Until my dissertation is due in and I am struggling with it all. I have only written about 700 words since the weekend, and I am struggling to put one word in front of the other. I intend to work hard on it over the weekend, and at 11,700 words am making reasonable progress but it would be fair to say that I could have worked harder. Doing a masters course at the same time as working full time is no mean feat, but I find that I struggle to be motivated after work to get down to the books and actually writing stuff.

To keep me going I am now thinking of all the things that I will be able to do when I no longer have to read books about leadership and action learning and when I no longer have to write about methodologies and data analysis. So here follows a list of things that both need to be done and can be done after Friday 1st.

1.  Housework – I have had the dyson out this evening, but all cleaning in the last few weeks has been superficial, I don’t want to do housework but it will have to be done and done thoroughly.
2. Buy and read a newspaper without feeling guilty. I usually only buy them at the weekend, but there is nothing better than curling up on the sofa with the newspaper on a sunday afternoon (well maybe there might be but you can’t have everything)
3. Read a book that hasn’t been sourced from the university library or bought from the reference book section of amazon. I want to read novels, nothing too deep and meaningful, but a novel just the same.
4. Go out for the day at the weekend, visit places and people without thinking that I should be at home doing something more important.
5. Get stuck into my new job and read about the things that go with it without thinking about the other reading I need to do for my dissertation.

So just a week and between 4 and 9, 000 words to go. I for see a heavy weekend, but I do see the light at the end of the tunnel! Photo from here