While criticizing procrastination the other day, we realized that it would be fair to suggest a solution to it, so here it goes: 250 words a day add up to 91250 words a year.
That’s approximately one page a day, adding up to more than the average required word limit across all study programs at the University of Cambridge, and matches the length of the average dissertation ever written at the University of Minnesota. (If you know about more available data on the average dissertation length, please let us know about it, too).
In other words, you could submit a dissertation at most universities in one year, just by making one tiny bit of daily progress. Writing zero words a day will add up to nothing, and may result in 10 years spent in grad school, or dropping out. If you read up on marginal gains and continuous improvement, you may find the above-mentioned “250-words-a-day” approach even more appealing.
Do you think that wearing a “250 Words a Day” t-shirt could help a fellow PhD student realize the importance of incremental progress (aka “slow and easy gains“), and stick with a realistic daily writing goal? It surely is a good conversation starter, isn’t it?