Gamification of Dissertations!
August 15, 2012 2:27 PM Subscribe
I am in a cohort of a few PhD fellows who, at the time we could really use each other for support, find ourselves scattered to various corners of New England. How can we motivate each other when we don't see each other on a regular basis?
An email went out from one of my colleagues confessing that she was having a hard time sitting down to write the damn thing. Two of the three of us have finished studies and are at the analysis/writing stage, *I*, on the other hand, will be completing my study this fall while writing my introductory chapters in parallel with my study. Since we're all at slightly different points, we could really use some support to guide each other along. We figured that by seeing what the others are doing, we can motivate, support, and help each other solve problems as they come up as well as use some good old-fashioned GUILT to motivate each other.
She had initially suggested a Google Doc, and although I suppose that would work for recording what we're doing, it's not a lot of FUN, now is it? I immediately thought of the various fitness websites that do this relatively well: Daily Mile, Map My Ride, &c. But I can't find one that allows you to put in your own goals and has a suitably fun "social" aspect to it. So, is there a similar type website or app that one can put in goals/deadlines/progress/milestones/daily word or page counts, we can each update as they are accomplished, and then notifications go out to members of the group so that we can all share in our collective successes?
An email went out from one of my colleagues confessing that she was having a hard time sitting down to write the damn thing. Two of the three of us have finished studies and are at the analysis/writing stage, *I*, on the other hand, will be completing my study this fall while writing my introductory chapters in parallel with my study. Since we're all at slightly different points, we could really use some support to guide each other along. We figured that by seeing what the others are doing, we can motivate, support, and help each other solve problems as they come up as well as use some good old-fashioned GUILT to motivate each other.
She had initially suggested a Google Doc, and although I suppose that would work for recording what we're doing, it's not a lot of FUN, now is it? I immediately thought of the various fitness websites that do this relatively well: Daily Mile, Map My Ride, &c. But I can't find one that allows you to put in your own goals and has a suitably fun "social" aspect to it. So, is there a similar type website or app that one can put in goals/deadlines/progress/milestones/daily word or page counts, we can each update as they are accomplished, and then notifications go out to members of the group so that we can all share in our collective successes?
New England's not that big if you have cars - could you make Sunday = Writing Day ? Get together at one of your houses (take turns if appropriate) and have a wifi-free (no distracting internet!) writing session. You could make it a lunch date at the same time.
posted by maryr at 5:20 PM on August 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by maryr at 5:20 PM on August 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
Best answer: This Lifehacker post has a few ideas that might help.
You could just create a workshop group - every month someone emails new writing to the rest of the group.
In general, Freedom is great software for Windows and Mac to block internet distractions while writing.
You could combine it with the Pomodoro technique.
posted by cimuir at 9:41 PM on August 15, 2012
You could just create a workshop group - every month someone emails new writing to the rest of the group.
In general, Freedom is great software for Windows and Mac to block internet distractions while writing.
You could combine it with the Pomodoro technique.
posted by cimuir at 9:41 PM on August 15, 2012
Phinished is worth checking out. Kept me from jumping under a bus.
posted by craniac at 4:08 PM on November 25, 2012
posted by craniac at 4:08 PM on November 25, 2012
This site might have something related that could help.
posted by craniac at 4:12 PM on November 25, 2012
posted by craniac at 4:12 PM on November 25, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by ansate at 3:07 PM on August 15, 2012 [1 favorite]