I did the thing I told myself I would never do because it sounds like a really bad idea: I agreed to participate in two conferences that are barely a month apart. On the plus side the first one is at my home university so I don’t need to travel.
So I spent the last week and a half on my presentation for conference #1 and I am stuck. No matter what I do I can’t seem to get the introduction right. Of course, introductions are always the most difficult part but this time it just feels worse than usual. It’s almost as if the closer I am to finishing my dissertation and the more immersed I am in my sources, the harder it gets to dumb it down for people who have never heard of any of it.
My solution was to prioritise (because that has worked wonders in a different context). Rather than write, delete and rewrite said introdution over and over again, I put it away. And I’m not going to look at it until two workdays before the conference. Instead I have returned to my thesis and did some hardcore editing. Ironically, I wrote an amazing introduction to one of my thesis‘ chapters.
I’m not yet sure what I learned from this, though. Don’t force it? Remember what your main goal is (finishing the dissertation)? Perfection does not exist so let go of it? All of the above?
entera noticia 