finish my dissertation

So worth it! Painful at the time, but once it was done and bound and submitted, such a great sense of achievement :D

Hope it doesn’t get kicked back!

I write part of it every day, and I’m almost ready to defend Ch 1-3. Man, I want this to be over.

I wrote for a little over an hour yesterday. I wrote for longer than that today. I emailed a key person in my department letting him know that I’m making progress. I’m inching along. It might be a snail’s pace, but it’s progress.
I used to live in a ground floor apt with a pocket handkerchief-sized front lawn that I gardened in. I remember finding snails on the sidewalk, approaching my lettuce. I would pick them up and toss them across the street, figuring they’d never make it back. Dang if one day I didn’t walk outside a while later and find that one of them had made his way back and was three feet from the lettuce! That taught me to respect the snail’s pace. So I’m trudging. At least I don’t leave a slimy trail. Yuck.

I wrote for a little over an hour. Then I took my courage in hand and emailed my chair and offered to send him my 100+ pages plus outline so he can see that I’m making progress. The thing is patchy, but I want him to see that I’m actually working and not just procrastinating.
I know him: he’s likely to respond with criticism which repeats exactly what I’ll tell him when I send it—that it’s patchy, incomplete, and that he can’t really tell what I’m doing or how this relates to folklore.
Guess what? I don’t care. Yay, me!

So my goal is to spend another 30 – 45 minutes before bed. I want to work my way up to four sessions per day: 30-45 min upon awakening. First 1.5-2 hours later. Second 1.5-2 hours still later. 30-45 min before bed.

If I do my 30 min tonight before bed, I can count this as a half-day on my schedule!

Onward and upward.

I want to finish my MBA dissertation by September 1st week. Am already into the 5th week and I need some motivation to keep going.

I’ve got about an hour and a half before I have to get ready for a lunch appointment. After that I have about an hour before I have to go to another appointment. I’m going to write for at least 45 minutes before I leave. I’m going to take my computer with me and stop at a nearby CBTL (did you know they have great wireless access?) and write some more during that time.
I’ll check back to confirm.

I’ve been distracted by mundane things, such as paying bills and organizing and spending time doing the work that pays my bills. Still haven’t begun writing.
I’m learning to ask for help. My friend is coming over later and I’m going to ask for help on a few errands. I injured my foot and people offer to do things for me. I’m going to take them up on it! I’ve got a couple of bills that need to be mailed. I’ll ask the kids downstairs, since the mailbox is only a block away.
Asking for help. I’m going to get better at it.
Now I have another 30 to 40 minutes of organizing before I can tackle my writing. I’ll check in again when it’s time to write because that will help me write.
More later!

Today I would like to write for longer than an hour. In fact, I want to write for two hours minimum. If I make it to three, I think I deserve a reward. Let’s see…I think my reward will be to spend an hour programming my new iPod dock/radio system and updating music on both my cell phone and iPod.
Better get to it!