Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Fighting Procrastination for a Productive Summer

As it turns out, having deadlines is a good thing, for me at least. Because a deadline pushes me to get-it-done, whatever 'it' is. In this case, getting writing done. Am now in that unenviable position of being on summer break, having a bunch of writing projects, but finding myself procrastinating because most have no deadlines.

You see, last week I had a deadline. I worked day and night, and met that deadline...granted, that was after asking for more time :-). Once I met that deadline on Friday, I haven't been able to get back to writing since, until today that is, when I grudgingly opened up my Google docs to start looking at my writing projects.

A few weeks ago, I was all Gung Ho about the summer, and how productive I was going to be. Now, am realizing that if I don't get my act together, it's going to be a disappointing summer. I cannot travel far, so I might as well do something, be productive.

So here is my plan.

First of all, I am revising my summer writing goals. OK, so its not too bad. I have accomplished one goal - a book chapter for the handbook of autoethnography co-authored with one of my colleagues. A second goal is in process - copy editing the book Collaborative Autoethnography  which I co-authored with two of my colleagues, forthcoming from Left Coast Press.

Secondly,  what I need to do is look at 3 other goals and projectize them. By projectizing (yes, I know thats a made up word), I mean to break down each goal into its constituent parts. For example, I presented a paper at the Eastern Communication Association meeting in Boston last month, it was a very rough draft. Now I need to start reconstructing it, and discussing with my co-authors the details of how we will work on the paper, including potential journal to send it to once completed. I need to do that with each goal - craft a project out of it.

Thirdly, I then need to introduce each project to my summer calender.  That means, for example, deciding which project to work on each week, how many hours to spend on research, reading, drafting, revising, until each project is mapped out towards completion. For example, this week here is what I plan to accomplish:

-->
Date
Goals and activity
Personal goals
June 19-23
Teaching:
·      Check discussions
·      Dissertation reviews
Writing: Collaborative Autoethnography
·      Meet with HC and KAH (Wed) discuss copy editing; discuss CAE methods article; discuss AERA proposal
·      Read through CAE manuscript, check headings. Craft response to copy editor. Email by Wed night.
·      CAE Methods Paper – Outline
Writing: CAE Advisor/GA Relationship
·      Collect AE data from MM
·      Craft outline of paper
·      Determine other AE data needed
·      Write proposal for JRP special issue paper
Replace dead roses
Pilates
Yoga 
Date night 

I will do the same type of scheduling for the rest of the summer, where I introduce my writing goals and projects into the entire summer schedule. Each time I accomplish a part of the process, I strike it out. I find deep satisfaction in having a week where most items have those strike out lines because it means I was able to accomplish my writing goals for that week. And that is a tremendous aid to fighting procrastination. The more I accomplish, the more motivated I am to do more. If I do not create this kind of schedule, I find that I procrastinate, and worse still, whatever does not get scheduled does not get done.

How do you keep your writing mojo over the summer months?

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Professors Behaving Badly

This post has been simmering on my mind for quite a while. Based on many stories that I have heard, and experiences of some people close to me, I have come to the uncomfortable conclusion that there are indeed, thesis and dissertation advisors who ought not be advisors, leave alone professors. While I am grateful that my personal experience was positive and life affirming, I have observed other students bad experiences as to be prompted to write this post.

Take the example of Johari Simiti (all names changed, some might be composite characters, in order to protect the innocent). JS is a grad student at a state university. While he doesn't always meet his deadlines, he does a decent job of being close to the deadlines. Now, take the case of Jaribu Tafadhali, JS's primary adviser. When he initially looked around at graduate programs, he had a talk with her and was excited to enroll because she appeared to be pretty close to ideal - someone whose research interests coincided with his own. However, when it got done to the thesis advising stage, things didn't quite turn out as JS had expected. First, she left for an entire semester to work abroad, in which time she failed to communicate or read his proposal until after her return - even after promising to do so. So he was delayed by more than 4 months. The next semester, things went from bad to worse. She could not seem to find time in her schedule for her thesis advising work. JS eventually completed his thesis first draft, after being told what due dates he needed to meet in order to defend and graduate at the end of the summer (one semester later than he should have). However, the feedback he got was "this is not ready for defense, and I dont have the time to read and review it, so you should plan to graduate in December".  No actual feedback, no details about what is not ready, therefore the student cannot do anything with it until someone tells him exactly what is not ready/needs to be revised.


Or the case of Dada Mwema, whose advisor would take 3+ months to give feedback on drafts, left on sabbatical so she did not hear from him for a whole year, and came back to continue with the same slow pace of feedback. She eventually completed her PhD, 10 years after she started it.

Or Dada Mwepesi, whose two advisors could not see eye to eye, and every meeting, every feedback session turned into a fight between the two. Worse still, since both advisors were also administrators, there was nowhere else for Dada Mwepesi to turn to for help. She did eventually complete her PhD, but not without much angst and unnecessary drama.

I still remember a case of a grad student at an Ivy League institution, who was having such a hard time trying to complete her doctoral dissertation because of a lazy and mean-spirited advisor, that professors from other institutions had to intercede on her behalf.

One more story; a group of students completed their coursework (in the same program/institution), but they all dropped out after successfully passing their comprehensives because they could not get any support on the dissertation phase.  That points to a huge systemic problem right there when you have a 0% graduation rate for an entire cohort!

I could give even more stories about advisors from hell and the poor students who have had to endure these professors antics. In most cases, such professors work well with their graduate research assistants, as far as giving them work to do in order to propel the professors research agenda. But when it comes to being advisors, they seem to be ill-equipped, or maybe they are just not as interested unless the students work will help them advance their own research agenda.

I do remember being in a doctoral consortium in one of the professional associations that I belong to, where they were advising doctoral students that when they became junior professors, they should never forget that their first priority is to do research and get published. Teaching is something you do because you have to...therefore do the bare minimum to get by/have decent evaluations. My colleague and I actually dared to ask the question, why on earth would you give that kind of advise to grad students? Didn't they realize they had just given us an explanation as to why some grad students had such a heard time getting through/meeting their advisers/getting feedback? Thankfully, its a small minority of professors behaving badly who seem to believe that they should prioritize their research above all else - including their teaching, advising and service obligations. Maybe such professors ought to go work with lab rats and leave the teaching profession to those who love to teach/advise/work with students. 

So, if you find yourself under the tyranny of a professor-behaving-badly, what options do you have? 

I must confess, I do not have all the answers and welcome feedback from those of you who have survived such, and those who have good ideas on successful strategies for navigating the minefield.

Since prevention is better than cure, I would first recommend that, before you choose someone as a thesis or dissertation advisor, you find out from previous students what it was like working with him/her. This 4-1-1 could save you tears, frustration and delayed completion.

If you are already in the situation, I'd think the first line of defense is to talk to other committee members or department chair to find out departmental protocols - such as, what is the expected turnaround time for drafts? Are there systems in place for conflict resolution? Are there systems in place for replacing advisers who are unable to meet their obligations?

Finally, do not go through the experience alone. Call in your social support network because it is times like these that you need their emotional support, prayers and comfort. Talk to other students to find out if others are having similar experiences, because if they are, it is easier to then take action by approaching the administration as a group.

I welcome feedback, comments, stories, and even resources that those students who might be going through this kind of experience can know that there is hope. And I hope and pray that if any of my readers are in this situation, they will find hope and help to make it to the end.

Always, Dr Faith