One of my favorite things to do is to wake up really early on the weekends when the rest of my family is still sleeping. I walk down to the kitchen, take our dog Murph out, pour my coffee, and tiptoe up to my office.

Early mornings are my sacred time to do deep thought work while the house is quiet and still, and before my loves wake up excited for their day to begin. "MOM... will you make me pancakes?"... "Can I invite a friend over?" or "Babe, what time do you want to go for our walk?" Being able to ease into a busy family day with a full cup and some time to think, reflect, and write is important to me, a daily practice that I established as a doc student years ago. 

My morning ritual keeps me centered and I start every day feeling like I have accomplished something.

Every morning I do a thought download and write my goals out while quietly sipping my coffee, and remind myself of all that I am grateful for as I write in my gratitude...

Want to finish your dissertation 6 months faster? An easy way to get the ball rolling is to start with this secret to finding GREAT research questions.

The Secret

Dissertation research often generates more questions than it answers. There are little golden nuggets hidden in the final pages of published dissertations. One of these questions from a former doc student may very well provide a basis for your thesis or dissertation proposal. 

Once you have a general idea of what your topic will be, a primary source for discovering your own research questions is by reading other doctoral dissertations. Existing literature, particularly recent literature, is an excellent source of research questions. Start researching Dissertation Abstracts Online, or go to ProQuest and select “Dissertations and Thesis”. Do a search for your general topic. Most published dissertations will include an area called, “Recommendations for Further Research”. This section of...

Hello Dissertation Friends!

In this blog post, I am going to tell you that the single most important decision you will make in your doctoral journey, is finding your dissertation chair/advisor. 

The two most important decisions you will make as a doctoral student are 1) the selection of your research area, and 2) the selection of your dissertation chair/advisor. Before you make a final decision of your advisor and approach someone to serve in that role, you should have a good idea about what topic you are interested in pursuing, and what kind of study you want to do.

While both decisions are important, the single most important research you will do as a doctoral student will be in selecting your chair/advisor. With the right chair/advisor, you can make steady progress, completing your dissertation on time and graduate on schedule. With the wrong advisor, you will spend time in the abyss known as the "drift", fail to make progress, and face the risk of ultimately not finishing,...