Writing a Thesis in Lockdown
Last summer, my friends and I were joking about how cool it would be to take off to Mauritius and have a mini writing retreat on the beach once we’re done with all of our experiments. The thought of sitting at a table with a sea facing view, notes spread out on the table, and a glass of fresh coconut water was very appealing! With the thesis as the only source of entertainment, with no distraction, motivation should not be an issue surely.
Fast forward a few months, a global pandemic happened, the university closed and we were told to go home, if possible. Within 24hrs I was back in Mauritius, two days before a national lockdown. Be careful what you wish for, right? After the initial dose of anxiety and shock, I thought, well this might be the writing retreat I was hoping for. So, I set up a work space, plugged in my multiple external hard drives and got down to business. The first few days were spent drawing up several to-do lists, replying to emails, scheduling calls with my supervisors, and organising Netflix parties. Soon enough, once it was time to actually start writing, I realized how volatile my focus was! Anything and everything would be so much more interesting that the writing. I mean, of course colour-coding my calendar is much more interesting than figuring out the codes to represent 82 data points and 4 parameters on the same graph! So, first lesson learnt: productivity is going to be a challenge!
Then came even stricter rules, with a sanitary curfew instated. This meant that we’re not allowed to leave our houses unless for medical reasons or for grocery shopping on our allocated days, based on an alphabetical order system. Second lesson learnt: feeling trapped is not really conducive to productivity. I eventually realized that the best way to get some work done would be to have lots of procrastination breaks throughout the day, and to set myself weekly goals. Having a lot of short breaks meant that I can do some writing knowing that soon enough I’ll get to take a break and do non-thesis related things, like bug my cat or watch one (or two or three) episode of Money Heist. You might think that this sounds like a lot of time wasted, and there’s definitely some truth to that. Nevertheless, it was a lot easier to stay productive throughout the day and the work load was definitely decreasing. Crossing out tasks from my weekly goals list was very satisfying and made the thesis look less scary. I was starting to settle into this new work routine. A few weeks later, electricity started betraying me! For some island life related reasons, daily power cuts, and therefore internet interruptions, started and they had the knack of happening right in the middle of syncing files or during a zoom call with the supervisors! I’ve never been more appreciative of the stable and backed-up wi-fi of the university.
Eventually, the long hours turned into days and then months and baaaam, two months later, the thesis was done! It was a tedious journey, especially when you’re trapped at home! In my opinion, a stable internet connection, some peace and quiet are super important for some productive writing hours. Working from home, especially under lockdown conditions, is not ideal, as other than being worried about a global pandemic, there are so many distractions with parents, pets, thin walls, neighbors who love loud music! Then, there is also the deeply felt absence of writing buddies. Being able to organise library dates, taking tea breaks together, or discussing how far below the 60,000 word limit can we stretch. I missed it all! We did manage to have tea breaks over Facetime and I harassed a few friends to fix my code via Facebook messenger… However, submitting the thesis by clicking a button online instead of getting the whole posse to accompany me to the famous door to get the “THESIS SUBMITTED” photo, was so anticlimactic. It was a huge relief, of course, but still felt incomplete. Just as pretty much everything else did during this pandemic, due to the unpleasant feelings associated with the forced changes to our life plans.
Overall, it was most certainly not an ideal situation, but hey, we learn to be resilient and we adapt! I am now looking forward to the big reunion with the lads, for a long overdue celebration of finishing our PhDs, and surviving these uniquely challenging times!