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Mr Disco: The only way I manage to write academic stuff is to take lots of breaks, and only think about a tiny bit of it at a time. Like, in the chapter I'm writing at the moment, I'll sit down and try and explain what I mean about one particular quote; that'll get me through about half a paragraph, then I'll go and procrastinate for a bit. I procrastinate near the computer, though, because once I'm in the right headspace I occasionally find myself interrupting my procrastination just to get down a sentence I've just thought of - and once that happens you're away, because you then have to sit and explain the sentence, which gets you through another half-paragraph, and so on... So, tiny steps is what works for me: try and completely empty your brain of those 'camel-through-the-eye-of-a-needle' (three years' work/one week to finish) thoughts. Get totally absorbed in tiny details, and that'll take your mind off the scary big picture.
Um... cheering example, maybe? My friend M wrote up his entire PhD in about two months. He was a total wreck in the end - gaunt and weeping - and then at his viva he had the thesis passed without any revisions at all and was told it was the best thing anyone had ever seen in all their millions of years of viva'ing PhDs blah blah fishcakes. So the camel does get through the eye of the needle...
And also, huggles: if you can get one one-millionth of your intelligence, force of personality and all-round, um, style onto the paper, you'll be laughing all the way to whatever Australians have instead of summa cum laude. You go, boy! |
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And I now know the origins of the phrase 'good trencherman'. Bonus! 
