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How to survive your thesis  

Man standing on a top of a mountain at sunset

Every chair is taken and the leaders of the workshop have had to turn participants away. Among doctoral students, there is clearly great interest in the topic – to finish your thesis on time and feel good along the way. 

 “I think the workshop is great, it opens your mind and the techniques seem realistic to use in your work”, says Kristin Osk Ingvarsdottir who this spring will commence the final stages of her PhD in cognition science and finish writing her thesis.

The new workshop is the first activity in a University-wide focus on academic career support (see related article). However, it is not the first time for the leaders of the doctoral student workshop.
Developed techniques to help doctoral students

“We have been around to most of the universities in Sweden”, says Åsa Burman who has a PhD in Philosophy at Lund University but is now employed at Stockholm University. Together with the psychologist Johanna Clausen Ekefärd, she has developed techniques and approaches specifically to help doctoral students with the writing process and the stress it can cause. This has culminated in the book “Finish on time – the doctoral student handbook” and a series of different workshops.

It all started when Åsa Burman was a doctoral student and had the opportunity to travel to Berkeley on a Fulbright scholarship. There they supported doctoral students in different ways to help them finish their theses on time. For Åsa Burman, a seminar marked the start of new thoughts on prioritisations and work methods.  She then shared these work methods with doctoral students at Lund University. One of the doctoral students who has used the techniques explains:

“For me it had an incredible impact on my day-to-day work. I achieved more in my working hours and no longer needed to work at night or on weekends.”

The 80/20 rule says twenty percent of your of your efforts lead to 80 per cent of your results

An important starting point is the 80/20 rule that says twenty per cent of your efforts lead to 80 per cent of your results.

“The 80/20 rule is both an approach and a specific technique; it is about getting a picture of what is important and then planning to dedicate your time to that.”

For example, when Åsa Burman was working on collecting data for her thesis, she turned to some of the world-leading researchers in the subject and asked them to suggest three works they thought were the most important.

“They were keen to send me long bibliographies but I wanted to know which three works they thought were the most important so I could dedicate time and energy to those and then be able to discard others”, says Åsa Burman.

The 80/20 rule is also applicable to feedback on the text itself, for example, to sift through the comments from the research seminar and make the most important changes to a text. One doctoral student who Åsa Burman has worked with explains she often fell into the habit of making many small, linguistic and other changes in a chapter at a relatively early stage of the writing:

“Instead, I tried not to make changes that possibly only I would notice and that were not that important and tried letting go of that particular passage to go on with what I thought was more important”, she said.

Work in undisturbed units with the most important tasks

After the seminar in Berkeley, Åsa started planning her days according to a specific recommended method. It involves working in undisturbed sessions (‘units’) on the most important and difficult tasks, the A-tasks, without answering emails, googling information, administrative tasks or small talking with colleagues.

“Your best hours of the day should go to A-tasks, for me these were in the morning and late morning.  The recommendations I followed were to work without a break in four 45-minute sessions. Real pauses between your units are also important”, says Åsa Burman who says a significant pause is one that leads to recovery, for example, a walk.

Four 45-minute sessions per day might not sound like a lot but it leads to a lot of quality time on the thesis compared to how most students work today. There are studies that show we spend as much as 28 percent of our working hours on interruptions that cause a significant loss of concentration. And the faster, easier B-tasks often bring about more direct feedback and therefore put the A-tasks at risk of being pushed aside.

“The good news is that it is easy to do something about it – turn off the automatic email update, put your mobile in flight mode and choose an interruption-free workplace.”

Handling stress knowing that control, support and demands interact

However, the workshop is not only about academic productivity, it is also about stress. Levels of sick leave taken by doctoral students are high and many doctoral students feel alone with their stress.

“The handbook is ideal to read together with other doctoral students, for example in a book club, to break the isolation”, says Åsa Burman.

The psychologist Henrik Levinsson goes through how demands, control and support interact with each other when it comes to stress. If demands increase, for example, in the final stages, the control also needs to increase, or the support. A doctoral student taking part in the workshop tells us she has stopped cooking, meeting friends and exercising and that she is now trying to return to her routines.

“The time as a doctoral student is long and recovery is necessary to manage the stress. Giving yourself a finishing time for work and stopping at that time of day is important.”

cover photo

About LUM

The first edition of Lund University Magazine – LUM – was published 1968. Today, the magazine reaches all employees and also people outside the university. The magazine is published six times per year. Editor Jan Olsson.

LUM website in Swedish

Editorial staff

Jan Olsson


046-222 94 79

jan [dot] olsson [at] kommunikation [dot] lu [dot] se

 

Minna Wallén-Widung

046-222 82 01


minna [dot] wallen-widung [at] kommunikation [dot] lu [dot] se