Managing Time and Resources for Dissertation Writing During Extended Travels

When you undertake to write a dissertation, you make a promise. When you travel while writing it, those extra layers of complexity can feed your spirit and your soul – while providing you with materials, fresh interpretive lenses, and memories. They also, if not managed carefully, threaten to make it impossible to keep your promise. Regarding your time, your travel resources, and your writing time as inextricably interwoven allows you to write on the road until your home base beckons you back. If you need additional support, writing services dissertation platforms like Academized can help.

There are steps you can take to help manage both time and budget when traveling.

1. Create a Flexible Work Schedule

It can be hard to stick to a routine while traveling, so taking off a few hours on a day to dedicate to writing your dissertation is best planned in larger writing blocks that fit in around your travel activities.

Draw up a schedule for the week ahead, and carve out moments when you can give your full attention to the dissertation, using airport or bus journey downtime, or an evening in a hotel. Schedule travel times so that any distractions get cut off. Structure your time with fluidity and originality so that you are able to get things done without wrecking the travel experience.

Prioritize Daily Writing Goals

Instead, set micro-writing goals, like ‘I’m going to draft a section today’, or ‘I’m going to read through my notes’. Breaking the larger goal of writing a thesis into bite-sized chunks discourages that ‘I’ll just start writing tomorrow’ feeling. For students looking to enhance productivity, using one of the best college paper writing services can also provide structure and feedback during this process.

2. Stay Organized with Cloud Storage

For instance, you might not fancy the idea of having to lug around physical paper and other materials while travelling. And you don’t need to do that any more – because you can store your research, your drafts and your notes in the cloud, and access them from everywhere and at whatever device you use – whether that’s your work computer, home computer, tablet or mobile phone. Use Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive for this.

Always store all your files in subfolders with clearly descriptive names in case you need to find a specific file you feel you have lost in the dark. Also, backup your files regularly to save yourself from losing all of your work, and lastly, once you are finally able to retrieve your work from any device: free yourself to work wherever you can, in an airport, at a coffee shop, anywhere you can get away with it.

3. Manage Your Time with Effective Tools

Working on a dissertation while travelling is an exercise in Zen-like time-management. Digital tools can help. Programs such as Trello, Asana and Todoist allow you to take your dissertation and break all the tasks down into smaller, actionable steps – then schedule a deadline for each.

Researchers in the Journal of Educational Psychology found that students who utilised task-management tools finished their writing projects on time, and were 26 per cent more likely to complete them than students who didn’t.

They also allow you to see how much time you are spending on every part of the deliverable so you know if you are over-staffing or under-staffing areas of your project, and can schedule adjustments to stay on track.

4. Balance Productivity with Travel Experience

If traveling as a researcher, one thing worth keeping in mind is that you should spend some time working. However, you must also spend some time enjoying your experience. It is a balancing act. We might even call it ‘time-travel’; but actually, it shouldn’t only be a novelty. You don’t want to burn out on your trip, but you also don’t want to miss out on the potential. One option is to consider splitting your day into work-leisure phases.

Finding this balance will allow you to maximize your productivity without feeling like you’re missing out on travel. Make sure you set clear parameters for when you’re ‘at work’ and when you’re free to explore, so you’re not fretting about feeling guilty or anxious during either.

5. Use Local Resources to Fuel Your Research

Long-term travel opens the door to more interesting research possibilities and, depending on your dissertation subject, it may be that local resources are available that could serve to complement your work. A library, museum or university in your destination city may house relevant materials.

Research opportunities likewise might take the shape of interviews with local people or observations relevant to your project, and should be jotted down for their experiential and potentially original potential contributions to your writing; academic communities overseas can serve as sources of knowledge that might add an important dimension to your dissertation.

And sometimes that inspiration doesn’t specifically relate to your dissertation topic. It could simply be a new way of thinking, or a cultural insight, that will help you look at your research in a new way.

6. Stay in Touch with Your Advisor and Peers

It’s essential to keep in touch with your dissertation advisor and academic peers while you’re traveling. Set up regular virtual meetings via Skype or FaceTime to catch up with your advisor and to share the progress you’re making. Regular check-ins will ensure that you stay on track and that your advisor knows where you are with your work.

A growing number of universities have online forums or support groups where you can connect with other students who are writing their dissertations, gaining some useful advice, feedback or just some encouragement if you are writing in isolation and experiencing some levels of frustration.

Use Video Conferencing Tools

With video conferencing tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, keeping up with your advisor from halfway around the globe should not be a challenge. Come to meetings with a list of questions or updates, so you can make the most of it.

7. Adjust Expectations and Be Kind to Yourself

Moreover, your plans really must be flexible: traveling adds many more variables to your life than routine does, and there will be days where you can’t get any writing done. It’s best to prepare yourself for this beforehand in order to avoid frustration.

Conclusion

This is not to say that it’s impossible to write a dissertation while on extended travels: good time management and planning can help, especially if you set flexible deadlines and utilise digital tools to help with organization. Writing requires finding the right balance between work and play, responsibilities and relaxation, and will often be more closely tied to the former than the latter while completing a PhD. While you might miss deadlines now and then, maintaining a writing schedule while on the road, if you can, will help you stay focused. Use local resources, stay in touch with your advisor, organize your research materials, and be patient. Almost anything is possible with a patient and balanced approach.