Thursday, March 12, 2009

Day 4 Report

As promised, my Day 4 Report. And this time it's actually on Day 4.

I've been taking a day off from work each week to work on the dissertation since I started this job. I would say about 58% of the time I end up doing work-work from home instead of dissertation-work. And other times I've had to forgo the entire dissertation day and come to the office for Important Meetings. None of this surprises me, seeing the slow rate of progress I've made on the dissertation thus far this academic year.

In recent months, I've been taking Wednesdays as this work-from-home-on-the-dissertation day. So, since today was the first day where I've been able to work on the dissertation this week, it has felt like Wednesday. Oh yeah, it's really Thursday. Hoo boy. I must remember my dentist appointment tomorrow at 9:00 AM. I keep thinking that's in two days.

Anyway, the rest of the day was very productive. First, I did a bit more axial coding and made some realizations about one of my participants that was, well...let's just say I have a completely different, and deeper, understanding of this person's identity development. Bottom line, the exercise in axial coding continues to be extremely helpful.

Next, I attempted to reach out to my peer reviewers, whom I recruited last fall. I need to see if they are able to help me this semester, instead of last fall when I had initially asked for their help. I've not yet heard back, but that's no surprise given my e-mails to them were sent toward the end of the afternoon. Would be great to hear from them tomorrow or Saturday.

Finally, I decided upon the materials I will provide to said peer reviewers, assuming they still have the time for me this semester. This final step of deciding on what the hell I'm actually providing to my peer reviewers has allowed me to visualize the schedule for the rest of The Two Weeks. This is a good thing. My plan is to get each of them the set of materials by the end of next week. Deep breath. I can do this.

So Chad, per your comment on my prior post, I daresay I have indeed started kicking ass on this project. Finally.

I have two colleagues from SCT who are taking next week off (Spring Break) to work on dissertation tasks themselves, so we've decided to get together and work as a group in the library at least once or twice during that time. This should help keep the focus, accountability, and general dissertation ass-kicking in line. And then we can all get together for dinner afterward. Food and drink after long library days are good things.

To those of you who comment here: THANK YOU. While I write this blog entirely for myself as a diary, without any particular audience in mind other than me, it is good to know there are people out there who are actually reading. Comments are most welcome.

Off to do a bit more axial coding before bed. Bye.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since you asked for comments, Gibsyn here. My dear, you have successfully planned to plan and now have a plan. Your task now is to 'keep your butt in the seat' and work for 10 minutes. Then, you stand up and get coffee. Or not. Ten minutes on just the diss but not reading or coding: writing. You know you can do it. I know you can do it. Write for 10 minutes and you've done it.

lemming said...

Go go gadget root canal!

Think about - work on the diss, or have a root canal? Easy choice.

Anonymous said...

Excellent idea! To think, while writing, "I could be having a root canal right now." Torture or writing, its your choice.

Rob said...

Alright, I guess I asked for this root canal stuff. LOL. Thanks to you both. Cranking things out. More later.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Gibsyn, I would say the choice is often "Root canal or torture? Tough choice!"

lemming said...

"My enthusiasm for this activity falls somewhere between my enthusiasm for root canal and my enthusiasm for snake bite."
-my Dad

Puts much of life in perspective, really -