For so many graduate students, this summer has already proven itself to be unlike any other they\u2019ve encountered so far; and with ongoing global crisis, graduate students should feel no guilt for prioritizing their personal well-being over their productivity. That being said, summer has always been a time of free fall for graduate students — assistantships end, funding becomes unstable, precarity increases and the work structures that we rely on to keep us productive throughout the semester suddenly disappear. All the while we are expected to prepare for fall teaching, continue our own research, catch up on tasks that we shuffled off during the academic year and make real progress on a slew of tasks. Whether this summer has been particularly disruptive for you or whether summer always proves a time of uncertainty, here are some strategies for making progress in your work, however small.<\/p>\n
Be Kind to Yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n While it\u2019s worth practicing self-compassion no matter the circumstances, this tip feels especially necessary now. As graduate students, we keep seemingly endless lists of tasks and goals, aspirations and to-dos. With so much on our plates at all times, it can be easy to slip into feelings of doubt, guilt, despair, stress and anxiety. However, as you may know from experience, such feelings are entirely counterproductive, serving only to paralyze us in the face of even small tasks. As a result, instead of holding yourself to incredibly high standards this summer, be realistic about where you\u2019re at, where you\u2019d like to be and what steps you\u2019ll be able to take in the time that you have.<\/p>\n Setting huge goals for yourself (\u201cI will write every single day!\u201d \u201cI will finish two chapters this summer!\u201d) may feel good in the moment, but it can set you up for a work freeze if you fail to live up to those goals (\u201cI missed writing yesterday. Why am I so terrible at this?\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll never finish this chapter at this rate — why even bother?\u201d). Instead of responding to inevitable setbacks with guilt, shame or frustration, treating yourself with care can make all the difference in your willingness and ability to bounce back.<\/p>\n Instead of judgmental self-talk, try to speak to yourself like you would a close friend, a loved one, one of your students or even a child. Whatever approach you need, responding to yourself with compassion and understanding will make you more willing to try (and potentially fail) later, making it easier to get back to work even after a setback.<\/p>\n Work Backward<\/strong><\/p>\n Perhaps already a familiar strategy to those who have experience creating lesson plans, working backward from your intended goal to accurately plan the steps that will get you there is a powerful way to build your own structure and deadlines. Think about the goal that you\u2019d like to reach and its ideal deadline.<\/p>\n For instance, if your goal is to take your comp exams by Oct.\u00a01, but you know that your exam materials must be submitted two weeks prior to your exam, then your real deadline becomes Sept.\u00a017. Then, you know that you want a good three weeks to write and revise each of the two essays required, which means that you\u2019ll want to start drafting by July\u00a021. Before that, though, you\u2019ll want some time to finalize your bibliography, read and annotate your sources, and talk to your committee, all of which you can fill in as tentative deadlines on your calendar.<\/p>\n So, now, instead of Take Comp Exams by Oct.\u00a01, you have June\u00a010: Contact Committee, June\u00a015: Compile Possible Sources, June\u00a022-July\u00a017: Read and Annotate, July\u00a020: Finalize Bibliography, July\u00a021: Begin Drafting First Essay, Aug.\u00a011: Begin Drafting Second Essay, Sept.\u00a017: Submit Materials to Committee, Oct.\u00a01: Exam.<\/p>\n Thus, instead of setting large goals into your calendar, build in smaller deadlines by breaking the goal into its components (the topic of the following tip).<\/p>\n Set Actionable Tasks<\/strong><\/p>\n Admittedly, there exists a page in my own planner that includes the task\u00a0Write Chapter 3<\/em>\u00a0— a worthwhile goal, perhaps, but not an actionable one. After all, it would be impossible to simply sit down and suddenly produce a complete and usable third chapter. In fact, the only way to eventually reach a finished Chapter 3 will be to first complete the reading, research, brainstorming, planning, drafting, revising and all of the other minute steps that make up the work of chapter writing.<\/p>\n As you think about working backward, and thus consider all of the small steps that make up much larger goals, think about how you can break large goals into even smaller actionable steps that you can realistically complete.<\/p>\n To use the example above, the July\u00a021 goal of Begin Drafting First Essay will give you a clear deadline for your monthly calendar, but it isn\u2019t yet at the more achievable level of daily to-do task. As you get closer to this deadline at the end of July, you\u2019ll want some more clear direction. For instance, your to-do list for July\u00a021 might include items as small as Create New Document for Essay\u00a01, Title, Draft Rough Introductory Paragraph, Import Bibliography Into Document, Draft Bulleted Outline Beneath Introduction, etc.<\/p>\n The idea is that you first set realistic calendar deadlines by breaking a goal into smaller goals, but then you can further break those small goals into daily to-dos that allow you to make real progress each time you sit down to work and cross something off of your task list each day (instead of only getting the satisfaction of feeling \u201cdone\u201d once the whole project is completed).<\/p>\n Be Consistent<\/strong><\/p>\n As scholars like Joan Bolker (Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day<\/a><\/em>) and Helen Sword (Air & Light & Time & Space<\/a><\/em>) make clear, the most successful academic writers are those who are the most consistent in doing work. While it can be tempting (or unavoidable, or necessary) to step away from work for extended amounts of time or to work in large, sudden blocks, working regularly, even in small sessions, ultimately produces larger amounts of usable work.<\/p>\n Breaking your goals into small, achievable tasks can help with your consistency. After all, it\u2019s much easier to want to write each day if your goal is something like Write for Five Minutes or Add Transition to Final Paragraph instead of the imposing and seemingly unattainable Write Chapter 3.<\/p>\n Rewarding yourself with small treats or writing trackers (today\u2019s final tip) can also be a great way to motivate yourself to want to work. Regardless of how you do it, however, the fact remains that small and consistent progress adds up much quicker than sporadic bursts of work. Consistency can help you become more compassionate with yourself as well, since you no longer have such large expectations for your working time. Instead, remember that any work done (no matter how seemingly insignificant) is still work done.<\/p>\n