{"id":2384,"date":"2015-03-15T05:54:34","date_gmt":"2015-03-15T00:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/?p=2384"},"modified":"2018-05-22T18:15:36","modified_gmt":"2018-05-22T12:45:36","slug":"what-to-do-when-you-bored-with-your-research-topic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/what-to-do-when-you-bored-with-your-research-topic\/","title":{"rendered":"What To Do When You Get Bored With Your Research Topic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s face it, researching and writing a dissertation or a book means you\u2019re going to spend a long time thinking about one, very narrow topic. Because of this, it\u2019s common for academics to start to tire of their topics at one point or another. It\u2019s usually around the time that you\u2019ve finished your research and started to write. In other words, you\u2019ve been with the topic a long time, but the end isn\u2019t in sight yet. How do you convince yourself to sit down every day and keep at it? Here are a few ways to re-ignite your passion\u2026 or at least help you get through.<\/p>\n

Take Time Off<\/h2>\n

This is difficult for many of us because we feel under pressure to finish our projects. And besides, taking time off only elongates the process when what you most want is for it to be completed sooner. But taking a solid week away from your project can give you time to rest and attend to other matters in your life. Your brain needs rest to get stronger, just like an athlete\u2019s muscles need rest before they can heal and grow stronger. So, when you return to your work you will have more energy and focus to dedicate to it.<\/p>\n

Visualize the Finish Line, the Next Project, or the Reward<\/h2>\n

Remind yourself about why you are doing this. This can be a great technique to combine with step one: on your week off, spend time imagining\u00a0or even writing about what will happen after this project is over. Maybe you\u2019re going to reward yourself with a great vacation. Perhaps it will mean finishing your doctoral degree and being able to move onto the career of a full-time professor or another career. Maybe you\u2019ve found another topic that you can\u2019t wait to dig into after this one. Spend time indulging yourself in these ideas\u2014and always picture\u00a0the start of these great things as the moment you hand in your final draft.<\/p>\n

To Do or Not To Do<\/h2>\n

When you\u2019re really feeling oppressed by your project, realize that you have two options: you can put it down and walk away and move onto other projects or you can do it. If step two doesn\u2019t provide you with enough motivation, perhaps you\u2019re bored because you no longer see the point in finishing the project. But if finishing means something to you, you must put your head down and get to work.<\/p>\n

Change Your Writing Routine<\/h2>\n

Were you previously working with week- or month-long goals? Try scheduling mini goals. Make the goals concrete and measurable. For instance, make it a goal to write for 30 minutes a day or to write a certain number of pages a day. Don\u2019t judge yourself on the quality\u2014just keep working. If you feel frustrated because you think your progress is too slow, just remember that slow progress is far better than no progress. It will add up!<\/p>\n

Just as how the dissertation process is not a test of your intelligence but rather a test of your mental and emotional health, this is one of the instances\u00a0where\u00a0mental health matters. Do you have the strength of mind to be able to will yourself to finish? This, in the end, is what distinguishes\u00a0someone with a PhD and someone without.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s face it, researching and writing a dissertation or a book means you\u2019re going to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1319,1336],"tags":[1510],"ppma_author":[1894],"class_list":["post-2384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beyond-publishing","category-phd-cafe","tag-tips-for-phd-students"],"better_featured_image":null,"acf":{"faq_main_heading":"","faq_heading_one":"","faq_heading_two":"","faq_heading_three":"","faq_heading_four":"","faq_heading_five":"","faq_heading_six":"","faq_description_one":"","faq_description_two":"","faq_description_three":"","faq_description_four":"","faq_description_five":"","faq_description_six":""},"views":1319,"single_webinar_page_date":null,"single_webinar_page_time":null,"session_agenda":null,"who_should_attend_this_session":null,"about_the_speaker_field":null,"co-webinar-sec":null,"co_webinar_sec_one":null,"speaker-name":null,"webinar-date":null,"webinar-time":null,"webinar-s-image":null,"custum_webinar_category":null,"authors":[{"term_id":1894,"user_id":6,"is_guest":0,"slug":"daveishan","display_name":"Enago Academy","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/cropped-favicon-192x192-1.png","url2x":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/cropped-favicon-192x192-1.png"},"author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":"Enago Academy, the knowledge arm of Enago, offers comprehensive and up-to-date resources on academic research and scholarly publishing to all levels of scholarly professionals: students, researchers, editors, publishers, and academic societies. It is also a popular platform for networking, allowing researchers to learn, share, and discuss their experiences within their network and community. The team, which comprises subject matter experts, academicians, trainers, and technical project managers, are passionate about helping researchers at all levels establish a successful career, both within and outside academia."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2384"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}