A Shortcut to Graduation
Do you know what it takes to write a graduate level thesis?
I started out graduate school with a lot of enthusiasm, but like many other students I didn’t know what to expect, or what it took to write a graduate-level thesis. I assumed that if I completed all my course work and I did everything that my supervisor told me to do, there would a clear path towards my PhD
However, I had a very challenging thesis topic, and my committee members had disagreements regarding the direction of my research, which made it very difficult for me to make progress. I soon realized that there was no well-defined path to graduation. I felt very alone and very frustrated during this period, and I didn’t see a way out of the black tunnel I was in.
In my fifth year I went to a thesis defense, which I thought was the best that I had ever heard. The students was eloquent as she described a very meticulously planned series of experiments which generated strong and reproducible data.
After her defense I congratulated her, and asked for her “secret recipe” for such an awesome thesis. Her answer surprised me. She said: “Dora, my thesis came together when I realized that my committee would not hold my hand during this process. I really had to fight to get my thesis approved. You can’t let them put you down – you need to keep standing up for yourself and negotiate your graduation requirements and eventually they will give you the green light.”
This was a real eye-opener for me, because I realized that I had to take a very proactive approach and become my own project manager in order to complete my thesis. Showing up at work and generating lots of data would not guarantee me an approved thesis.
The reason that some students take so long to graduate is that they go with the flow, follow their supervisor’s advice blindly, and just keep generating data, without having clearly defined their thesis question or hypothesis.
Don’t leave your thesis up to chance
After this conversation, I became laser-focused. I had a series of conversations with my supervisor, until we had a crystal clear set of requirements for my graduation. I then planned a realistic timeline with milestones and scheduled a my next committee meeting.
Just like before, my committee members disagreed on my graduation requirements, but this time I took a firm stance. I remembered my friend’s advice and I prepared well for this meeting by having answers written down for their usual objections. By the end of the meeting I had negotiated my graduation requirements, which consisted of a series of experiments that could be realistically completed within the following year.
My committee members tried to push me as hard as they could, and they all had different opinions on which direction would be most relevant for our field of research. Thanks to my friend’s advice, I was able to express my ideas assertively and get my committee members on the same page so I could graduate on time. If I had not taken a firm stance, perhaps my thesis would have taken an extra 3 years, or maybe I would have dropped out altogether.
Do not go with the flow. Take charge of your thesis – it is your project and education. Professors will actually have more respect for you if you have the confidence to assertively voice your opinions, even if you disagree with them.
If you want a shortcut to your graduation, take a firm stance on defining your thesis question and graduation requirements clearly with your supervisor and thesis committee.
It might take several meetings to come to an agreement, but remember you can only move forward if you have a well-defined thesis question.
Once you have your project defined, how do you make sure that you follow through and stay on track with your milestones?
The number skill that graduate students want to learn is productivity. The are tons of productivity tools out there, but many times just a simple shift in your mindset, or your daily habits can make a very significant impact on your productivity.
How to Shift from Feeling Overwhelmed and Stressed to Being Confident and Productive
How do students graduate first in their class?
My confidence soared once I realized that I could become my own project manager. I had one year left before my anticipated graduation date, and there was a lot to do. I had to take my productivity to the next level, and this led me to develop a new set of productivity tools.
The first thing I did was to commit to prioritize my thesis, and to stop reacting to unexpected situations. I used to pride myself on responding to everyone’s emails quickly and being “everyone’s helper” in the lab, but I realized that I spent an unreasonable number of hours responding to other people’s demands. I was not doing my thesis a favor, and I was not doing the other people a favor either. The more I helped others with their work, the more dependent they became on me.
After I clarified my thesis requirements, I came to work every morning with the question: What can I do today to make progress on my thesis? On some days I had to set up a new experiment, on other days I had to write parts of my thesis. However, I did not check my email until I got at least one high priority task done – and sometimes that took a few hours.
I later learned that this simple shift (from priding yourself on helping others to prioritizing your thesis) is the number one strategy that helped students graduate first in their class. The average length of the program in my department was 6 years. In almost every cohort there was a student who graduated in 4 years.
How did they do it? Instead of working harder, the “quick graduates” simplified their lives. First, they prioritized their theses and their health (interestingly those who graduated quickly also exercised regularly). Since they were on track with their theses and were in good health, they were able to show up for others (their family, their peers) with more energy and creativity.
Become your own project manager
As a graduate student it is easy to fall victim to the thinking trap that your time is not your own – you might feel like you are at the mercy of your supervisor, your unexpected experimental results, and there is nothing you can do about it.
Students who graduated in 4 years had the same supervisors as the students who graduated in 6-7 years, and their projects were not simpler. These students were able to graduate early, because they made a decision to take control of their time and the direction of their thesis.
This may not be an easy transition to make if people are used to you always responding to their demands quickly. You might run into conflicts with your supervisor, your family, or your friends. This is the point where you will need to use the principles of assertiveness, and find a way to develop solutions so that you can give your thesis the attention it needs while still being there for your family, friends, and your supervisor’s special requests.
There is an art of saying “No” or at least “Not now” to people who make demands on your time and energy. This shift can take some time, and maybe you will lose some friends in the process. If that’s the case, they were not friends to begin with, and you will probably be better off surrounding yourself with more positive ans supportive people. People who care about you will understand that you need to devote time to your work and cannot respond to all their demands immediately.
Once you have clarified your thesis question and committed to prioritizing your work, the next step is to develop a plan to reach your long-term milestones by working backwards from your desired end-goal. Your supervisor will not necessarily be there to hold your hand through this process. You will need to set your own short-term milestones and commit daily to taking action to stay on track.
A great way to keep yourself motivated is to look at the shoreline rather than the horizon. As graduate students tend to be over-achievers, they are frequently unsatisfied with their progress. You might be asking yourself questions such as: “Why have I not accomplished more?” “Why am I behind all the time?” “Why am I not more productive?”
No matter who you become, there will always be someone who “seems” more productive and successful than you. If you focus on the things that you “should have” accomplished, you will feel even less motivated to do them. Instead of looking at the horizon and all the things that think you “should have” achieved by now, turn around and look at the shoreline. See how far you have come just in the last year, month, or maybe just the last week.
If you have made mistakes, see how you can turn them into learning opportunities – believe it or not, there is a gift in every “failure.”
In my case, I struggled with a difficult thesis topic for years, which turned out to be a dead-end project. When I switched to a new topic, I felt guilty and resentful for wasting so much time on my old project. The gift in this situation was that my new project gave me the opportunity to learn new technology (mass spectrometry), which helped me to get a postdoctoral fellowship with one of the most prestigious professors in my field.
Simple shifts in your mindset, such as going from reactive to proactive, committing to taking action daily, and turning mistakes into learning opportunities, can have a tremendous impact on your productivity. I have helped hundreds of students to make go from feeling stressed and overwhelmed to productive and confident, sometimes in just a few weeks. I would also like to teach you the strategies that other graduate students used to get unstuck, reduce their stress, put their thesis on track, and graduate.
Now It is Your Turn to Soar
If you want to learn the productivity skills that have helped hundreds of others to finish their thesis I would like to invite you to learn about my upcoming Finish Your Thesis Program, where I will teach you the strategies that other students used to:
- Get unstuck after a year of not making progress,
- Manage their time better so they could make progress on their theses,
- Write their thesis while working at a full-time job,
- Reduce their stress and anxiety, and
- Be the first in their class to graduate.
What do you think are the most important factors of success in graduate school? Please be specific because we have readers from all over the world who are looking for inspiration!