How to complete your PhD (or any large project): Hard and soft deadlines, and the Martini Method
January 7th, 2008 by shaneHere are a few posts that other readers recommend you check out:
Having recently completed a PhD, I will share with you three indispensable nuggets of advice for how to get the monster vanquished: use hard deadlines, soft deadlines, and the Martini Method. With a small amount of imagination these can be applied to any large project.
Perhaps the most important determiner when a PhD gets finished is the HARD DEADLINE. While hard deadlines are supremely important, giving advice to have one is somewhat pointless, since they are also a factor that you have little or no control over. The main hard deadline is that which your institution has determined your maximum amount of time allowable for completion of your PhD. At my institution, this was four years. And without fail, graduate students would be frantically printing their thesis the day before this deadline for binding and submission. Other frequent constraining deadlines are when your money runs out, or the start of a new job. While these aren’t quite as constraining as the ultimate deadline, life can be made considerably difficult if you are left with writing your PhD when starting a new job, or when you cannot afford to pay your rent. As any normal human being knows, deadlines are important for many reasons. One of which is Parkinson’s law: which stipulates that the time you take to complete a task is strongly determined by the time you have to complete that task.
Deadlines which you have more control over are SOFT DEADLINES. These are those deadlines which you determine yourself. One advantage over hard deadlines is that you can choose how many of them and when they occur. The disadvantage is that the consequences of failing to meet them are usually not severe, and can be safely ignored. One solution to their softness is to create real consequences from deadlines. The method of doing this will depend on your personality, and whether you are best driven by the carrot or the stick. Perhaps the most common method in a PhD is externalisation of the deadlines by forming a contract with your supervisor. Many supervisors will set deadlines to their students, but if you do not have a supervisor that does this I would urge you to engage your supervisor in the process of setting soft deadlines. I had an arrangement in the later stages of writing up my thesis to have a piece of work for him to read every week or second week (depending on the size of the work), which helped immensely. You may not like these deadlines, but I believe they are essential, following Parkinson’s law, amongst other reasons.
What I call the Martini Method is named after an anecdote I once read about the novelist Anthony Burgess (of Clockwork Orange fame). Burgess was a very productive writer, which is attributed to a system where he would force himself to write a 1000 words a day, 365 days a year. When he had completed his word count, he would relax with a dry martini, and enjoy the rest of the day with an easy conscience, and normally in bar. A friend of mine’s version of the Martini Method was to come into the office everyday, and not allow herself to leave until her word target had been reached. Most days she left before 5pm, though on occasion she would stay as late as 6 or 7. She would also set herself mini Martinis, such as allowing herself an ice cream in the summer once she had hit half her daily word count. Though we started at the same time, she finished her PhD a lot earlier than me!
A PhD is a huge project, which has to be largely self managed, and its size can lead to anxiety which leads to procrastination as a coping mechanism. If you spend a few days without working on your PhD, anxiety or guilt can build up, which consequently make it even harder to get started, and days can easily turn into weeks without meaningful work being undertaken. The Martini method also encapsulates the well known idea that a large project needs to be split up into small chunks, and quantifies those chunks into specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time bound goals (what management books call a SMART objective).
The Martini Method works by the carrot, which personality psychologists have generally have found to be more effective than the stick. 1000 words is an arbitrary number, and you might find it too much or two little, but I think that somewhere between 500-1000 to be optimal. Writing a 1000 words a day doesn’t take into reviewing and editing time. What I used to do was to start the day with the editing of the text written on the previous day. This makes for an easier way to get started, as editing existing text is less cognitively daunting than starting afresh, and warms up the mind for the writing to come.
The new version of MS word makes word counting much easier - when you select text it shows you the word count at the bottom. One tool that can be used to stick to a daily habit is the chain method. The comedian Jerry Seinfeld marks a cross on his calendar every day, and aims to create an unbroken chain of crosses. Online daily goal tracker and habit maker Joes Goals now implements the chain method, which could be used instead of a paper calendar if you are that way inclined.
Tags: deadlines - phd - burgess - martini method - parkinson’s law - time management
About the author: Shane is a post doctoral researcher in Psychology. When not doing things which end in athlon, and running around being busy, he wonders whether if he literally means running when he says he is running around, or if it is just a metaphor. If you enjoyed this post, make sure you sign up for our mailing list or subscribe to our RSS feed!
January 7th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
I used the chocolate method during my thesis writing - one square of chocolate for every paragraph written.
Some sections of my thesis have very short paragraphs.
January 8th, 2008 at 12:01 am
I enjoyed the read. Congrats on finishing!
I used a modified Martini Method, and did it up front. I vowed to keep my dissertation to under 100 pages and aggressively applied every data reduction technique I could find to reduce the number of tables, graphs, and words. I came in at 92 pages.
As my advisor said, “We don’t weigh them.” There wasn’t a person on my committee who didn’t appreciate the shorter read.
January 10th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I recently completed my M.Sc. which in itself, was my biggest achievement in 4 years. I have learned a great deal in my 4 years of my M.Sc. studies, whether they are research-related or Supervisor-related.
But yeah, I do agree with you on the hard and soft deadlines and the Martini method as well
While writing my thesis (I took 4.5 months) I have learned to break the entire thing into smaller digestible portions, and I informed my Supervisor a few days earlier before I submitted my draft to her (so that she could do whatever she needed before she reads my thesis).
January 11th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Short! Oh nooo. Long, complicated and heavey is the name of the game. Give the committee a little something to bite into.
In other words combine martini and chocolate methods - meaning lots of both - and have a long time of fun. Although some working out and a real dry ones are recommended.
A recipe for one of those might be to make a call to a friend and have her/him pour a glass of e.g. Bombay Sapphire in a glass while you air an olive real close to your mouthpiece. And eat it of course.
What’s left is to negotiate with Parkinson… and supervisors… and financiers and… and…
Guess there are no shortcuts but to write the thing no matter length, weight, words per day and so on. So good luck if you are in it. It’ll be well worth looking back on.
Best
H
January 16th, 2008 at 3:18 am
I approached writing my thesis the same way I approach large software projects. I broke it down in to smaller and smaller bits. But I do like the idea of the Martini Method.
January 16th, 2008 at 6:12 am
I have not completed a major paper, but I have completed a major marathon.
Instead of a martini, I used… water.
January 16th, 2008 at 6:26 am
I was working on my PhD in the US of A (Florida). And I had decided to get back to my home land (India) right after my dissertation. I had landed a good job in India, and that got me started on writing my dissertation. Towards the end (a month before my dissertation date), I fixed my stick (I booked my airline tickets to India for 3 days after my dissertation defence date!).
This did work very favourably :=)
January 16th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Why bother writing? Just do what I do and go straight for the martini! Make’s the writing more … uh … “interesting” too!
I use carrot and stick for everything. For 2008, I tied the purchase of a new car to my reducing in alcohol consumption (from one a day to one a week). Pain and Pleasure … that’s what drive us!
All The Best,
– Don in York, PA
January 16th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I have slight variation on this technique. Every morning I have a 10 minute break. I set the timer and spend exactly that amount of time reading a book in Portuguese. No more, no less. Every day without fail. I am on page 200 at the moment. I am confident I will finish it in the next three years (it is 1000 pages). When I have finished it my Portuguese will be good enough to get by next time I visit Portugal.
The thing about it is that you can always take 10 minutes out of even the busiest day. Over time it builds up to 100s of hours of solid study.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Jack London points out the drawback to the method:
“I began to anticipate the completion of my daily thousand words by taking a drink when only five hundred words were written. It was not long until I prefaced the beginning of the thousand words with a drink.”
Maybe it’s just a Humanities thing!
January 16th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I did not use the martini method when i did my Ph.D now 20 years ago, and used 1 year more than supposed to, (same did all my fellow students). However things are not that simple as a word count in finishing a project. A PhD in science usually data collection and analysis, where you have to wait for others to do their job. the martini method probably workswhen a job is only up to you. But in team work it dosnt matter if you yourself use the martini method or all other GTD methods, when no one else do
January 16th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
[...] or vacation, but the concept is the same: small rewards along the way help you get your stuff done. How to complete your PhD (or any large project): Hard and soft deadlines, and the Martini Method [Academic Productivity via Anne [...]
January 17th, 2008 at 12:21 am
[...] Academic Productivity » How to complete your PhD (or any large project): Hard and soft deadlines, a… (tags: writing to research projects productivity howto) [...]
January 17th, 2008 at 5:58 am
THANK YOU!
I might graduate after all.
January 17th, 2008 at 9:40 am
[...] Academic Productivity » How to complete your PhD (or any large project): Hard and soft deadlines, a… [...]
January 17th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
[...] Produktivität und Motivation: http://www.academicproductivity.com/blog/2008/how-to-complete-your-phd-or-any-large-project-hard-and... [...]
January 17th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
When I was writing my dissertation, my carrot was sleep!
January 17th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
[...] How to complete your PhD (or any large project): Hard and soft deadlines, and the Martini Method No [...]
January 17th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
[...] or vacation, but the concept is the same: small rewards along the way help you get your stuff done. How to complete your PhD (or any large project): Hard and soft deadlines, and the Martini Method [Academic Productivity via Anne [...]
January 17th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
My comments:
http://amundblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-to-complete-your-phd.html
January 18th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
[...] Hard and soft deadlines, and the Martini Method [...]
January 19th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
[...] How to Complete your PhD (or any large project): Hard and Soft Deadlines, the Martini Method | Acade… Shane over at Academic Productivity describes the system he used to finish his PhD. If it worked for his dissertation, imagine what it would do for your next term paper? [...]
January 19th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
[...] Academic Productivity » How to complete your PhD (or any large project): Hard and soft deadlines, a… Having recently completed a PhD, Shane shares three indispensable nuggets of advice for how to get the monster vanquished: use hard deadlines, soft deadlines, and the Martini Method. With a small amount of imagination these can be applied to any large project. [link] [...]
January 25th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
[...] The Martini Method for Productivity - A great review of the difference between hard and soft deadlines. Plus a famous author’s method for being productive. [...]
January 31st, 2008 at 6:08 pm
[...] love. Shane over at Academic Productivity talks about the Martini Method in more detail, along with several other ways to tackle large projects. He frames it in the context of completing your PhD, but you could easily apply the process to any [...]
February 5th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
nice post, but wayyy too long. i appreciate your essay style and effort, but this is a blog post! for bloggers talking productivity this is antithetical!
February 8th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
[...] How to complete your PhD (or any large project): Hard and soft deadlines, and the Martini Method | A… [...]
February 17th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
[...] to keep up a regular work schedule has been a concern for many this past month. In early January, the Martini Method approach to productivity popped up over at Academic Productivity. Geeka’s modified the Martini [...]
February 19th, 2008 at 11:17 am
[...] Praktikumsbericht, aber vorher will ich als Vorbereitung nur noch diese beiden Artikel lesen: Academic Productivity: How to complete your PhD (or any large project) Study Hacks: How to Schedule Your Writing Like a Professional [...]
March 9th, 2008 at 1:24 am
There is the lock yourself in the house method. Goto the store, stock up on food for two weeks and then don’t go anywhere. Do not go out with friends, do not answer the phone, eliminate all distractions. Your only mission in life is to write for two weeks.
March 11th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
“If you spend a few days without working on your PhD, anxiety or guilt can build up, which consequently make it even harder to get started, and days can easily turn into weeks without meaningful work being undertaken.”
Indeed. Getting “restarted” really is one of the hardest parts, and I’ve been stuck so many times just because of this. I am still working on overcoming that static friction, because I *know* that kinetic friction is always less than static friction, and I just have to get going in order to feel the difference.
Another thing that seems to help, for me, is to get enough sleep. Easier said than done, right? Well, I’ve been starting to “meditate myself to sleep”. I used to lie awake thinking, worrying, planning, trying to motivate myself for the next day… and it would take hours to fall asleep. Now I focus on breathing, on relaxing my body, on clearing my mind, … and soon enough, blissful sleep takes over, and the next day, I can start easier.
March 24th, 2008 at 4:49 am
[...] The Martini Method for finishing a PhD - Ha! No really, this blog–academicproductivity.com–looks like it might actually be good. Because the key to academic productivity is another blog to read… but no really! Look! The Interruptron is going on my computer tomorrow because since I’ve stopped tracking all of my time by the minute in a spreadsheet (and outputting pretty pivot charts to show how much time I spent brushing my teeth versus folding clothing), I haven’t been as good at maintaining a work/rest schedule and productivity has slipped a little. The Interruptron makes graphs. I love it already. [...]
April 3rd, 2008 at 4:06 am
Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams Report (April 3, 2008)…
The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams John has been reading a new book for lawyers on Collaboration Tools and Technologies. The point he really likes: “The book is a goldmine of concrete suggestions - many of which…
April 3rd, 2008 at 5:41 pm
[...] Lindsay writes about how to complete your PhD (or any large project) which is to use hard deadlines (externally [...]
April 11th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
[...] The Martini Method [...]
May 8th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
For managing your goals you might try out this new web-based application:
Gtdagenda
You can use it to manage your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use
checklists, schedules and a calendar.
A mobile version is available too.
As with the last update, now Gtdagenda has due date for tasks (you’ll see in the calendar on the right if you have tasks due today), task notes, and Email & Print support.
Hope you like it.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Your institution required you to complete the PhD in four years!? What is your discipline? Students in most disciplines would be incredibly lucky to be done in a timely four years.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
In the UK, it is common for PhDs to be done in 3 years, for all disciplines. We don’t take courses - the Phd is just one long pure research project.
July 9th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Hard deadlines are fair provided the university department interviews the phd candidate properly before he starts the course, and then supports him through a well defined programme (at least well defined after the first year) with supervisors possessing relevant publication experience.
Otherwise I see hard deadlines as a method of bullying students who have got into terrible predicaments through no fault of their own out of the system , when the real reason for late submission is due to inept, even fraudulent supervision, so that a disgracefully run department can keep its nose clean.
I will never meet my ‘last ever deadline’ of end of this september, without finishing. As far as i am concerned my university has violated its academic duty of care on every level towards me through negligent, inappropriate supervision, causing my phd only to properly start after the first three years, well into extension time.
Of course some people like to absolve supervisors as just being observers of the project but that doesn’t wash with me. I would haev got a suspension years ago, if it wasn’t for the fact my supervisor played me. I feel lied to, neglected, and i am very very angry. My solicitor will be giving them a strongly worded letter very soon.
August 30th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
[...] 30, 2008 · No Comments Some advice on completing large projects from academicproductivity.com: What I call the Martini Method is named after an anecdote I once read about the novelist Anthony [...]
September 1st, 2008 at 11:02 pm
[...] been a lot of work behind the curtains, lots of lessons learned (“we shouldn’t just mention sex in the titles whenever possible. We should also try to mentio…) and a few, intense epiphanies (“A mincer in 3d perspective. On top of everything, half-way into [...]
November 17th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
[...] my graduate thesis in the LaTeX document mark-up format, and trying to apply Anthony Burgess’ Martini Method. Basically, set a certain desired word count and let yourself relax after you’ve achieved [...]