The Un-Dissertation - The UnDissertation Blog

There. I’ve said it. You Will Never Finish Your Dissertation.

How does that feel?

Make you anxious? Worried? Frustrated? Feel like a complete and utter failure?

Well, I’d like you to take another perspective. (That’s what I do — ask for different perspectives.)

What if accepting that you’ll never Finish were a Good Thing?

What if didn’t matter?

What if it got you your degree even faster?

While I was on vacation, reading a fascinating novel about two twin sisters joined at the head (The Girls — by Lori Lansens, if I’ve got your interest), I came across the perfect dissertation message. (They’re everywhere!)

Here it is (I’ll give you the whole context - English was not Uncle Stash’s first language, BTW):

“All those years ago, when Uncle Stash was building our elaborate metal bus shelter at the end of the lane, I asked him impatiently when he was going to be finished. He laughed and said, “People don’t finish, Rose. People stop. To finish is to say okay, now it’s right, never I’m going to change it. To stop is to say okay, it’s not perfect, but I have to go on to something else.”“

And there you have it.

Your dissertation doesn’t have to ever be Finished. Nor should you be shooting for that.

Aim to come to a stopping place. Not a perfect stopping place (that would be Finished, wouldn’t it?), but a good-enough-to-go-on-to-something-else stopping-place.

One of the members of our UnDissertation group created a brilliant rating scale for Dissertation Draft Evaluation, which allows us to discuss drafts in terms of their quality. (Sorry, they are currently copyright protected by the creator ;-). One of the things I love about this scale is that it has more levels than we will ever use. If one were to reach the highest levels….well…it means submitting the beastie is overdue. 8^)

Kind of like happiness scales. (On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you?) Think you’re aiming for 10?

Nope. The happiest folks are about 7. Kind of takes the pressure off, eh?

So quit trying to Finish. It will never happen.

Just get it to a place you can Stop.