April 2nd is Children’s Book Day. Believe it or not, successful children’s books have a lot in common with successful dissertations… “Wait just a minute there Dr. Strickland! My dissertation committee would run me right out of school if I tried to submit twelve pages with a few words and a lot of pictures!” Fair enough. […]
Continue readingApril 1st is April Fool’s Day. Does your dissertation seem like one big April’s Fools joke?… I’m not going to try to trick you. I’m too nice of a guy for that. Plus, I don’t think you’d fall for it. But maybe you are feeling the fool today because you’ve fallen for someone else’s tricks? […]
Continue readingMarch 31st is World Backup Day. If you use Windows, you’re probably familiar with the dreaded “Blue Screen of Death” (BSoD). The BSoD can show up for a variety of reasons, but it almost always means one very bad thing—you’ve lost some of your hard work. Don’t let this happen to your dissertation!… As an […]
Continue readingMarch 30th is National Pencil Day. Let’s talk about sharpening your pencils for your dissertation… Pencils as we know them have been around since at least the 1800s. A patent for attaching erasers to the end of pencils was awarded in 1890. Many famous writers including Vladimir Nabokov, John Steinbeck, and Roald Dahl were known […]
Continue readingMarch 29th marks the birthday of the 10th President of the United States. Here’re some words of wisdom from John Tyler that you can apply to your dissertation… I can never consent to being dictated to as to what I shall or shall not do… So long as you see fit to do this, I […]
Continue readingMarch 28th is Dr. Jerome Friedman’s birthday. Friedman won the Nobel Prize in Physics for taking something everyone thought was as small as possible and breaking it down into even smaller parts. Sounds like a useful skill for a dissertation student… Happy birthday to Nobel Laureate, Jerome Isaac Friedman, born on this day in 1930! […]
Continue readingMarch 27th is World Theater Day. Shakespeare once said, “All the world’s a stage.” But, he also called life “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” So where does your dissertation fit into this grand play?… Thinking about the theater got me thinking about how plays are structured. There’s a […]
Continue readingMarch 26th is Solitude Day. Solitude can be a double-edged sword for dissertation students. Some feel they have too little, some feel they have too much. And, students even feel both! Which are you?… Many people enjoy spending time alone. Superman had his Fortress of Solitude where he would go to think and recharge. And he’s […]
Continue readingMarch 25th is Aretha Franklin’s birthday. Her iconic song is R-E-S-P-E-C-T, and that’s exactly what you’re looking for with your doctoral degree… Singer Aretha Franklin is widely regarded as one of the greatest singers of our time. She has won a total of 18 Grammy Awards and has sold over 75 million records worldwide. Her cover […]
Continue readingMarch 24th is International Day for Achievers. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines an achiever as “a person who achieves a high or specified level of success.” Sound like a doctoral student you know?… “If I could just get this dissertation done, so that people would me Dr. Me, that would be such an awesome achievement.” Do […]
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