dissertation – Vicky Okafor

academic · lifestyle · survival guide

PAUSE. Give yourself a pat on the back

So you have deadlines to meet. You have to work all through the weekend. Probably that’s how you define your productivity (you should read my previous post on how productivity is relative to help you define productivity right).

I am not against you being productive and meeting your deadlines. But come to think of it feels like these deadlines don’t come to an end. As a full-time lecturer and full-time PhD student, finishing a deadline does not mean much because there are other deadlines piled up for me. Meeting a deadline is just one down among others. Does this sound familiar?

So what am I saying?

I am saying PAUSE. Before you go rushing into meeting the next deadline, take a break and celebrate the fact that you just accomplished something no matter how small it seems. It is worth celebrating because you completed it against all the odds. You were able to manage your time, put in the necessary resources to meet the deadline against the bountiful distractions and other things struggling for your time.

You my friend, met a deadline and for that reason, it is worth celebrating.

Celebrating little wins does not make you vain instead, it makes you mindful, accountable and attentive because not everyone can recognise a win even when it is staring them in the face. Learn to recognise and celebrate the little accomplishments in the cause of your journey.

Don’t be a victim of the pitfall that thinks about other tasks yet to complete. Not only does this ruin your current celebration, but it also deprives you of the gift of being present.

Whether you are a PhD student or not, don’t forget to PAUSE and give yourself a pat on the back. You deserve it.

Photo credit: siddharthav on flickr

September 20, 2020

academic · awareness · Writing

Shutting out the noise in your head (Part 1)

Noise according to oxford dictionary is a sound especially loud and unpleasant or that causes disturbance. It could a good music may be playing but if the song is unwelcome at the time then, it is noise. The description matches the noise we are used to, I call it the noise on the outside. I use that term because I recognize that there is noise that happens on the inside, the noise in our minds.

This kind of noise is particularly annoying to me because there is no turn off switch. For the noise on the outside, you can turn it off quite easily. For instance, if you are in a noisy environment, you can put on a headset to counter the source of the noise or you can leave the place.

However, the noise in the mind is so tricky, sometimes you won’t even know that its there. Inside noise handicaps you, cuts your productivity flow and causes your thoughts to be incoherent whether you are a PhD student or not. It simple terms, it is crippling to your mental health and the worse part is that you might not recognize its effect on your mental health until the damage has been done.

I mean how do you fight an enemy you can’t see?

I don’t claim to be an expert in mental health however, I will share how I detect that there is noise in my mind as it might suggest to you things to pay attention as regards inside noise.

I can’t explain how I feel. This might sound like an emotional issue because it has to do with feelings but it’s not. If one is in a stable mental space, you should be able to tell if you are excited, overwhelmed, sad, angry or hurt but when you can’t place a name to what you feel there is high tendency that there is noise in your mind.
I lose concentration. This is like a very obvious sign but for me, I can lose concentration when I am hungry or tired which is not the same as inside noise. So how do I tell the difference? Well… If I lose concentration and I have no desire to eat or rest then I know that I am losing concentration as a result of noise in my head.
I am all over the place. This is the most obvious sign for me and the last sign to manifest mostly after damage has been done. At this point, I experience lack of concentration combined with restless. I can’t sit still, my thoughts are in shambles, I am neither here nor there. I maybe at my work station at school but my mind is not there. I think of going home but I don’t think it will help either.

Does any of these signs relate to you? If I am missing some, tell me in the comments. I look forward to hearing from you.

Watch out for the second part of this post which addresses what to do about it.

Photo credit: pedroalves on flickr

September 1, 2020

academic · Writing

Why is Writing so hard?

If you have been asking this question, you are not alone. I took me not less than two weeks to draft this post. Wikipedia defines writing as a medium of communication. Are you still wondering why it is hard? When did you know communication to be an easy task? Look around you, there are advertisements of how to develop your communication skills almost everywhere. Communication is commonly referred to as an art because it requires creativity, says Kathleen Federici. You see the problem with writing now? Not only is it a medium of communication but a creative means of transferring information from one party to another.

There is always a need to communicate, you want to pass an idea across, and writing is the way to do that for an academic. In today’s world, everyone is an author, we all have something to say even though we could be saying the same thing in different ways. Just go to your Instagram feed, you will see what I am talking about. Virtually anyone can have their ideas out there by publishing it online, and it is made available to the public. Does this water down creativity? Absolutely not! Instead, the demand for creativity is higher now.

I am not here to talk about writing in general but PhD writing which is known as academic writing. PhD dissertation writing is not just any writing; however, the elements in the writing processes are the same, which is Communication and Creativity. I believe when you understand these elements, you are a step closer to writing your dissertation effortlessly.

Communication is effectively done when you are passing information, and the recipient of the information receives it in the manner you had in mind. Effectively is underlined to that it is the core of communication. The only way to communicate is to do so effectively. Effective communication not only saves you from being misunderstood, it equally saves the recipient the headache of decoding complex information.

Creativity is essential in writing especially in dissertation writing. A friend once told me (which I also agree with) that dissertation writing is majorly about writing the objective of your study in different ways. Hence the need for creativity in dissertation writing. A dissertation is usually lengthy; therefore, you have to find creative ways to keep emphasizing the relevance of your research to retain the attention of your reader/ examiner.

Thus, we can alternatively define Dissertation writing as telling your audience what my research is about creatively.

Are you worried because you think creativity is not an attribute to be associated with you?

Don’t be because, in today’s world, anyone can be creative. See creativity as alternatives, like different driving routes to get to the same destination. Technological advancement has made some tools available at our fingertips that can help build and enhance our creativity even in dissertation writing. Some of these tools will be shared in the next post. Till then you can share your suggestions in the comments.

Note that the beauty of Communication being art is that it can be learned.

May 12, 2020

academic · motivation

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.

April 12, 2020