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A thread on emotional tenacity and the doctorate. When you start out the doctorate has quite a lot of fun things built in (new people! new course structures!) and you have quite a lot of nervous energy going on. Over the first year you may feel some setbacks around developing 1/n
your research. Getting critique from your supervisors can be hard, for example. You may be able to draw on other doctoral students, but they may also be waxing lyrical about how encouraging their supervisors are. Don't worry, everyone has doubts. But you do have to find a way 2/n
to deal with critique. Rejection is a big part of academia. There are some good resources out there. But usually it's good to a) take some time to be grumpy and then b) look again at the feedback and see what will make your research stronger and why your supervisors are 3/n
saying that. So year 1 emotional tenacity has to do with the fear of failure, how to deal with feedback/ criticism, how to learn to deal with your supervisors (and I do think there is a skill to proactively managing your supervisor). Year 2: data collection. This can be the 4/n
the exciting part! Far flung places! Meeting participants! Transcribing... entering data... so here you have to deal with at least one of a couple of issues: 1, being far away from your support networks. And 2, actually a lot of research legwork is quite dull and not 5/n
intellectually challenging. 1 can be dealt with by setting up regular communication with others out there in the field. Social media makes this much easier than it used to be. And we all know about zoom coffee now. Talk to people who understand and who you can bitch about 6/n
the process to. 2) This requires interleaving the dull bits with the fun bits. Set yourself challenges. Do what it takes. Rewards. Deadlines. This is research too. Hopefully at some point you'll start employing people to do this kind of legwork but you have to learn what it's 7/n
like first! Then the third year - or longer. The writing up phase. Which is very much you in your head and with a computer. This can really be the bit where emotional tenacity is needed - especially now when you can't work in coffee shops and company. Also at some point 8/n
you will hate your project. This is normal and allowed. Give yourself a break. I don't have a lot of answers, but fellow travellers are an important resource. Personally I found team sports important. As a fellow rugby playing DPhil said, when balls are flying at your face 9/n
is the only time you can fully forget your thesis! YMMV. Do what works for you. Try different approaches - short stints, subheadings, group writing challenges, wine and coffee - whatever works for you. 10/10
