It’s About Time

I’ve reached another milestone in the marathon journey toward a completed and defended PhD. As I stop and reflect, I know it’s about time. I look back over the previous years and realize how much I have accomplished over that time. I realize how much time I have yet to dedicate to getting this PhD finished. Now that I have concluded the research phase, I can focus on the analysis of the interview data and reflect on the artifacts collected as part of the dissertation. I have been coding interview data while conducting interviews but now need to take time to finish coding all the interviews. Some of the artifacts have already been coded, but now I will plan out a schedule for completing the analysis of all the materials and digital objects collected and curated for each of the fourteen research participants. Now, it’s about time.

It’s also about making critical decisions about how much time to take for this portion of the research work since it can and may take more time than I anticipate. I need to continue to reflect on my process as well as the products of the work.

I am a list maker, so I’ve started with a list of tasks to complete in the immediate time, the coming days, weeks, and months. I’ve created a list of items to work toward, ones I know I will need to complete in the coming months. I’ve included some tasks that will need to be kept on the horizon, in the far future of this PhD dissertation work, since these tasks need to be kept in mind as I progress toward the culmination of the PhD program and the completed dissertation. I create these tasks with enough detail to ensure accuracy in getting them done. Now it’s about timing the time on a calendar and scheduling them into the days, weeks, and months to come so I can track my progress. This is similar to project management techniques and time management strategies I’ve used before. This schedule will become a road map toward the end of my marathon journey.

Part of the time consideration is the time it takes to get things organized and keeping things organized. Doing frequent check-ins with myself as part of the process is important so I’ll keep myself accountable to these final steps of the PhD. While many who have completed a PhD before me may suggest a daily writing time, this may not fit into my own schedule and plan for writing, reading, reflection, and creation. There may be times ahead where I “hit the wall” as marathoners tend to do, usually when approaching the three-quarter mark in the marathon. I need to heed that unavoidable barrier and set up a plan to manage the emotions and challenges of these inevitable moments. It’s about taking the time to step back once in a while and do something different. It’s about taking the time, without losing the momentum and pace I’ve established to take me step by step toward the end.

As a result of this reflection and my earlier efforts to create GANTT charts for the research proposal I have opted to explore using a project management app. I’ve used calendars and to-do lists in calendars with limited success. I’ll take the time to work on managing my time using Zoho7 project management software. I’ve looked at options for other project management tools but limited my selection to ones that offer a free option and included a GANTT version of the tasks to be completed. While I am not working with a team to get this project done, I may want to invite the committee or my supervisor to follow my project progress. It’s about time.

Here’s my first version. With the free version I am given two project spaces. I’ve named these PhD and NOT PhD so I can separate and still track other projects that involve research, reading, and writing for scholarly purposes, since I have several projects on the go and coming due in the coming months. Putting these ‘NOT PhD’ tasks on the calendar will allow me to keep a focus on these so they aren’t forgotten, but also ensure I’m carving time out of the day to work away at these other projects while maintaining my primary focus on the PhD work.

I’ll continue to work on this schedule and plan in the coming week since I know this preliminary work will help me succeed in getting to the end of this PhD marathon without many missed steps.

If you have any feedback or suggestions for this schedule and plan, please drop a comment below.

Image attribution Photo by Gaining Visuals on Unsplash