Welcome to Finish the Dissertation

This is a free and non-commercial service that has only one goal: to help you finish your dissertation and receive your doctoral degree. Our only hope is that you “pay it forward,” helping another doctoral candidate once you have completed your dissertation and received your degree.

Throughout this process, we will have one-to-one phone or video conference calls, depending on your technology and personal preferences. We should plan to meet monthly, and each meeting should focus on a specific goal you have achieved. These need not be major goals, such as a chapter, but might be only a synthesis of a few articles, a draft of a sub-section of a chapter, or preparation for a meeting with your advisor. You can set up a meeting by emailing Dreeves@ChangeLeaders.com or calling or texting (781) 710-9633.

One significant challenge for doctoral candidates is communicating with their advisors. If you do not already have your next meeting scheduled with your advisor, please schedule it now. If you are expecting to complete your dissertation within the next 12 months, then it is imperative that you also schedule your dissertation defense and have specific dates to get your dissertation delivered to your committee.

Please share with me any written work you have already completed, whether it is a proposal, prospectus, chapters, or just a rough draft of ideas.

Finally, a personal note. Most dissertation students tell me that once they finish their doctoral work, they will be better spouses, parents, colleagues, etc. That’s a really bad plan. You need to think of ways to be a better spouse, parent, colleague, etc. THIS WEEK, even if it’s just a walk, a shared coffee, or some time devoted exclusively to family and professional matters outside of your dissertation work. It’s fine to plan the vacation and other fun things when you finish, but don’t hold family and professional obligations hostage to completing your doctoral work – meet those obligations every week along the way so that you have the personal and professional support you will need to complete the work.

If your university provides a service to store all of your research, take advantage of it. If not, consider the free service Zotero, which automatically backs up all your research and literature reviews. Every dissertation writer’s worst nightmare is having all of their work on a computer that crashes or is stolen. With Zotero, your work is automatically backed up every time you log in.

We will talk more. I will have more detailed advice about your specific needs, but for now, good luck! I look forward to hearing from you.

Dr. Douglas Reeves
Dreeves@ChangeLeaders.com
(781) 710-9633