So we went to church together and then went out to lunch at a beachside restaurant in St. Petersburg. It was wonderful! But all I could think of was that I needed to get home so I could get some work done on the overview paper I'm desperately trying to complete.
I didn't want a heartfelt card or flowers or a new vaccuum (God forbid!). I just wanted to have a day of uninterrupted time to work on my doctoral coursework.
And I got it.
What we all need during this pursuit of a doctoral degree is more time! Some people take more time than prescribed, and others are somehow able to stick within a strict 3 year deadline. The thing is for me is that I got my first master's degree while I was teaching full time. I got my second master's when I had two children under the age of 5 at home. Now I work from home, my children are teenagers, and yet, I feel like I have less time than ever.
So I probably shouldn't be writing a blog now, should I?
When we were all at OPS we were asked how long we anticipated it would take us to finish this degree. The recommended time frame is 2 years of coursework and 1 year to write your dissertation. Sounded reasonable to me at the time. A few colleagues were determined to finish it even sooner, and to be honest, I thought they were crazy or obviously had a family (or didn't have a family) willing to let them stay locked in their home office day in and day out. My life doesn't look like that.
Yes, it's a matter of being more organized. Yes, it's a matter of setting priorities
and sticking to them. Yes, it's a matter of having a dedicated time and place to work on this degree. But it may look different for different people.
What does it look like for you? How do you structure your time to reach your goal? And what was your goal to begin with? Was it realistic? Have you altered your deadline? Let us know.
Read the next step on this journey.
If you want to read about this journey from the beginning, click here.
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