Time Management for the Worst Procrastinators

Time Management for the Worst Procrastinators

Photo by Emilie Ogez on Flickr

Time management is not something I am good at.  I'm good at staring out the window, doodling plans and lists, and doing every other project except the one I need to finish by May 2018. I get a lot done (a doctoral student and a mother has to), but it isn't easy.  And it doesn't often happen through careful planning, but through sheer will!

So as I worked through grad school, my early teaching career, and now the beginning of the dissertation... I realized I need to get my act together. Just like writing a paper without an outline stopped working, so did living a day without an outline. But no loose planning in a bullet journal or motivational mantra on a bulletin board could help this daydreaming procrastinator. Any wiggle room would ruin me. So, desperate for a method, I focused on the smallest unit of time that could be put to excellent work, coupled with a proven system for fighting the distraction of other projects -- the Pomodoro.

What is it?

What the heck is a Pomodoro? It's a tomato. But more on that later.

The Pomodoro work method is based upon research that shows we can most successfully work in something like 25 minute bursts.  This is enough time to get into a groove without wearing out our eyes or our carpal tunnels, and it's enough time to produce a substantial work chunk, say, to grade three long papers or to write a page. It's also a short enough time that we can completely ignore everyone else in the universe and they'll be just fine until we get back from our little Pomodoro planet. Close tabs, log out, hide phone -- blast off!

Photo by Luca Mascaro on Flickr

So why not make it half an hour? Because that 5 minutes at the end gives you a chance to look up from the screen (recommended by doctors, brain doctors, and opticians alike), and move around a bit.  Then you dive back into another 25 minutes or work. Four of these productivity bursts makes for almost two hours of work, only slightly (and restoratively) interrupted.  Four timer sessions = a "Pomodoro."  Say it out loud: "I just did a Pomodoro!"  Get up and take a long break.  Exercise, pet the cat, feed your starving kids, whatever. You earned it!  Then, you can choose to do more Pomodoros or call it.

The method is named as such because the original timer, designed by Francesco Cirillo, is shaped like a tomato. Imagine one of those egg timers that looks like an egg. Now it's a tomato. Tada!

Pomodoro praxis

I began the method with a stack of grading last spring, and it worked like a charm. It is absolutely flawless for clerical tasks like grading, organizing notes and sources, making tables, etc.  Although, I had to practice and get comfortable with it before I could really write in a flow state a la Pomodoro. You may have to work with it awhile until you can do real "knowledge work" on a timer.  But now that is an easy habit for me.

As important as the timer is the minimization of distraction. CLOSE THE TABS!  Nothing bad will happen.  Some online timers can even do it for you.  Half the point of this thing is work-life balance. This is the part where you have to let life slide -- it's only 25 minutes.

I do not use the actual physical tomato, but I may start.  Instead I use one of many online timers specifically geared towards the technique.  You can of course use any timer that goes to at least 25 minutes (but for obvious reasons, don't use your phone!).

I have used some great Pomodoros online. There are dozens if you search:

Tomato Timer
https://tomato-timer.com/
A super simple platform with start and stop key commands (or mouse buttons) and no frills. My favorite.

Tomatoid
https://www.tomatoid.com/
A tricked out timer that lets you create an account and track projects and time spent.

The Real Pomodoro Tomato Timer
https://theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/store/ars/item/76859/Tomato-Timer/136868
The "real deal" tomato is available from many sellers, but some are mightily over-priced. I think I will get mine from The Animal Rescue Site, so my $12.95 feeds a dog or some other fuzzy guy

One more thing about TIME

Ok, I am a mother, a grad student, a teacher, a "life-partner" if you will, and a gigging musician. I know a thing or two about not having enough time (one of those things will require another blog post). So let me tell you something that we hear all the time in this office, and that I have had to turn into a Pomodoro-complementary mantra:

You do not find time.  You MAKE time.

There is no extra time anywhere waiting to be found. And if you happen to stumble upon some, you will not even realize you have found it because you will be caught up in it, looking at the TV or just resting with your loved ones.

Extra time has to be made. The only way to do this is to shorten the length of time spent doing other tasks (i.e. non-dissertation tasks and clerical dissertation tasks) so that you grow the time you have to think and write and be healthy and whole. Get efficient. Make extra time for yourself and your family, and for your knowledge work.

So, some parting questions for you:

What work can you let slide in the name of making time?  Instead of thinking of it as letting something slide, can you think of it as producing something precious -- the time you need?  

What work could you do more efficiently or delegate to a partner or child?

What unproductive time-suckers can you give up completely? We all need some. But maybe you could make time by reducing them?

What could you work on being less perfectionist about? Good tasks are done tasks! (And a good dissertation is a done dissertation.)

More on all this in a later post.  Happy tomato-timing and time-making!

Interesting Reading

Interesting Reading

It's been awhile since I've put up a post on recent-ish articles having to do with graduate school, graduate students, or having to write your thesis or dissertation.  I recently came across a couple of pieces that I found to be good reads, so I decided to share them with you.

"The No-Fail Secret to Writing a Dissertation" by Theresa MacPhail

MacPhail tells us that the secret to writing and finishing your dissertation is -- get this -- to sit down and write. She offers essentially the same advice that I wrote about in an earlier post on writing groups:

"Sit your butt down in a chair, preferably in a quiet and distraction-free room. Disable your internet and turn your phone on silent. Come into your writing space having already done the research you need for that day's writing task. You will not be researching or looking anything up during your writing time (researching and editing are discrete tasks, believe it or not, and should be done in separate blocks)."

She recommends writing every day, five days a week, 50 minutes a day. Don't write in ten minute chunks. Such a strategy does not accommodate deep thinking when writing.

Her style is conversational, making it a quick and easy read. I like a lot of what she has to tell her audience, such as: "[T]he dissertation is best thought of as the lousy first draft of an eventual book. No one but you expects your dissertation to be perfect." My director, my boss, and my committee have all told me this exact same thing. For some reason, it sinks in when I read it in MacPhail's piece.


"Your Dissertation Begins in Your First Seminar" by Rebecca Schuman

Schuman tells us that writing a dissertation is no different than writing the all-too-familiar 20-page essay for one of your seminar courses. She outlines strategies -- researching, writing, revising -- graduate students should be using to write an essay for a seminar class, as opposed to throwing something together a couple of days before the paper is due. I don't know anyone who would -- wait a second . . . oh yeah. I may have committed this egregious sin. It is actually good advice, and it reminded me that a couple of my peers in the English department expanded some of their own seminar papers into master's theses and dissertations.

Schuman's essay is a quick read, reeks of common sense, and I like her approach to the topic -- i.e. the dissertation is not some holier than thou document; it's just a longform version of a seminar paper. It made me wish I had read this back when I first started out in the graduate program.


"Master's Degree Programs Specialize to Keep Their Sheen" by Jennifer Howard

Howard's article focuses on graduate schools and how "master’s-level programs have had to adapt to keep up with students who seek an educational experience customized to their particular goals, and who put a premium on skills and experience that prospective employers will find valuable." 

According to the Department of Education, 751,000 master's degrees were awarded during the 2012/2013 academic year. Approximately half of these degrees were in health and education. While students continue to pursue higher degrees in fields like Math, computer science, and engineering, fewer students are pursuing master's degrees in subjects like education. There are a number of reasons for this drop in enrollment.

What Howard notes is that this generation of graduate students desire more specialized degrees that will be appealing to potential employers and to be taught a diverse skill set that will enable them to have an impact on the community. This is being attributed to an "activist air" among grad students. Because they want more from their higher education, graduate school programs are readjusting in order to be more appealing to future students.  
It is a fascinating read.

One last thing:

I want to remind everyone that the next session of Write Place, Write Time is coming up -- Thursday, April 14, 2016. Once again we will be meeting at 6pm in Founder's Library. Be there or be a dodecahedron. If you are still a bit confused about the group, you can read up on it by clicking here.

As always, please feel free to share your comments, concerns, random thoughts, hopes for the future, jokes of the day, etc. on our Facebook group page, or feel free to post in the comments box below.

Choosing the Best Document Editing Service

Choosing the Best Document Editing Service

It is always wise to hire a document editing service to review your work. However, finding a reliable service provider can be difficult, especially online, as there are many who offer such services. Listed below are some tips to help you find a suitable and reputable document editing service.

ISO Certification

Companies with ISO certification are guarantee to meet the industry’s international standards. Therefore, always look for a certified document editing service provider. Such service providers are not only reliable, they will also ensure that your submission fulfils international publication standards, thus increasing your publication chances.

Fees

Established service providers often charge higher prices than freelance editors. However, the experienced and qualified editors employed by companies guarantee quality results, thus making them the safer option. Most online companies offer their clients a free quote, and provide convenient fee calculators on their website.

Time limit

Most authors need to meet tight deadlines, and professional editors understand this. Before hiring, always check the service provider’s turnaround time. Many editing companies also offer express editing services for urgent assignments. Before submitting your document to the editor, you must specify your document’s deadline. The editing service provider will then provide their turnaround time, which may depend on the subject editor’s availability, and the company’s current workload.

Always check and compare the editing service providers’ profiles before hiring. It is best to read a company’s customer reviews to determine their service quality. For the best document editing and proofreading service, choose OnLine English. With more than twenty years of experience, we guarantee to meet all your editing and proofreading needs. Hire us today!

A Word from the Ruler Lady: Carolyn Law

A Word from the Ruler Lady: Carolyn Law

It was not so long ago that the mythic figure of the fierce Ruler Lady loomed large in grad school folklore. She lurked in graduate schools across the land, measuring the margins of theses and dissertations with uncanny (some say even preternatural) precision. She could stop the hearts of suppliant thesis and dissertation writers with a single wave of her terrible sword. I mean ruler. The unluckiest ones could expect to be sent away, trembling, to retype—literally, like on a typewriter—whole pages of their precious documents, in triplicate and on expensive cotton-bond paper.

Like all urban legends, there is perhaps a kernel of truth in the basic story, but over time such tales grow to incredible proportions and soon spiral out far beyond the bounds of reality.

I am the Ruler Lady at NIU, but I’m really not very fierce. And I do not use a ruler anymore, although I must admit that for many years I did. In fact, quite a lot has changed in the Thesis Office at NIU since I started out as Thesis and Dissertation Advisor in 1996. For one thing, theses and dissertations are born digital these days and thus the post-defense submission, review, and approval process is entirely electronic now. Other more recent changes in the Thesis Office, however, aren’t so much technological as programmatic.

Starting this Fall 2015, the Thesis Office is delighted to offer a full menu of targeted workshops to assist thesis and dissertation writers in all departments of the university to meet the specific Graduate School format requirements and general standards of quality for academic writing. My hope is that by meeting with students before they defend, answering their individual questions as they arise during composition, I can smooth out the sometimes bumpy road to final approval. To help me with that lofty goal, I have enlisted a couple of excellent GAs to the cause. Mike and Clare, who’ve been blogging in this space for several months, know exactly what you are going through. Their perspective has proven invaluable to me in designing new programs and services, updating our online resources, and creating a more student-focused office in general.

Please check out the calendar of upcoming workshops for Fall 2015 on the website (click here) and look for new offerings and events in the coming months.

The Thesis Office staff is alive and well in Adams Hall Room 104 and we’re eager to help you achieve your goals. Feel free to drop in the office without appointment Monday – Thursday 10 am – 2 pm to see how we may be of assistance to you. And be sure to subscribe to this blog. You’ll receive posts twice a month on a wide variety of topics of interest to thesis and dissertation writers at every stage in the process.

Finally, remember that although I may still strike fear in the hearts of graduate students, I promise to use my power only for good.

Tips to Demystify the MBA Theses Writing Process

Tips to Demystify the MBA Theses Writing Process

MBA dissertation writing is a exacting type of college research and inscription that has a particular reason. As a result, as a careful student in business studies, you must be capable to realize that purpose and memorize that this can only be done if you are prepared with the best MBA dissertation writing instructions on how to write a thesis. To be successful in this type of write-up, you will first of all need to know your principle, keep your spectators in mind, use a proper quality and present your information watchfully. maybe most prominently, you need to know that an mba research paper means you are writing as a business and the sole point these types of thesis topics is to convince your readers or influence them to believe in what you have to say. Consequently, your writing is a true duplication of who and what you are.

Start by knowing your reason. To efficiently come up with a good MBA dissertation paper, you first need to decide your purpose in writing. Remember that this will help you choosing the right line of attack format and it will give you a standard against which you measure your final draft. Mainly likely, you will want to inform your readers about amazing or you will want to inspire them to take action. In others words, the main aim of your MBA dissertation writing is to generate a certain response in the minds of your readers.

Next, you have to keep your audience in mind. Think about every point that you make from your readers' point of view. Remember that this is one of your most important features because you are not writing to impress yourself, but to have your readers act on what you have written. In most cases, your audience will be people well informed about what you are writing about. Remember to give an updated version of whatever you are going to say because most of your readers must be willing to go through the information you make available to them.

Use an appropriate tone. As a business student, you must have known that tone is the quality of writing that reveals your attitude towards your topic and towards your readers. Whether or not you are aware of it, there is tone in every word that you write and much of the impression of your readers will depend on the tone that you set in your thesis. If you come up with a topic and bring up reasonable data which shows that you have a good tone, your readers will take delight in what you have to say. Therefore, steer clear of casual language and unnecessary slang. Keep in mind that most of these will be easily done if you get inspiration from a sample thesis or thesis examples.

MBA thesis should be finished with a careful appearance of information. Keep in mind that writing the MBA dissertation paper is almost equal to the task in every business paper. You will not want your audience to throw away a lot of time trying to read during irrelevant material or comprehending with a badly written dissertation. Keep in mind that concise and correct writing means that you can sensibly handle data and carefully present it to someone. Creating a thesis declaration that is clear ensures that the right message will be carried on to your readers. Well prepared writing ensures that readers move from side to side it quickly. Finally, you will also need data in the form of tables, figures charts etc. Make sure they are clear to the understanding of your audience.

Consult Your Advisor: MBA Dissertation

Consult Your Advisor: MBA Dissertation

Final but the most significant recommendation to write a creative MBA dissertation is to stay put in touch with your consultant. He is the only person to spot upon as he can present you with the expensive in sequence that even internet or any other book can't give. He is the only person who can give you positive disparagement and help you in creation your dissertation enhanced. So it is your dependability to create a visit to him every time and acquire your dissertation/thesis checked.

To write an MBA dissertation it is takes more than just meaningful how to write it. MBA important studies are unfinished without a dissertation, so it is of very important significance that student must know what it takes to write it.

The initial thing which I desire to create clear is that an MBA dissertation is different from an MBA thesis. They are attractive much similar but hand out to different purposes. An MBA dissertation highlights and elucidates what has been educated all through the semester.

Who is ProQuest?

Who is ProQuest?

So just who is this ProQuest? And why should I care?

Well the short answer to the first question is that ProQuest is NIU’s publication partner for all theses and dissertations approved for graduate degrees. As for the second question, you should care because ProQuest provides NIU with the platform for submitting theses and dissertations to the Graduate School for review and ultimate approval. After that, ProQuest preserves and distributes your thesis or dissertation forever, within certain parameters over which you have some control.

ProQuest is an international, for-profit corporation headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It started out as R.R. Bowker, but its rise to fame really came under the name of University Microfilms International (UMI). From the development of microfilm in the 1930s to the construction of 21^st-century digital repositories, ProQuest (under several different names over the years) has been a consistent leader in the technology of document preservation, including historical newspapers, archives and libraries, and (of course) theses and dissertations.

Now for the “why should I care” part. Well, first . . . because ProQuest supplies and maintains the infrastructure of NIU’s submission platform. When you click the SUBMIT NOW button on the Thesis Office website, you will be magically transported to the land of ProQuest, called the ETD Administrator. Rest assured, however, that the NIU Thesis Office is the custodian and administrator of that platform and your work remains in the secure, trustworthy hands of NIU (Carolyn Law, to be precise) until the very end.

The second reason you should care is because you’ll be asked up front to make some decisions about the eventual availability of your work after you graduate. You would be well advised to do some homework about these decisions before you start. THE SUBMISSION PROCESS – linked to the Thesis Office website – covers the most frequently asked questions.

Then a few weeks after each graduation term, the Thesis Office sends the electronic files of all the approved theses and dissertations (now called ETDs) to ProQuest, where they are ingested into massive databases, deposited in NIU’s Huskie Commons (our institutional repository), and tagged and indexed for online search engines.

To learn more about ProQuest in the big-picture sense, you might want to explore their website, www.proquest.com. It’s really quite an interesting enterprise for any scholar, academic writer, or researcher.

MBA Dissertation Requirements

MBA Dissertation Requirements

Therefore, in this position we'd alike to present you the basic things you require to stay in mentality when preparing your MBA dissertation papers (or while examine the prearranged project).

1. Intellect the quote style your MBA dissertation should be written in (MLA, APA, Turabian or Harvard). All text has to be formatted severely following the recognized necessities. 

2. Make sure whether the subject of your MBA dissertation paper is enclosed appropriately or some more evidences or theory should to be added.

3. Check over the mechanism cited list tome to time. Make certain all the thesis references are formatted carefully, no punctuation was misplaced.

4. Double-check if the specifications set by the committee and your tutor are followed or not.

5. Make certain you are covering ‘new ground 'What seems to be an inspired choice for your MBA Dissertation Topic may cover an area already dealt with. Check current publications!

How to Create a Fulfilling MBA Project Report

How to Create a Fulfilling MBA Project Report

As receiving an MBA degree requires an assortment of soreness and great efforts, it is necessary to assume many assignments, throughout the course of time. Except, creating a satisfying MBA dissertations assignment report is not a simple assignment at all. It requires day and night of hard effort as well as a lot of time and study. And after implementation the assignment, creation a assignment report is obligatory. The extremely thought of making a assignment report leaves an MBA student impractical. But, this report is the only way of creation an assessor conscious of what you are essentially annoying to express through your assignment.

Your assignment statement in fact reflects, what you are annoying to attain throughout your assignment report. This report brings out the distinctive views of the student on the assignment as well as their information gained from the entire experience. It makes it easier for the assessors to construct out that whether the student has really worked on the assignment or not. So, it is obligatory for a student to make a fulfilling MBA dissertation assignment.

Problems in MBA Dissertation

Problems in MBA Dissertation

Students face several problems and difficulties while preparing their dissertation proposal or complete dissertation which is listed below:

¨ Creating and proposing new and interesting dissertation topics which are neither too broad nor too specific

¨ Lack of time for researching, writing and completing the dissertation

¨ Lack of resource for completing the dissertation proposal or dissertation

¨ Confusion on where to start researching or how to start writing the dissertation proposal for MBA dissertation

¨ Finding the relevant literature and sources to research for the dissertation proposal or dissertation

¨ Difficulties in performing primary and secondary research for dissertation proposal or dissertation

¨ Problems in writing the MBA dissertation or proposal for dissertation with appropriate level of English without any citation, grammar and spelling mistakes

¨ Formatting and editing the MBA dissertation proposal or dissertation in Masters in Business Administration according to the supervisor’s instructions

Tips for Writing A MBA Dissertation

Tips for Writing A MBA Dissertation

Now that you have graduated university with also a BS or a BA degree, it is at present time to focus on graduate school and the MBA Dissertation you are going to have to write. What purpose does an MBA dissertation have? It assists you to have a sturdy conviction regarding a convinced subject or topic. In the beginning of your dissertation, you are going to have to legitimately state this conviction on the topic you have selected.

First of all, you ought to prefer a research topic that you are very concerned in. You are going away to have to come to the recognition that if you are going to write a unbeaten MBA Thesis or MBA Dissertation, this is going to get a great deal of time, enthusiasm and hard work! The beauty of the MBA Dissertation is that you are capable to decide your own ideas regarding a certain subject. You are going to have to establish just how accurate your ideas are. It won't appear so much like work if you truly love the subject you are working on.

Why Business Owners Hire an English Language Check Service

Why Business Owners Hire an English Language Check Service

It is vital for business owners to improve their brand. They send out documents and communication materials to their staff and clients.

To ensure that these documents meet publishing standards, they opt for English language check service.

Below are some benefits of hiring professional English language check services:

Helps establish the brand

If business documents contain mistakes, clients will develop a negative impression towards the company.

It is best to have your documents professionally reviewed to make sure that it does not contain errors. Language check experts will correct the errors to ensure that the document conveys a clear message.

A well-prepared document increases the company’s brand value.

Meets publishing standards

An error-free document meets publishing standards. In fact, an edited document is preferred by publishers and readers. The owner can confidently promote their services and products to clients around the world because the document is well-prepared.

Thorough language check

Grammatical mistakes in business documents can cause misunderstanding or confusion. Clients will also lose interest reading a document that contain errors. It is wise to hire a

professional English language check service to thorough review and improve the language of the document.

Look for a professional service provider that is open to working for a long period of time and provides discounts for bulk/frequent orders. OnLine English, like some ISO-certified

companies, guarantees quality results at reasonable rates. With twenty years of experience in this industry, this company ensures that all your English language needs are met. Visit their website to know more about the editing and proofreading services they offer.

MBA Dissertation professionals for you...

MBA Dissertation professionals for you...

MBA dissertation writing professionals are available - writers at your level, and as well as inhabitant writers from the UK, US, Canada, or ESL (English Second Language) writers from your specific areas. In addition, our MBA dissertation writers can provide accurate formatting styles based on your needs - APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, Harvard formats, or other formatting styles. Professional MBA dissertation writers provide you with the highest quality MBA dissertation writing, proper formatting, grammar, and professionalism.

CUSTOM MBA DISSERTATION WRITING...

MBA dissertation writing should be custom MBA dissertation writing. This is necessary to your achievement in your degree program. You have to keep in mind that if you buy MBA dissertations from just any writing service you might acquire much inferior than cheap MBA dissertation work, you may get plagiarized MBA dissertation writing that can cause you many hassles in your degree program.

At what time you need MBA dissertation help; you require a excellence MBA dissertation writing service. Our promise is to your success, and we employ only competent writers to support you.

MBA Dissertation Writing

MBA Dissertation Writing

You are competent to locate thousands of free MBA dissertation examples and MBA dissertation samples on any MBA dissertation writing topics. If you place the application “free MBA dissertation” into Google, you will acquire hundreds websites with free MBA dissertations and MBA dissertation proposals on any subject matter and topic you want. But you ought to clearly stand in mind that free MBA dissertation assignments and information are not innovative and exactingly cannot be used as your own research assignment.

If you believe that you can non-plagiarized MBA dissertation and present it as your own document to obtain an MBA degree – you are incorrect, your assignment will be right away detected as 100% plagiarized – your learning career will finish at once. Why to run a threat if you can get MBA dissertation writing help for money? Definitely it will charge you a lot of money, but you will be 100% sure that custom MBA dissertation you acquire from extremely competent writers is 100% unique and written in a exacting agreement with your MBA necessities.