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Supervisors grow impatient when students seem to prefer planning and discussing to engaging in their research.
To most students, final academic projects seem like momentous occasions – because they are. In most programmes, the final project is worth many credit points. Consequently, the grade achieved in the project will either weigh heavily on or substantially lift the overall evaluation of the student’s performance. Thus, whatever is being implemented takes careful consideration. And planning. And replanning. And discussion. And some more planning. In other words: much ado about very little actual advancement.
Getting cold feet in light of momentous challenges is nothing particularly unusual. Students are in a social context that prides itself on considering challenges carefully and that shuns rushing to action or conclusions. Thus, it does not come as a surprise that students find it difficult to complete preparations and finally set sail to embark on their academic voyage. Things simply could always be a little better thought out. An overlooked issue might weigh heavily on an otherwise well set-up project. While there is nothing to be held against thorough preparation, each phase of a research project should remain in a useful balance. Extending the preparation phase of any research project considerably comes with a tax on motivation and drive, which is commonly fuelled by advancement. Combine the absence of advancement with comparison behaviour, and you end up being stuck before you even really got going. Beyond this experiential challenge, there are cognitive and logical issues with sticking too long around first base. First, the challenges you try to anticipate simply are either not visible or possible to characterize appropriately from the starting line. Second, solutions to challenges are usually devised from the resources and insights generated in situ: another set of information you do not have reliable information on before you get started and involved in your project.
Instead of endlessly pondering, planning, and discussing your plans for your research project, let’s rather introduce a culture of incremental strategy development throughout your project, based on the new information you have on your subject and advancement of your project.
Some projects never get done because they never really started. Others become much more painful to complete due to excessive mulling over scenarios that are impossible to foresee or evaluate appropriately. Worrying breeds worrying. To avoid getting stuck before you even got going with your project, set a time frame in which you develop your plan for your project. If you have the time to focus on it, this might be one or two weeks. Then, you set out to revise your plan by working on the extant literature. Plan and carry out revisions of your original research strategy in sensible intervals or at neuralgic potions throughout your journey. Try to involve your mentor when you arrive at critical phases – e.g. before gathering your data. Never stop considering the strategic positioning of your thesis project or your plans to implement it, but rather accept it as an ongoing task and not as one that will be entirely completed before setting off. You will likely need to devise solutions for challenges you encounter along the way.
What do you recommend to students who are stuck before really taking off? How do you revise the strategy of the research projects you work on?