In the next two weeks I’ll be defending my dissertation proposal. It is one step in the lengthy and often confusing process of obtaining a doctorate. This proposal is the product of several drafts (four) and a great deal of research, writing, and helpful notes from smarter people than I. The proposal itself totaled twenty-five pages. Not horrifically long but not short either. Silly me, I thought I’d be done until I defended it in the coming weeks.
What was initially relief at the completion of an accepted draft for the proposal quickly turned to more work. I needed to reformat my proposal into another proposal (of considerably length) in order to engage with students and others direction concerning the project my dissertation undertakes. The minute I’d taken care of that, however, I was smacked with more work still: Scholarship nomination.
To be very clear: I’m honored to be nominated and I couldn’t be happier. That said, I’ve spent the last four days preparing my application materials. I’ve been refreshing my CV (a worthy project even without the scholarship), lining up letters of support from wonderful faculty who know me and my work, and carefully trying to make the entire process as easy as possible for everyone at the end of the semester by providing relevant information concerning the scholarship, my CV, and the criteria for awarding the scholarships. It’s all very time-consuming.
While I’ve recently been writing about procrastination, this type of ever-expanding work centered around one project illustrates that procrastination is simply not an option or recipe for success. You aren’t just handed a scholarship, you must successfully apply for it. You don’t just write a dissertation proposal, you rewrite a dissertation proposal and then reformat it for other areas so you can conduct your research. Good work creates more work — and that’s a good thing — but you’ve got to stay on top of it. Right now, happily, I feel like I am.