10th February 2018

My self-imposed timeframe for completion of this professional doctorate is challenging, at Viva and completion of the thesis in early 2020.  My supervisory team, (who I will introduce later) are supporting this ambition, and hold me to account against the deliverables at each supervisory meeting.  My first draft of my literature review post-PDDM and pre-Christmas was a 2000 word literature review on Psychological Resilience.  I failed on every level; I failed to reach the desired word-count, my content was all over the place and I even forgot to include the references used to gather the reading list.  I gave myself a few days to absorb the feedback from my supervisory team, which was very supportive, before squaring my shoulders again and basically starting from scratch.  What I did take from the ProfDoc conference was Grace Poulters “do a little often” method for critical reading and writing.  I transposed Grace Poulters critical reading word document into an excel data gathering machine and added in some filters and a wee bit of formula and discovered loads about the literature.  I am finding techniques to help me identify, analyse and produce evidence to support my thesis.

On Saturday 10^th of Feb, I delivered a fresh 2000 words towards my literature review and sent this off to Grace for feedback in relation to my academic writing.   My full literature review is due at the end of May (no time at all).  I am truly learning how to be a student now!

On Sunday of last week, I climbed two Munros to get some head space.  If you read my blog page on Retaining the Balance you’ll read that I finally figured out that you have to acknowledge when you have reached a seam or a stop line with data or it will continue to suck you in until you are completely lost or off on a new path.  Therefore, Eileen Logic dictates, acknowledge when you have read enough and like the mountains, you can always go back another time to conquer new vistas.  #ProfDockers