Plan for Completing the Dissertation

528 Words2 Pages

The purpose of this discussion post is to describe my plan for completing the dissertation, including my timetable for completing and celebrating particular milestone.
Plan
I am a big procrastinator, and the course video mentions the importance to sticking to a regular schedule to complete the dissertation (Laureate Education, Inc., 2012). To help me with that, I plan to use Microsoft Outlook to schedule time into my daily schedule to work on my dissertation and set tasks on what to work on it. I plan to work on my dissertation for two to three hours on Monday-Thursday and at least an hour on Friday-Sunday. Synching my Microsoft Outlook calendar with both my phone and iPad mini allows me to receive alerts when I am on the go, which will remind me to stop what I am doing and pull out my laptop to work on my dissertation. Microsoft Project will be used to place my dissertation task into a Gantt chart as a visual aid. Since I am a procrastinator, I plan to use strategies mentioned by Pannapacker (1999) to be a productive procrastinator, e.g., start writing early; keep current on the topic of interest by reading journal articles and web sites; network by joining scholarly and professional societies and going to conferences; Keep my prospectus open enough to allow for modifications; make my dissertation my priority by finding time to write every day, and set manageable short-term deadlines.
Timeline
Miller (2003) mentions some tips to be mindful of when making my timeline help in completing my dissertation, such as being realistic by setting deadlines that will not make me miserable when they are not met, giving myself a break, and allowing time for revision. I will start my dissertation on June 2nd, and I have drafted the following...

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... gives me a rough idhe tea sof task I need to do and of my journey to complete my disser tation.

Works Cited

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012). Looking forward—Challenges related to and strategies for completing the dissertation. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Miller, R. K. (2003, April 1). Finishing the dissertation. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/article/Finishing-the-Dissertation /45136/
Pannapacker, W. (1999, February 19). How to finish a dissertation—without the agony. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/article/How-to-Finish-a-Dissertation /45714/
Walden University, Center for Research Quality. (2012). Dissertation Process Worksheet. Retrieved from http://researchcenter.waldenu.edu/Documents/Dissertation_Process_Worksh.pdf

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