Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Getting it done...

Well trying to at least.

I have to admit that I'm sick to death of working on this dissertation project. Probably because it's yet another summer where I'm trying to get it done. I think I will. Rather, I won't allow myself not to.

But, for multiple reasons that shall remain un-blogged, I just don't feel motivated by the light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps this has something to do with my own personality traits - if I've been doing something for a while it's always the last few steps that I find challenging. Not because the work that remains is a challenge compared to what I've accomplished on the thing in question up until that point but because I get restless and bored. I was that way in school as far back as first grade even. I'd have all the enthusiasm throughout the year and then we'd have final year-end assessments and I'd be completely distracted and not do as well. Undergrad was like this for me too - I took really easy classes the last semester of the last year and had an incredibly breezy schedule. However, I probably fared the worst most of them except for one (which is the one I actually felt challenged by). I wonder if this is a pattern I need to break. I think I already start thinking ahead to what comes next and what I need to finish up to move on seems to take a backseat. That's probably bad. Especially since the stuff I've worked on in the past had a definitive timeline - exams ended and once you amassed 128 credits successfully you had a Bachelor's degree. Alas PhDing isn't like that. If you ignore that little thing called The Dissertation you don't magically finish but giving it the bare minimum.

And so I must try to be productive this summer even though I'm already daydreaming about what comes next. I'll keep you folks posted on my progress.

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