks AFTER You Work on Your Project?

This accomplishes several things:

• You avoid being disappointed in yourself (as you may have in the past because you scheduled so much Project time and then let yourself down by not accomplishing the work.)
• If you have a rebellious streak, you will not having anything to rebel against, since you haven't filled in the times you MUST work ahead of time
• You will feel good about what you HAVE done as opposed to bad about what you haven't done
• You will be reminded to reward yourself by switching to a more enjoyable activity
• You will more easily be able to track how much you have actually worked on your project each week, as opposed to how much time you wished you would work on your project.
• You will prove to yourself that small blocks of time DO add up, and are worth doing.
• You can look for patterns – e.g., discover your best work times or days

If working with a schedule hasn't worked for you, if you recognize that you have a distorted relationship with time, or if you're just a garden-variety academic procrastinator, then the Unschedule may be for you. Try it!

And if you'd like more writing tips and the support that you deserve, join us in The Academic Writing Club.

Visit us right now, check out what we have to offer, and sign up -- don't let another deadline slip by! http://www.academicwritingclub.com