Obstacle: The appearance of progress instead of real progress
“…I have often been in the uncomfortable position of having to be SEEN to be making progress when in fact I knew that I hadn’t made REAL progress because I knew that I hadn’t done sufficient groundwork to be sure of my own research.”
cf. “I do a lot of work, but my supervisor never seems to see it.”
Whether the problem is diagnosed by the student or the supervisor, the root is the same: action without outcome. We all spin our wheels sometimes, working away at things that seem ‘do-able’ because we can’t engage with something more important that isn’t.
Tips
1. Work backward from the goal. What does progress look like? How will it be manifest in your work: as data, as a particular finding, as a paper, as a bibliography? Why is that the right outcome – is there an alternative goal that is more achievable? Now, what will you have to do to reach that outcome? What’s in the way?
2. Review the workplan with your supervisor. See if you can make the plan more specific, articulate the goals more concretely, identify more intermediate steps and checkpoints. You want smaller steps, with earlier feedback. A key element here is to get someone else to review your priorities and expectations.
3. When was the last time you did something fun or restful?
Obstacle: Nothing to report
“My data isn’t what I thought it was.”
“Nothing is statistically significant.”
“Science isn’t ‘that’s interesting’, but ‘that’s odd’”. Nils Bohr
If we knew the outcomes before we started, it wouldn’t be research. Some of the biggest breakthroughs in knowledge arise from unexpected results. It is most unlikely that anyone’s research will go precisely as planned – good researchers are able to accommodate the surprises in principled ways. We’re not always looking for answers; sometimes progress arrives as better questions.
Tips
1. Stop looking at what isn’t there, and start examining what is.
2. Learn about concepts such as ‘significant absence’.
3. Learn from ‘failure’: How is your data different from what you expected and what might it signify? What does the absence of effect tell you that you didn’t know before? How might you explain it? What was wrong with the way you asked the question, and how might you improve it?
Obstacle: Discontinuity
“As a part-timer it was a case of ‘pick-it-up’ then ‘put-it-down’, which amounts to mental cruelty.”
“…the loss of thread and connections overnight is high.”
Discontinuity is a problem especially for part-time students, who must balance employment with doctoral study. The overheads of context-switching and of restoring their ‘state of thinking’ after a break can be high and demoralising. Discontinuity can also be a problem for students working within a project.
Tips
1. Reserve regular research days “where you can wake up thinking PhD and stay with it ‘til bedtime”
2. Reserve regular research times each day, for example two hours before breakfast, or three hours after the children go to bed.
3. Write down and post a timetable. Keep visual reminders around that you have research pending.
4. Keep a good research journal to help you recover your thinking.
5. Use ‘slack times’ (driving, washing dishes) to think. Some students keep a small tape recorder at hand for such times, so that they can speak notes. Others make notes when the task is completed, before they start the next one.
Obstacle: Isolation, solitude
Isolation plagues many students, some because they are part-time students working remotely, some because they find it difficult to achieve that elusive ‘work-life balance’. Isolation can be problematic on many levels: students may be isolated from reassurance, from feedback, from reality checks, from scrutiny, from communication, from intellectual challenge, and so on. Research is a discourse. Students must develop their communication skills – both written and oral – as part of their doctoral programme. For that, they need practice and interaction.
Part-time students are welcomed into the community of students. Many academics welcome contact from students, especially interesting ones, and will give them time and advice. But students must take responsibility to reach out, and supervisors must remind students about opportunities.
Tips
1. Use available resources: A fair amount of opportunity for engagement in the student community is offered to students in the form of seminars, induction, one-day conferences and workshops, reading and discussion groups, OUSA, web resources, and so on. Ask your supervisor to introduce you to other researchers, including other students.
2. Piggyback meetings: Part-time students can maximise their contact by arranging supervision meetings to coincide with seminars, student conferences, meetings with other researchers, and so on.
3. Use technology: Seminars and conferences are increasingly available as webcasts and recordings. Videoconferencing and conference phones enable ‘remote presence’ without travel. Wikis, blogs, mailing lists, and similar devices afford rich electronic communication.
4. Introduce yourself. Draft a brief, informative introduction to your research to include in emails and other contacts. Prepare a one-line introduction for chance meetings in elevators at conferences and so on. Keep your introductions short, pithy, and interesting.
Obstacle: Finishing in 3 years
“I’m never going to end on time. How bad is that?”
The 3-year Ph.D. is a modern invention forced on us by funding restrictions. It is problematic and artificial, but it is currently also a ‘fact of life’. The good news is that expectations about doctoral research have adjusted accordingly: the modern Ph.D. is seen as a research education and qualification, rather than the culmination of a life’s work (there are other degrees, such as the D.Sc. that recognise accomplishments over time). The most constructive way to view the time restriction is as a focussing device: a key skill in research (indeed in life) is selection and prioritisation, and time forces us to develop that skill.
The key interval is the time between commencing study and submission: the goal is for all full-time students to submit their dissertations for examination within 4 years of admission.
i) implications for the department and institution:
If students don’t submit within 4 years, the department and institution may be denied future funding.
ii) short-term implications for the individual:
- maintaining energy
- maintaining continuity and context
- maintaining priorities in the face of competing demands (such as finding continuing funding)
- maintaining practical support after 4 years – things like travel funding, office space, and computing support may become issues
iii) long-term implications for the individual:
As long as the degree is earned in the end, the details of its acquisition fade with time.
iv) money:
There isn’t likely to be any more.
Tips
1. Keep an eye on the indicators for timely completion:
- meeting the milestones
- regular writing (something for each meeting)
- putting writing into the form of dissertation chapters early
- maintenance of a good bibliography (preferably annotated)
- regular supervision
- constructive response to criticism
- external exposure
- keeping work going through interventions of real life
2. Take what other students say about their progress with ‘a pinch of salt’. Students routinely exaggerate their status, either bragging about great strides or dismissing all progress. Their claims tend to say more about their state of mind than the state of their research.
3. If you do think you’re likely to over-run, or if there is a life event (e.g., illness, pregnancy, death in the family) that interrupts your work, then do discuss it with your supervisor and the Research School – the sooner you address interruptions, the better.
Obstacle: Life intervenes
“…it’s a war of attrition: don’t ever give in.”
As the saying goes: ‘Shit happens’. A PhD takes a long time, and so it is inevitable that something bad or challenging will happen to every PhD student during the course of study: death, birth, illness, love, life change, family crisis, etc.. What makes the difference is whether the student sees it as an excuse, or just another event to navigate. Some students use their research as an ‘anchor’, a thread of consistent endeavour that helps them through the hard times. A balance must be struck between sympathy and accommodation, and keeping an eye on the big goal.
Tips
1. Keep the goal in mind. Remind yourself why you want to finish this PhD.
2. Revisit your workplan. Remember that contingency time you built into it? Discuss it with your supervisor, and make sure that you’re using your available effort on high-priority tasks.
3. Commiserate. Other people have lives too, and other students have gone through all sorts of trouble – and survived.