Over the upcoming months, many students are set to complete and hand in their dissertations. With celebratory events within reach, this has provided a great deal of motivation for many. However, from both conversations with people and simply looking around the library the last few weeks, I have seen some particularly stressed-out faces. Despite many students getting extensions for one reason or another on dissertations, this definitely hasn’t eliminated the stress that comes with completing such a big task.
Much to others’ annoyance, I love being organised and having plenty of time to complete uni work. This encouraged me to complete my dissertation for the original deadline, despite the fact that the geography department was given 3 extra weeks to complete it. The few of us that completed our dissertation for mid-March are now surrounded by our coursemates that are spending an extensive amount of time in the library, analysing their data and discussing their research questions.
For those of us that have handed in our dissertations, this has made completion quite an anti-climax, as friends around us are experiencing high levels of stress about the nearing deadline. Selfishly, I think it would have been brilliant to all get our dissertations handed in at the same time to celebrate together. However, as people are increasingly carrying a lot of mental struggles on their shoulders for many reasons, this has understandably made this already daunting task even more difficult.
From observing and conversing with others it seems that viewing this piece of work as a 10,000 word essay induces an overwhelming sense of anxiety about this task. However, from chatting to geographers in the year above about their dissertations, one piece of advice they gave which I found very helpful was to simply see it as five 2000-word essays. When looking back on the work we have completed whilst at university, we have been able to finish off so many smaller pieces of work. A dissertation combines all of those smaller pieces of work together, and viewing this task in that light massively helped me see this assignment as less daunting.
Throughout the months of typing away at a screen, I also found it important to put time into the things that would help me be more productive with it in the long run. For me, this meant getting plenty of time outside going on walks and runs, listening to some new music, having dinner with friends, going to see family and making weekend plans to break the working week up from some much-needed rest. When aiming to complete work for a deadline, we have all at some point underestimated how important rest is. However, aforementioned this can actually increase your productivity and maintain your focus for completing your dissertation.
Seeing friends around you stress about their dissertations may cause you to feel the urge to help them. Despite not greatly being able to help others with their actual dissertations, simply being there as company when they need it, offering to cook them dinner, ensuring they have plenty of breaks from their work and just being there, has the power to be greatly beneficial to them. It’s also important to remember that there are some very fun times ahead, and summer is just around the corner!