This will probably come as no surprise, but I’m writing my dissertation. Many students (and not a few teachers) have suggested that I give this book a read. I don’t know what that says about me or perceived time management skills, but I figured it was worth a shot!

Joan Bolker has worked with hundreds of doctoral students, and it shows. This book is jam-packed full of advice on every stage of the dissertation writing journey. Her advice ranges from the sarcastic—”the single most useful piece of equipment for a writer was a bucket of glue. First you spread some on your chair, and then you sit down” (32)—to the practical.

A good example of practical advice is parking downhill. Leave yourself something easy to write and you’ll be more motivated to begin writing tomorrow. Another example of practical advice is to examine your own writing process. Does the time of day that you write work for you or should you shift your priorities to write when you’re the freshest and most inspired?

About half way through the book I started to wonder if I was an aberration. The way Bolker tells it, dissertation writers are a bunch of neurotic procrastinators who look for every opportunity to get sidetracked and undermine their progress! I wonder whether her time working at Harvard’s Writing Center has jaded her perspective a bit.

This book is showing its age. The first appendix is entitled, “How the Computer Revolution Affects You and Your Dissertation.” (The book was published in 1998, after all.) Bolker talks about keeping hard-copies of all your revisions, just in case. In an age of Dropbox, iCloud, and Google Drive, this advice is a little less mission-critical.

The overall theme of the book is simple: write, and write regularly. To be sure, 15 minutes per day won’t get you to the finish line, but it will launch a habit that will inspire lengthier writing sessions.

That being said, I should probably stop writing about Bolker’s work and get back to my own!

Bolker, Joan. Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day: A Guide to Starting, Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis. Henry Holt and Company, 1998.