I am frequently moved by the heartfelt acknowledgements that appear at the beginning of dissertations.
‘…without the generous support of my wife/partner/husband…’
‘…grateful for the understanding and patience of my family when I have not been able to spend enough time with them.’
‘…my colleagues, who have supported me through this journey…’
No doubt about it, choosing to walk the path of a part-time student when holding down a full-time job, managing the conflicting demands of family and study and, for some, also coping with a debilitating health condition, is a magnificent act of faith. All the more so, when by the start of module two, the stark reality of academic study has already made itself apparent and you know what lies ahead.
That is often the point when it dawns on students that genuine sacrifices will have to be made to make space for the reading, reflection, thinking, note-taking, pencil-chewing – OK, maybe not much pencil action, but definitely a fair bit of staring at a blank Word document unable to pin that first sentence down.
At this point I have to say that is procrastination in all its guises – getting up to make coffee, sudden urges for a sandwich, tidying pens away – strikes 99.5% of most humans faced with a substantial or unwelcome task and this is perfectly normal. In fact, it is the only way the windows ever get a good clean in my house. Wait, is that a smeary mark on my screen? I cannot possibly focus on my work with that there, I will just go and find a special screen wipe… see you in 20 minutes.
Authorities on procrastination, yes, there are some and I bet writing about it took ages… even have a scale for it. It is Tuckman’s (1991) Procrastination Scale if you want to see how you line up. Morales (2007, iv) wrote a thesis about how procrastination affects achievement in online students and within his research found that student activity rates peaked on the day of their submission deadline. Overall, of course, this approach was not helpful in the achievement of fantastic grades. If you want to be a happy student, do not let procrastination whisper seductive alternatives into your ear. I would not even mention social media, which Lavoie and Pychyl (2001, 432) amusingly nicknamed “cyberslacking”.
As the examples of those acknowledgements above show, the support of family, friends and colleagues is important, if not vital to being happy. Occasionally a student will admit that they had been ready to throw in the study towel more than once in their programme, and that it was only thanks to a key person in their life that they rediscovered their motivation and ambition again and bashed on.
It must be time for a helpful list. How about five things happy, aka successful, students do?
Ask for help. No matter what the problem or difficulty is, do not dwell on it or struggle, tell your tutor, friend or partner, as appropriate. We all want you to succeed.
Accept that, for a while, you will have to steal time from something else you would rather be doing. Remember how much you want this degree.
Be confident. Remember that you bring expertise and knowledge to the process. You may think at first that academic work is beyond you, yet here you are, doing it.
Speak to other students. Jump on discussion boards, WhatsApp groups and go along to refresher sessions. It is helpful to know everyone is in the same boat.
Keep in regular touch with their tutor. Sometimes students apologise for ‘bothering’ me. It is never a bother, and I know I also speak for my colleagues. We get a kick out of helping you. Bring it on.
Reference List
Lavoie, J.A. and Pychyl, T.A. (2001) Cyberslacking and the procrastination superhighway: A web-based survey of online procrastination, attitudes and emotion. Social Science Computer Review, 19(4) 431-444. Available from https://proxy.library.lincoln.ac.uk/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsbl&AN=RN103433599&site=eds-live&scope=site [accessed 5 November 2019].
Morales, D.R. (2007) The relationships among procrastination, achievement, and the use of motivational messages within an online course. PhD. Penn State University. Available from https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-relationships-among-procrastination%2C-and-the-of-Morales/4a8467a56ae9fdffb313e2044cb9996832a4c98b [accessed 5 November 2019].
Tuckman, B.W. (1991) the development and concurrent validity of the Procrastination Scale. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 51(2) 473-480. Available from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0013164491512022 [accessed 5 November 2019].