First, I would recommend taking the time to think through your question and your data collection method. This may seem obvious at first, but topics can morph and change over time to end up being something you never expected to do. Before you decide on one specific research question, just because it is something you are interested in, really think about what it might take to answer that one question. To put it simply, research the research! If you decide to do a qualitative study, read an article or two about qualitative data collection, qualitative analysis, qualitative visualizations – whatever it might be. I ended up collecting my own data and conducting interviews, which sounds simple but became the opposite – quickly. It often put me behind on some due dates because I had to rely on other people to not only respond to my emails, but schedule an hour to talk to me, before I could begin my data analysis. This analysis was then much more extensive than I realized it was going to be, and I put a lot more time into it than I expected to do when I originally designed my study.
Something else that helped me was not planning large blocks of time to write. I find in general this leads to burnout, and especially with a project you have been working on for so long. It may be easier to plan to do just one thing for half an hour, rather than having a whole list of things to do over a three hour time block (or, having a mix of these two methods!). You may be asked to create a writing plan, and I think really utilizing your shorter blocks of time can be beneficial in the long run. By balancing all of the different smaller tasks that come up through the day when you have the time, it can help you focus during those longer time periods when you just need to write.
Finally, make sure you like what you are researching. It may feel like you are just going through the motions, trying to get a proposal done, and you are not really thinking too hard about the next steps. However, those next steps will come, and you will be spending incredible amounts of time on this. If you are not passionate about your topic, it will feel burdensome and unrewarding by the end. This may mean you have to change your topic in the middle, and that is okay, because as long as you are interested in it, it will ultimately be easier (even if you end up pressed for time!).
Maya Benysh is a senior at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs studying Law and Public Policy, with minors in Spanish and International Economics.
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