Talk:Balancing teaching and dissertating

From Hortulus

I hope I'm doing this right! There was no "reply" button. :o(

This is a major issue for me as well, and I'm only working on my Master's thesis at present. I have been teaching full-time for ten years, and I teach six different classes a term, five terms a year at a year-round school. So my workload is staggering (but wonderful, because I have created so many courses from scratch, which has been excellent training for developing courses at the college level since my students are advanced/honors in many cases). But, by the time I'm done grading almost universally-bad student papers and prepping for class lectures, there's very little time left for my writing and research!

The only thing I can tell you is that I set aside one hour a day in the morning for me, every morning, that I can count on. I therefore wake up an hour earlier than I would like to most days - but that is the only time in a day that I can count on as mine. In this fashion, I have been able to get a good bit of reading done in terms of articles, abstracts, and the like. Longer books related to my research I have thus far had only the pleasure of skimming, but at least they are post-it noted and ready for when I do have more time, probably during break week. I've managed also to revise three conference papers by sticking to waking up that extra hour earlier. The way I see it, I'm investing in my future, and if I want to finish and get my PhD, it's up to me to make that happen.

But it is definitely a struggle!!!