My Thesis, My Way

It is a common fact that PhD journey can be depressing, stressful and at some point putting mental and emotional health at risk. The PhD journey can be marked by days of wondering why you are on the program and days of disappointments. While the struggles to get a PhD may look endless and increasingly overwhelming, there are also days that you are glad you are on this journey.

These days I am referring to, are days where all the items on your to-do lists get striked off as complete, days that the chapter you have been writing on gets completed. I mean days that your supervisor tells you ‘good job’, ‘well done’ and the likes, days where you finally add a thousand words to your thesis or write more than two pages in under two hours. You got to admit that those days make the struggles of the journey bearable.

My thesis, my way is about having more of the fun days in course of your PhD journey. You deciding to have more of those days, is the first step in achieving it. As much as majority of circumstances we face in the course of the PhD journey is beyond our control, this choice we have control over this decision. You might be thinking after this choice what next?

Here’s what’s next, work with the decision. For instance, to successfully write more than two pages in 2 hours means you have been putting in the effort everyday even if it meant writing a paragraph on certain days. You don’t give up writing on any day because yesterday’s write up didn’t go as planned. Consistency is very essential.

You have to Plan. You just have to. I don’t know how someone can go through this journey without planning. Or one day, you wake up and realise that you cannot place your finger on what you achieved in the whole of year two. You need to plan because time is not waiting, it keeps ticking. You can have a PhD planner separate from your normal to-do list. Please do not have lofty plans. Start by planning for what you want to achieve in a semester, then break it to monthly plans, then break it to weekly plans, then finally, break it into daily ‘to-do list’.

Another vital requirement of having ‘Your thesis, your way’ is Motivation. I am not talking about motivation from a motivational speaker. I am talking of motivation from no one else but yourself. Learn how to motivate yourself. There are some days that you think your supervisor is lucifer, your coursemates are no-gooders and the thesis is just here to show the world how much of a failure you are (which is absolutely incorrect). On these days the motivation your have giving yourself will preserve your mental health.

Finally, give yourself a break. Yeah, your read right. PhD is not a sprint, it is a marathon. Therefore, to avoid burn out, learn how to treat yourself. There will be no Phd journey if you are not here to embark on it. You are the first requirement for a PhD. Treat yourself right, take breaks, assign day off for yourself. Rest makes you more productive. Don’t use the day off to judge yourself. That will just lead to effort in futility.

I don’t know about you but I intend to have a purposeful phd journey by doing my thesis my way.