Advice

Full disclosure: My Ph.D. program was 3 years fulltime – 2 years of coursework and 1 year to research and write the dissertation. I am married, my partner (Q) and I work full time, and at the time I was writing my dissertation we found out we were expecting a baby. I graduated at 8 ½ months pregnant and had a baby girl on June 23, 2018.

I could not have completed this journey without the support of family and friends. It sounds cliché, but it is so true! I also learned so much along the way. Maybe some of this will be helpful.

My dissertation timeline

  • November 2016 – Dissertation chair assignment
  • March 2017 – Proposal (First draft of chapters 1, 2, 3)
  • April 2017 – End of coursework
  • April 25, 2017 – IRB approval from home institution
  • May 5, 2017 – IRB approval from the research institution
  • May 19, 2017 – Data collection begins
  • June 6-15, 2017 – Fieldwork
  • August 31, 2017 – Data collection ends
  • September 2017 – Analysis begins
  • September 2017 – Committee member #1 accepts
  • October 12, 2017 – ILA Doctoral Consortium feedback (conference)
  • December 2017 – Committee member #2 accepts
  • January 2018 – Revision to chapters 1 and 2 / rewrite chapter 3
  • February 2018 – Continued analysis while drafting chapters 4, 5, 6
  • March 31, 2018 – First complete draft to Chair / Revisions from feedback
  • April 9, 2018 – Complete revised draft to committee / Revisions from feedback
  • April 18, 2018 – Pre-oral defense
  • May 4, 2018 – Final defense
  • June 2, 2018 – Graduation
  • July 2018 – Final manuscript editing and submission

Support network

Getting through this final phase is huge, it takes a village. Gather your people. I had frank conversations with family and friends as I entered the dissertation phase. I apologized in advance for the radio silence, uninstalled and muted social media, and I prepared all birthday and anniversary cards in advance so Q could drop them in the mail. I basically prepared as if I was going to spend 12 months on the moon.

I knew I would need help with a few key things while in the writing trenches. Namely housekeeping, cooking, and caring for our dog “EvieQ”. This is a time to give yourself some grace. Q took care of the cooking and doggie duties and we hired someone clean the main rooms of the house once a month. My Mom helped me keep the house organized once a month.

I also knew that there would be intense weeks where I was going to be on conference calls with my committee and chair. I sat with my supervisor at work to share what I was doing and used vacation time to request 2 Fridays off work a month so I had more block time to write. Thankfully I had a lot of support from my colleagues and was able to balance working fulltime and finishing. I was fortunate to be able to work in all my doctor’s appointments over lunch breaks so I could maximize blocks of writing time on the weekends.

Making peak hours productive

Know your best time. It is different for everyone. I worked best in the early morning with a cup of coffee. If I had to pick up additional hours, I would sit down after work. Sometimes this felt impossible as I was tired from working all day and I had pregnancy fatigue. But even sitting for 30 minutes and getting something done was better than nothing.

On weekdays I would wake up at 4:30 a.m. and be on the computer before 5 a.m. where I would write until 7 a.m. After working 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. I would arrive home about 5:30 p.m. and be back at the computer from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. I would be in bed between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. and do it all over again. I did this from January to April with a May 4th defense date with a few exceptions where I had evening commitments.

On weekends I would wake up and have breakfast. I would then block time 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and work in approximately 3-hour chunks of time incorporating a break for lunch and an afternoon snack. The longer chunks of time allowed me to get into flow which was difficult to do during the week.

Some weekends I was so mentally exhausted I did not leave the house. Other weekends Q and I would make a point to go out to eat or meet with friends so I could remember that I was a human and do some stress relief. I always reminded myself that this was only temporary to get it done.

I always ended a work session by backing up all my files and writing the next thing(s) to do on a post-it. This helped me pick up where I left off.

Tools & Workspace

Computer setup

You will be spending hours and hours on the computer, get comfortable. I took over our large dining room table that had a window to overlook our backyard. I spread out my articles and books, I did code sorting, and I was able to prop my whiteboards and do brainstorming (more on this below). I spent so much time at the computer I wore away my arm hair where I was resting my forearms on the table. I honestly went full velveteen rabbit by the time I was doing my final edits.

Standing desk/fatigue mat

I liked being able to rotate between standing and sitting. I would do more task-oriented items (labeling figures, sorting references, brainstorming) while standing and my heavy writing while sitting.

  • Executive Office Solutions Portable Adjustable Aluminum Laptop Desk/Stand/Table Vented w/CPU Fans Mouse Pad Side Mount:http://a.co/a5YRlIE
  • AmazonBasics Premium Anti-Fatigue Standing Mat:http://a.co/8eVN3aR

Audio recorder & transcription services

I purchased a great audio recorder with built-in USB to record my interviews for redundancy (I also had a video camera rolling) and I’m glad I had the backup because one of my cameras malfunctioned and stopped recording during my post-interviews! The files were easy to export into my coding software and upload to transcription services.

I also used an app on my phone to record conference calls with my committee members. I found this to be very important so I could concentrate on the call and not worry about taking notes. I highly recommend using a recorder (or app) during feedback calls and pre-orals. I had my pre-orals transcribed and I highlighted every suggested revision. I organized the revisions in a spreadsheet that I was able to prioritize. This is how I was able to track everything I had revised and show my committee how I had incorporated their feedback.

  • Audio app: Smart Recorder (Android)

My transcription recommendations:

  • If you need fast turnaround in 12 hours – https://www.rev.com @ $1/min
  • If you have time and can wait a week – https://scribie.com/ @ $0.60/min+ (they charge more for poor quality recordings and accents but check with you before proceeding to authorize increased charge)

Whiteboards

I purchased two 2x4ft whiteboards to map chapters, create reference lists, play with frameworks, and brainstorm themes. I took photos of each whiteboard before I erased it and uploaded it to my project manager Trello.

  • 24×36 White Melamine Dry Erase Board with Aluminum Frame and Marker Tray:http://a.co/jg75yjG

Software

Endnote citation manager

I used Endnote (https://endnote.com/) as my citation manager. What I liked about it was how it integrated with Microsoft Word. I was able to easily insert references in-text and it automatically generated my reference list. I also found it easy to import articles. Word of warning – your reference list is only as good as the original input so double check the import is complete and accurate to APA requirements.

Atlas.ti coding software

Atlas.ti (https://atlasti.com/) was my qualitative coding software. I uploaded all my audio, video, transcripts, written journals, memos, photographs, and field notes into the system. It is a very robust program and capable of far more than I used it for. There are many YouTube tutorials that I used to learn the software, they link to their channel right from the website. If you use your student ID to make the purchase, it is a very reasonable investment (2-year license for $99 compared to $670 for a regular educational user).

Trello project manager

Trello (https://trello.com) is a free online project management and collaboration tool. You can upload files, photos, and lists. There are plug-ins that sync with other programs. You can also share with others and have collaborators. I shared with my chair who could view my tasks and to-do lists at any time. There is a great phone app that goes along with the desktop version so you can easily pop things into Trello as needed when you are on the go (when all my random brainstorms would happen). I used it to track my committee calls, task lists, weekly goals, milestones, resources, whiteboard photos, old papers and resources, and conferences.

See my sample PhD Dissertation board: https://trello.com/b/nfZdRpXi

Google Drive

Google drive back-ups – After every working session, I saved a copy of my work to google drive. No exceptions! If you use Atlas.ti or other programs like SPSS, export the project and save a copy in google drive too. Since my Atlas.ti project was so huge I did this twice a week instead of daily.

Making Life Simple

Meal box kits

Early on in the program, Q and I strategized how we would manage meals. I do not like to cook and he does so we agreed that if he grocery shopped and cooked, I would clean up. A little over a year into the 3-year program he told me the meal-planning was a struggle so we decided to sign up for meal box delivery. We currently subscribe to Hello Fresh and get 3 meals a week. We select them, they are delivered Monday, Q cooks them through the week, we have leftovers or VERY simple meals on the remaining days of the week. We have very little food waste in our house and do minimal grocery shopping for lunches and snacks. If you want to try, we have many free trial codes – let me know!

Grocery pick-up/delivery

While we did not use this (we shop at Aldi and they only recently added pick-up service) I highly recommend looking into it as a time saver and convenience! I WISH this was available during the program and my dissertation phase. With a new baby, we are going to start using it now!

Personal routine

One practice I started to develop while in the coursework and continued through the dissertation phase was simplifying my personal routines. I wore a “uniform” to work every day so I had to use minimal brain cells to get ready. Since I was also pregnant and changing sizes, I subscribed to clothes rentals (Rent the Runway and then I switched to LeTote) so I did not have to shop for business attire or worry about dry cleaning. I found that when you are seeking to make every minute count, small things add up over time.

Please let me know if you would like to talk more about the IRB process, book recommendations for mixed methodology and grounded theory, or coding… or anything else for that matter!

SQ