TADA! Do it Now: Join Us in the 'On-line Dissertation House'

It's That Time Again to Join the TA-DA! Summer Break Challenge (July 6-27, 2008)

Mark Victor Hansen, Ph.D. co-author to the Chicken Soup Series writes "It's not the size of the step that gets you there. It's the fact that you're taking the step."

What is it you want to cross off your to-do list this summer instead of rolling over to next summer's list? Perhaps you are looking forward to making significant progress on your thesis or dissertation before the end of the year. Be specific. How many pages/chapters would you have to finish for you to feel like you have made significant progress? At TADA! Thesis and Dissertation Accomplished™ we believe that a good thesis or dissertation is a DONE thesis or dissertation. TA-DA!™ provides you with the tools to make that happen.

A group of students in the University of Maryland System (UMBC, UMCP, UMB) will be participating in "Dissertation House on Campus" for three weeks. Some will be participating on-line and others will meet daily from 9:00am-5:00 pm. Join us, as we work on our proposals, theses, or dissertations.

Many people use the TA-DA! Summer Break Challenge to take a step on getting one thing accomplished and setting a schedule to get that one thing done. They get that one thing done and then are able to enjoy their break without the sense of guilt looming in the background. Other people set out to see how much they can accomplish in 21 days.

Many of you already work with deadlines. If you're joining this challenge, your deadline is July 27, 2008. Let's see how much can you get done in 3 weeks! Are you ready?

On July 6, 2008, Join us On-Line by:

1. Setting up your FREE Google account at www.gmail.com
2. Logging in to the blog
   
3. Posting the answers to these questions

• What will you work on?
• How much time will you spend daily working on it?
• Tell us how much progress you are making, or problems you are having.
• At the end of everyday plan what you want to accomplish the following day

Here are some helpful tips:

• Take the first step. Make a commitment to yourself using our TADA!™ Certificate online. Print it out and use it as a daily reminder of your commitment to yourself.
  
• Breakdown your tasks into bite-size manageable chunks and make a list and post that list in a public space.
• Make a daily commitment to work on your thesis or dissertation. Set aside a reasonable amount of time each day to work on your thesis or dissertation. You can get a lot done in 15 minutes a day.
• Work within your limitations . . . if you are a morning person by all means make yourself some coffee and spend 15 minutes with your dissertation before everyone else rises . . . if you are a night owl . . . turn the TV off 15 minutes earlier and write for 15 minutes.
• Celebrate small victories when you accomplish your tasks for the day. Spend the rest of the day guilt-free enjoying your Summer Break knowing that you have done something (no matter how small) on your dissertation.
• Whatever you do, don't spend the week constantly worrying and saying to yourself 'I really should be working'. Above all, enjoy your Summer Break

Do It Now: Conquering Procrastination

The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.
— Mary Heaton Vorse

How long have you been putting off writing your thesis or dissertation? A day? Two days? Two weeks? Two months? Many students suffer from procrastination because they hate writing ... or hate the fact that they're not good writers. Subsequently, they wait around hoping that divine inspiration will strike them and instill a newfound sense of eloquence and expression.

Stop waiting. So what if your writing skills aren't top notch? The TA-DA system works because it focuses on using the talents and resources you already have . . . not the ones you would like to have. It doesn't matter that you're not the best writer in the world. What matters is just that you write.

So how do you get started? The following tips should help . . . Read the entire article, Do It Now: Conquering Procrastination

10 Tips Help You Overcome Writer's Block

You've got your workspace set up and your 12 minutes (or longer!) scheduled to work on your thesis, and you’re FINALLY feeling motivated to write. But when you actually sit down and stretch your hands to the keyboard … nothing. Not a word is coming to you; your mind is as blank as the screen in front of you. . . Read the Entire Article - Writer's Block and Your Dissertation or Thesis

Reading the Subtle Signs: Are You Being Encouraged to Throw in the Towel?

One of my graduate students came to me the other day seeking advice. Her advisor had written a seminal piece of work about how to be a good advisor, yet her protegee was still seeking my help. I found this ironic in a strange kind of way. Graduate Students - Read the entire article.

TA-DA! Online Launched to Help Grad Students Write Their Thesis or Dissertation as Quickly and Easily as Possible

Attention Anyone with a Thesis or Dissertation to Write:

I am excited to announce the launch of a new version of TA-DA! Thesis and Dissertation Accomplished™ today. What's new? Now graduate students can access TA-DA!™ from any web-enabled PC — without a cd, 24/7.

Introducing TA-DA! Online, providing the same great guidance, information, tactics, and tools that have helped hundreds of graduate students successfully finish their thesis or dissertation.

Be sure to go to www.tadafinallyfinished.com to learn more about this innovative thesis and dissertation completion system. And tell your friends about TA-DA!

Dr. Wendy Carter

Finish Your Thesis or Dissertation by Working Your Way Backwards

To accomplish any long-term goal, you must have desire and faith in the process and you must be able to visualize yourself accomplishing the goal. In other words, you must believe it, affirm it, and visualize it before you can actually achieve it.

The TA-DA! CD resource tools help you do exactly that. This incredible toolkit leads you step-by-step through the process of writing your thesis and dissertation, providing direction and strategies every step of the way. As a result, you can clearly visualize exactly what needs to happen, how you can accomplish it, and by when. Now that’s a process you can believe in!

To tackle a big writing project, the TA-DA! method uses a strategy of clearly defining the goal and then working your way backward, step by step, until you arrive at a step (or several!) that you can complete right now. For example, if your goal is to submit an article to an academic journal for publication, your “backwards” journey might break down like this:

Clearly Defined Goal:

• Submit my article to an academic journal
• Before that:Complete final edits
• Before that: Format the article according to the journal’s requirements
• Before that: Decide which journal would be appropriate for my article, and find out their average turnaround time from submission to publication
• Before that: Write the paper
• Before that: Write the introduction, literature review, methods, results/discussion and conclusion
• Before that: Conduct research
• Before that: Determine what I need to know and what I am going to write about

In reality, your “backward” list would have many more details, as every one of these steps would have to be further broken down into several small, easily manageable tasks. Don’t be fooled into thinking that easy tasks don’t need to be included on your list! Everything should be taken into account and mapped out, including something as simple as creating a title for the article.

Regardless of whether you’re looking at a process backwards or forward, you don’t have to complete the tasks in order. In fact, if you’re in a bit of a slump and the next “to do” item on your list is one you just don’t feel up to accomplishing today, simply choose one of the other tasks on your list.

The most important thing is to JUST DO SOMETHING!

The single most important TA-DA strategy is to make a commitment to work on your project every single day. And the minimum amount you should dedicate each day is 12 -15 minutes. That’s where your detailed task list will come in handy. Many of these items are what we call “12-minute tasks,” such as creating the cover page, dedication, acknowledgement pages or table of contents, or sequencing figure numbers, table and appendices, formatting your document, or checking your bibliography against the citations in your document.

On those days when you’re feeling a little less ambitious, work down your list until you reach one (or more!) of your tasks that can be completed in 12 minutes or less. No task is too small, and no item is too insignificant. Every action you take will move you closer to getting accomplishing your goal. What can you cross of your list today?

Following is a good example of a series of questions you might ask yourself to start creating a list of “to-do” tasks:

Q: What needs to happen before I can finish my thesis/dissertation?
A: I need to write chapters X, Y and Z.

Q: Can I get those chapters finished by tomorrow?
A: No. First I have to clearly define what information and conclusions will be included in those chapters.

Q: Can I come up with a clearly defined list of what will be included in those chapters by tomorrow?
A: Of course. I already wrote and defended a proposal, so the information is right under my nose!

Q: Can I finish writing all of the chapters tomorrow?
A: No, but I can get a good start on the chapter I know the most about, and most certainly finish a section within that chapter that contains the information with which I am most familiar.
Q: Do I really think I can finish a section by tomorrow?

A: Yes, because I can write based on the outline I already created a few days ago.
Q: Can I finish the chapter outline by tomorrow?
A: Yes, because I have already created the Table of Contents.

Q: Do I have an outline for my thesis/dissertation?
A: Yes, because I completed that step when I was preparing my proposal … and now it can serve as my first step towards completing my thesis/dissertation! So my real first step is finding my proposal and starting with that.

Continue “working backward” in this manner until you have a long list of “first steps” you can take … so many that you won’t possibly be able to complete them all in one day. Then schedule all of those steps in your TA-DA! calendar. You will find it truly inspirational and invigorating to see your dream broken down into easily accomplishable tasks and written down in black and white. This process will help you to clearly visualize achieving your dream and, even more importantly, to actually begin tackling the tasks necessary to doing so.

So what are you waiting for? Start “working your way backward” today … and you’ll soon find yourself back at the Finish Line!!!

Tick Tock, Tick Tock: Keeping Up With Your Cohort

The pressures of graduate school vary greatly from those of undergraduate school. Your time is more valuable, even if you’re not paying for graduate school yourself; there are tough decisions to be made about not only how you would like to spend your time, but also how much time you have to give for each activity. You are older, wiser, more mature. . . Read the entire article

No More Excuses: Resources to Help You Reach Your Goal

If you’re like most people, you’ve already made several New Year’s resolutions. We at TA-DA! (Thesis and Dissertation Accomplished) hope that one of them is to finish your thesis or dissertation by the end of 2008!

Of course, to make sure that resolution comes to fruition, it must be supported by an action plan and deadline. Otherwise, it’s too easy to slack off and slide back into old habits once the shine of the new year begins to fade, winter break ends, and you fall back into the same old routine. Read the entire Article.