“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” – Vincent van Gogh
Energy changes as you get older. It simply does. Do you remember when you used to start your night at 9:00 PM? You’d head to a café, order an espresso and pull a focused six-hour writing session without batting an eye.
Fast forward to today: it’s 9:00 PM and you’re fighting to keep your eyes open. You’ve spent the last ten hours being a worker, a parent and/or a caregiver. Your cognitive battery isn’t just low; it is blinking a well-earned red warning alarm.
In this exhausted state, the idea of finishing your dissertation feels like being tasked to climb Mt. Everest in flip-flops. The internal voice whispers, “I just don’t have the energy for this.”
You’re right. You don’t have the energy to do things as you had previously. To cross a mammoth finish line now, you must completely reevaluate your approach.
The Science of the Overloaded Brain
As a seasoned dissertation coach, I see brilliant scholars all around the world stall out, not because they lack the intellect and motivation, but because they are battling extreme cognitive load.
Research on cognitive load, described by John Sweller, shows that our working memory is limited. Mid-life scholars are rarely starting with an empty mental workspace: careers, finances, familial responsibilities and constant context-switching already consume bandwidth.
When you try to engage in a marathon writing session after a long day, you trigger mental fatigue (MF). Studies show that MF significantly decreases cognitive performance and increases task-avoidance.
This, in turn, is often unfairly labeled as laziness or procrastination when it’s simply the result of mental overwhelm.
Try the 20-Minute Micro-Sprint
The secret to finishing your dissertation isn’t “pushing through it ” but working in manageable, bite-sized steps. I teach my midlife clients to utilize micro-sprints or micro-sessions.
Instead of waiting for a quiet weekend afternoon that never seems to happen, look for 20-minute opportunities in your regular schedule. Perhaps this happens over lunch, or earlier in the morning before other family members wake up. Instead of turning on Netflix after dinner, consider a short dissertation work session. If possible, try to plan for these opportunities and schedule them in.
The Goal: Don’t think, “I Will Write the Dissertation”. Instead reframe and break up the task in front of you into something doable. With the 20 minutes available, clean up five citations, read a new article or synthesize one paragraph of the lit review. Focus on what you can do in the immediate time available.
Using this approach, you can make steady progress. Even completing a small task daily helps to prevent the all-too-common feelings of guilt and procrastination that keep so many midlife Ph.D. students stuck in limbo and not in a flow state.
You can finish this dissertation. Respect your internal battery, take the micro-sprints and finally claim the title you deserve.
If you need more hands-on support to complete your PhD, reach out to me. I’m happy to provide energetic support when you feel tapped out.