Structuring unstructured time

In the comments section of Trevor's recent post, "Dissertation Reflection Series, Part 2: A Different Kind of Project", a reader ("cw") wrote:

For me, #1 was the biggest problem. I'm not good with unstructured time. I found myself rushing at the end of each semester to have something to show my director.

I should have set more meeting points for us, and clearer expectations for each meeting. I'm sure my director would have gone for it, but I didn't ask.

In my experience, this is a problem a lot of graduate students have, and for roughly the reasons Trevor gives. Throughout the first part of grad school (e.g. course work, comp exams, etc.), one has fairly clear deadlines. Yet, when it comes to the dissertation stage and publishing, one no longer has such clear deadlines--and one can end up wasting a lot of time getting little done. I know from experience! After my comp exams, I basically got nothing of import done for about a year-and-a-half. And it wasn't for lack of trying. I was reading. I was trying to write. I just wasn't being effective. And I know I'm not alone in this. I am currently mentoring a PhD student who excelled in graduate school...until passing comp exams (just like me!). Fortunately, I have learned a lot about how to deal effectively with "unstructured time", and as I will explain below, the strategies I have developed have sound empirical support.

I didn't know this until my spouse (who works in IO-Psychology), but one of the more well-confirmed theories in her field is known as Goal-Setting Theory. In rough outline, Goal-Setting Theory posits that specific and ambitious daily and weekly goals lead to higher performance than easier or more general goals. The basics of Goal-Setting Theory have been inductively confirmed by over 400 studies spanning over 25 years. More exactly, the theory recommends (here I quote):

1. Clarity. A clear, measurable goal is more achievable than one that is poorly defined. In other words, be specific! The most effective goals have a specific timeline for completion.
2. Challenge. The goal must have a decent level of difficulty in order to motivate you to strive toward the goal.
3. Commitment. Put deliberate effort into meeting this goal...
4. Feedback. Set up a method to receive information on your progress toward a goal. If losing 30 pounds in four months turns out to be too hard, it is better to adjust the difficulty of your goal mid-way through the timeline than to give up...
5. Task complexity. If a goal is especially complex, make sure you give yourself enough time to overcome the learning curve involved in completing the task. In other words, if a goal is really tough, make sure you give yourself some padding to give you the best chance at succeeding.

Interestingly, several years ago I began implementing this very strategy...before ever learning of Goal-Setting Theory--and the strategy's effects on my work efficiency have been remarkable. Allow me to briefly illustrate how I deploy Goal-Setting strategies, along with the differences they have made in my efficiency.

When I was in grad school, I used to spend months on end drafting a single paper. Then, if I got a revise-and-resubmit, I would spend anywhere from 4-9 months (determined primarily by whatever the resubmission deadline was). It was a grueling and inefficient way to work, but it was all I knew how to do. My first step toward becoming more efficient was learning some new writing strategies I recounted recently here. Just as importantly, however, I slowly began setting determinate and challenging daily and weekly goals for myself, just as Goal-Setting Theory recommends. Here is roughly how I go about my work nowadays. I've never owned a daily planner. Instead, I formulate daily, weekly, and monthly goals in my head. For example, this summer I had two revise-and-resubmits to complete, one book-review to write one paper to draft for an edited volume, five new papers to draft, and a tenure-file to put together. So, I first put together a monthly plan in my head:

Monthly plan

• May (3 weeks, given first-week commencement): complete 2 revise-and-resubmits, complete book review
• June: draft 3 new papers over four weeks
• July: put tenure file together, draft two more papers
• August: finish tenure file, prep for Fall classes

These might seem like overly ambitious goals (I don't know, do they?). In any case, once upon a time they would have been far too ambitious for me. Nowadays, however, these sorts of goals have become fairly routine. Thus far this summer, I've met all of the above goals. I had a similarly ambitious set of goals a couple of summers ago, when I completely re-wrote Rightness as Fairness' eight chapters from scratch (with mostly new arguments) over an eight-week period prior to submission of the final manuscript. Although again these goals might seem too ambitious, one of the central (and verified) parts of Goal-Setting Theory is that ambitious goals that are hard to meet actually turn out to motivate better goal-satisfaction than easier to meet goals! The critical thing, apparently, is for one's goals to be really ambitious, but not so ambitious that one consistently fails to meet them.

Anyway, in line with Goal-Setting Theory, I've found that the way to accomplish monthly goals like these is to in turn set clear, challenging weekly goals, and then similarly clear and challenging daily goals. For example, here are what my weekly goals routinely look like:

Weekly goals

• Week 1: complete one revise-and-resubmit, begin drafting paper for edited volume.
• Week 2: complete second revise-and-resubmit, continue drafting paper for edited volume.
• Week 3: finish draft paper for edited volume, write book review.
• Week 4: draft new paper on X. Work on revisions of paper for edited volume.
• Week 5: draft new paper on Y. Work on revising book review.
• Week 6: work on teaching portion of tenure file. Revise draft of X.
• Week 7: work on research portion of tenure file. Revise draft of Y.

In order to ensure that I meet these goals, however, I also have to set clear daily goals and rigorously hold myself to them. So, for example, here are what a typical set of daily goals looks like:

Daily goals

• Monday: complete revisions of section 1 of revise-and-resubmit paper. Work for two hours on drafting paper for edited volume, drafting its introduction.
• Tuesday: complete revisions of section 2 of revise-and-resubmit. Work for two hours on edited volume paper, drafting some or all of its first section.
• Wednesday: complete revisions of section 3 of revise-and-resubmit. Work for two hours on edited volume paper, finishing draft of first section and beginning draft of second section.
• Thursday: complete revisions of final section of revise-and-resubmit. Begin writing reply to "reviewer 1" comments.
• Friday: finish writing reply to "reviewer 1" comments. Write reply to "reviewer 2" comments.

As you can see, if I hold myself to these daily goals, I will have completed my "Week 1" goal above and thus be on my way to completing my monthly goals. Importantly, as Goal-Setting Theory recommends, I hold myself to my goals. Sometimes I fall behind by a day. If at all possible, I make myself catch up the next day. Also importantly, I intentionally build room to catch up to my weekly goals if I fall behind. For example, when I was rewriting Rightness as Fairness in Summer 2015, I gave myself one week to draft each chapter, knowing however that Chapter 5 was really short and would be easy to draft. I decided to devote an entire week to this chapter in my summer plans not because I thought the draft would take a full week, but because I expected I might fall behind a bit and might need some "wiggle room." As fact would have it, I did fall behind, just as I expected. I had a lot of trouble on Chapter 3 (the book's most difficult chapter), and ended up having to spend a week-and-a-half on it instead of one week. Fortunately, I was then able to partition the week I had planned for Chapter 5, revising my schedule so that I could spend half of that week finishing up Chapter 4, thus catching back up to my original plan.

Another important part of the strategy--or so I have found--has to do with partitioning daily work. I know people who work on one project alone at a time, and this is something I used to do too. The problem with working on one thing at a time, though--or again, so I've found--is that it's all too natural to fall behind on the one project you're working on, only to continually push back other projects to some indeterminate point in the future. Having daily goals for more than one project prevents one from getting "stuck" on one project before moving onto other important things. 

Now, of course, I don't want to give the impression that I always meet my goals. Sometimes I don't. There was one paper I wanted to draft this summer that I just couldn't get the argument for correct (yet). So, although I spent my scheduled week on that paper, I didn't finish it but instead set it aside to come back to later (my plan is to return to it either next month or in the Fall). Here again, the critical thing--or so I've found--is not to get stuck. If I fail to meet a given goal (viz. drafting this paper), then if I can afford to do it another time, I stop banging my head against the wall on it (I don't let myself get "stuck" on the project) but instead immediately move onto my next scheduled project. Once again, I find this incredibly helpful--as one pitfall I used to fall into (and which I know other people fall into) is getting "hung up" on a given project, spending too much time spinning one's wheels rather than getting to other things. Keeping to daily, weekly, and monthly goals helps one avoid getting stuck.

Finally, I don't pretend that this strategy will work for everybody. People are different. It is worth noting, however, that Goal-Setting Theory has been systematically confirmed by hundreds of studies, and thus, is known to be a good general strategy for most people. Further, I have seen it work its magic with other people I know. As I mentioned above, I am currently mentoring a PhD student who has struggled with unstructured time. After she approached me for help, I asked her for a list of projects she needs to complete and by which date, along with how many parts each project contains. I then drew up daily goals for her each week, and have worked with her to hold herself to her daily and weekly goals...and it is working wonders so far.

In short, if you're struggling with unstructured time--or with your overall work efficiency--I cannot recommend Goal-Setting strategies enough!

 

Comments

[UK reader]

Thanks for this Marcus. This is the thing I've struggled most with since moving from a non-academic job into a PhD program. In particular, I find what you describe as 'Commitment. Put deliberate effort into meeting this goal...' incredibly difficult to maintain!

It's not that I'm not committed. Of course I am. But in academia one has to be self-motivating to an extent rarely found in other walks of life. No one's there to make sure you're up and at your desk by 9am each morning, no one's going to disapprove if you take yet another unscheduled break, no one's going to give you a pat on the back for working steadily for several hours and achieving a breakthrough... Rewards and punishments and enthusiasm and energy all have to come from within. This is totally different from lines of work in which you work with colleagues. Humans are social creatures and, in many respects, the life of an academic is very unnatural. We're not really designed to sit alone at a desk with only our own brains for company day-in-day-out.

In short, I'm pretty good any goal-setting. But I'm terrible at holding myself to actually meeting my goals. It's so easy to just sort of drift by, permanently feeling slightly guilty for one's endless procrastination.

I wonder if you have any tips on how to deal with this malaise. One thing I always find helpful is to have a study-buddy. You needn't be working on the same things at all. This relationship isn't primarily about discussing your work with one another. It's more about agreeing to meet at the library at 9am, and holding each other to that, and taking breaks together, encouraging each other to keep at it, and so on.

[Peter Furlong]

Hi Marcus,

I have found that this is definitely true in my own case. I had been making little headway on projects, and then, at the end of February I printed out a calendar and wrote running word count goals for every day until mid-August. It has been months, and I am still on track, making far more progress than I have since I worked on my dissertation.

One difference I have found is that I don't do well when I give myself time commitments for each day, saying things like "work at least two hours on this or that paper." Instead, every single goal I have is based upon productivity, specifically in terms of word count. This does mean that my schedule varies widely--on one day the words flow quickly and I can be done in an hour. Other days, I need to track down and read an article or two before getting started on writing, and then the words might just not flow well, so it might take me four hours. In any case, it works for me.

In response to UK reader, I wanted to give a plug for R. P. Wolff's guide to writing a dissertation (http://robertpaulwolff.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-to-write-doctoral-dissertation-in.html) Some of my grad student friends hated what he had to say, but some of the tips he gave worked wonders for me. Most important is this bit: "If you do not have the discipline to write a page a day all by yourself, cut a deal with a fellow dissertation writer. You will send her a page a day by email, and she will send you a page of her dissertation every day by email. You will read her page [it only takes a minute] and send back an encouraging word, and she will do the same for you." In fact, I wish I had kept this going after the dissertation; I probably would have been far happier and more productive than I have been working largely alone the past few years. There is no doubt that the work itself is still a solo effort (my dissertation buddy and I worked in completely different areas of philosophy, so we didn't even have very much helpful input to give), but it felt a little like working together.

[Trevor Hedberg]

As we'll see at some point in the near future, this strategy differs an awful lot from the ones I adopted while working on my dissertation. The goal-oriented strategy always struck me as more effective at the monthly or weekly levels but too rigid to be effectively implemented at the level of daily scheduling. Or at least that's been my experience: I know very few people who have been able to implement it at the level of precision described here. Maybe in the summer -- when outside obligations are minimal -- that's doable, but new things pop up almost every week during the semester that would impede the kind of scheduling depicted here.

[UK reader]

Thanks for that Peter - it was a fun read. The bit about not rewriting, though? That just would NOT work for me.

[Peter Furlong]

Yeah, there are some parts of Wolff's advice that don't work for me either. The part on rewriting is one of these. Although I do, in general, try to work toward a unified rough draft before polishing, sometimes entire sections need to be radically changed, moved, or deleted before I can move on.

[The other postdoc]

A related issue—and one that comes up in UK reader's first comment—is the source of these motivations. Whether or not you use something like Goal-Setting Theory, there's still the issue of internal or external motivations (or however you want to divide them up). I'm not especially motivated by goals and deadlines that I arbitrarily set for myself. But I'm highly motivated by goals and deadlines that are tied to some external source. In my case, I wrote my dissertation by relying heavily on conference and journal special issue deadlines. Especially in the case of conferences that require only abstracts, I'd structure my time to research and write the abstract for their submission deadline. Then, upon acceptance, I'd structure my time to research and write the paper for the conference date. I did something similar for journal special issues. The only downside of this practice is that the compiled dissertation might come off as too modular or disjointed, since each section was initially written as something that could be presented or published on its own. But whether this is a problem depends on your own aims. In my case, at least, it made it much easier to publish each part of the dissertation as a standalone article.

[Johnny Brennan]

I think this is really helpful advice, and basically what I have implemented to be productive and meet all my deadlines. I do find it helpful even at the level of individual days. I have a notebook that is filled primarily with daily check-lists. Sometimes I meet all my goals, often I don't. I'm happy if I can check off around 75% of the tasks I set for myself. I find I am most productive when I work a little bit on (almost) every project I have on my plate each day. I often find that by doing this I can reach my goals earlier than expected. For instance, if I give myself a week to revise a paper, by working on it a little each day I end up getting it done in 4-5 days.

I agree with Peter, though. I never work in terms of time commitments. For one, I'm not very good at judging how long a task will take. Also, I find it natural to work in short bursts. I'll start writing, take a break (or get interrupted), and come back to it later. As long as I complete the tasks I've set out for myself, I don't care when or how long I work.

I also find it helpful to have a sense of what kind of work I'm productive at at different points in the day. For instance, I've heard many people encourage writing first thing in the morning. Despite being a morning person, I'm not very good at writing first thing in the day. But I do find it easy to read, take notes, or do emails and the like first thing in the morning. It's easier for me to grind away at writing in the late morning and early afternoon.

Finally, in response to UK reader, I don't have a helpful answer to how I hold myself to my goals. I don't know how to explain it, but once I set a goal for myself, it *feels* as if someone else is holding me accountable. I get that anxious feeling that if I don't meet my goal there are going to be consequences, like I'm going to be in trouble with someone (even though there really is no other consequence other than disappointment in myself). I don't know if this is an unhealthy mindset, but it has helped me be productive and hasn't had a negative impact on my mental well-being when I fail to meet my self-imposed deadlines.

[Marcus Arvan]

Hi Johnny: Thanks for sharing! I agree with you and Peter, and so does Goal-Setting Theory. Time-commitments aren't good enough. You can set aside 5 hours to write per day...but then get nothing done. The critical thing, according to Goal-Setting Theory, is to set substantive goals (2 pages of writing per day, etc.).

[Marcus Arvan]

Hi Trevor: Cool - I'll be curious to hear what your different approach is like!

In terms of specific daily goals, that's a nice point. It is easier to have exact daily goals during the summer, as more things come up during the school year. What I do, though, is have a few basic goals each day during the school year (e.g. Monday: write a lecture & draft 2 pages of a new paper), leaving other time aside for the random stuff that comes up. In other words, I think the daily-goal thing works (or works for me, at any rate) only if the daily goals a few, concrete, manageable, and leave room for other stuff. I definitely don't "micromanage" my days, planning everything hour by hour or anything like that. Just one or two clear goals per day--that's all.

In any case, like I said in the OP, I don't expect the same strategy works best for everyone. Curious to hear what you do!

[Marcus Arvan]

UK reader: Very interesting. I think it might be good to devote a new post/discussion to the issues you raise (motivation, procrastination, follow-through, etc.), as I suspect they are pretty common issues.

I have some thoughts/tips, and hope to write up a post early next week! Hopefully we'll hear from other people too and have a good discussion. :)