‛making progress: avoiding defeatism and self-sabotage’ has been developed by vitae © 2009...

‛Making progress: avoiding defeatism and self-sabotage’ has been developed by Vitae© 2009 Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited. Please refer to www.vitae.ac.uk/resourcedisclaimer for full conditions of use.

Making progress: avoiding defeatism and self-sabotage


Learning outcomes

By the end of this session you will have:

• Discussed your own working practices and considered how constructive they are

• Learnt about the physiological basis of stress and considered typical symptoms

• Considered strategies to deal with stress and negative thinking


Self-sabotage

• Sabotage: to ruin, destroy or disable deliberately and maliciously

• Self-sabotage: to act against your own best interests, whether consciously or unconsciously


When do you self-sabotage?

• In pairs discuss things that you do that on reflection make the completion of your PhD less likely


Progress?

• In groups discuss when you feel like you are making progress on your PhD

• When do you feel that you are not making progress?

• Focus on specific events and examples


The fight or flight response


Stress: physical symptoms

• Constant tiredness• Limbs

heavy/face/taut/neck stiff • Breathlessness/sweating

without exertion• Feeling faint at times• Light, patchy sleep • Weepiness• Lack of appetite • Indigestion or heartburn

• Sickness/diarrhoea• Headaches/migraine • Disinterest in sex • Craving for food when

under pressure • Increased reliance on

caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes, chocolate, sugar

• Nervous tics, nail-biting • Inability to sit still without

fidgeting


Stress: mental symptoms• Reluctance to laugh/smile

or make jokes • Poor concentration • Tendency to flit from task to

task• Inability to finish a task

properly• A lack of drive/motivation in

your work • Feelings of guilt/inadequacy

where work is concerned/ feeling of being a failure

• Lack of interest in life and in activities that previously gave you pleasure

• No desire to contact people/loss of interest in your friends

• Difficulty in making decisions• Constant irritability • Feeling of helplessness and

lack of control • Feeling of being surrounded

by busy people• Feelings of inadequacy in

relationship to your partner• No real interest in the future• Frustration at not being able

to show your true feelings• Forgetfulness


Balance of activities in your life

• There are 168 hours a week

• How do you divide them between:

° Routine activities (sleep/travel etc)

° Work (including PhD)

° Play

Ideal1003434


Stress management: physical• Take regular exercise• Go outside and experience the daylight• Try to walk, talk and move at a slower pace• For some, yoga/meditation or relaxation tapes may

help• Allow at least 30 minutes at mealtimes. Try to eat

slowly• Examine your diet. Make sure that it is balanced and

provides you with plenty of energy• Reduce your dependence on drugs (including coffee,

pain killers and wine)• Seek advice if relationships are upsetting you


Stress management: physical

• Your supervisor calls you and says:

• How do you feel?

‘I’d like to have a look at how you are getting on. Can you send me the chapter that we discussed at our last supervision? Don’t worry if it is not quite finished yet.’


Common problems

Performance anxiety:

• Daunted by the size of the task

• Perfectionism

• Fear of consequences

• Lack of self-belief


Dealing with negative thoughts

ANTsAutomatic negative thoughts

MATHsMore accurate thoughts


Dealing with performance anxiety

By the end of this session you will have:• Free writing – ‘write rubbish’• Three-draft approach

1. Get the big ideas down

2. Structure and fill in the gaps

3. Proof• Use a draft stamp• ‛Nail your feet to the floor’


Creating realistic plans

• Chunk work up

• Try to achieve something concrete every day/week

• Reward achievement

• Keep track of the whole


Tips to help you achieve

• Realise that you have a choice

‘I could work’ or ‘I could go out’. Choose and then act, don’t then feel guilty

• Work no more than eight hours a day

• Get at least a day’s leisure time every week

• Regard your work as a job not as your life

• Control your environment. Put yourself in a situation that minimises distractions


Measures of progress

Not so useful• Tasks started• Hours worked• Unrealistic

assessments of standard

• Lists of failures

Useful• Tasks completed• Number of words

written/interviews/ data collected per day

• Percentage of the whole completed


Make some progress

• Identify the next day or half-day that you have available for your research

• What are you going to do on that day?

• What will you have achieved by the end of the day?

• What kind of impact will this have made on your project?

‛making progress: avoiding defeatism and self-sabotage’ has been developed by vitae © 2009...

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