How do I set up a schedule for myself?

Dear Dissertation Coach,

How do I set up a schedule for myself such that I know I will for sure to hit all the right defense and graduation deadlines?

Thanks,
Curious dissertation writer

 

Dear Curious Dissertation Writer,

In a previous post, I wrote about how you have to finish your dissertation by the beginning of April to graduate in May. The above question is also a very good one, if you want to plot a time line backwards from the beginning of April to September. 

Dissertations from different fields are going to have different components. What I’ve worked with were social science types of dissertations, so this is what I’m going to describe. Hopefully, if your dissertation is different you can extrapolate from my description here. The question though was how do I schedule myself so I hit the right defense and graduation deadlines. First, find out what they are! From the source! Put that on your calendar. Then work backward from the beginning of April. 

Start thinking of this in the summer. It is better to give yourself a year to write your dissertation than 9 months. Two scenarios come to mind. The first is that you have not had a proposal defense yet. The second is that you’ve already defended your proposal. I’ll describe the first one here and the second in a subsequent post. 

Try to defend your proposal before Thanksgiving. Nothing gets done during the holidays. Here’s the schedule: 

1. Literature review done by the end of September
2. Methods done by the end of October
3. Proposal finished and defended by mid-November

Plan to start collecting data in January. If you’ve thought through your methods, you know how quickly you can do that. If you had a proposal, you will need to dismantle that document to use as a framework for the dissertation. In the introduction of the proposal, you said what you planned to do in your proposed research. In the dissertation you will write what you actually did. I am however, going to suggest that you not start with the introduction. The introduction is to tell your readers what you are going to tell them. You don’t always know that until you write the internal parts of the dissertation. Start with a chapter that excites you. Write that. Then move on to the next internal chapter. Write that. 

1. January: Collect and analyze data, 
2. February: Write data chapter 1, be rewriting introduction as well
3. March: Write data chapter 2 rewrite conclusion also
4. April: Write data chapter 3

Notice I’ve suggested that you be writing both data chapters and introduction and conclusion at the same time. This has the advantage that when your faculty advisor is reading something that you wrote, you will have something to continue to work on. 

Good luck with the dissertation writing.

Warmly,
Your Dissertation Coach