How to stay motivated during the thesis?

Why am I doing a thesis? All doctoral students have already asked themselves this question or will definitely one day. You were very motivated at the beginning and then, you started writing your first article, invading students came to interrupt you and your family/friends wondering when you will have a real job. You start losing motivation....How to keep motivated?

On June 21st 2019, we organized a PhD students' lunch about this very important question that trigers you all. Tips and tricks were exchanged and we wanted to share them with you! So here are some tips to get through this period more easily.

1 - HAVE FAITH IN YOU

The thesis is like a long road full of doubts and questions. But, you need to have faith in you. The thesis consists in creating one's own path within one's research. It's normal not to always know exactly where you're heading from the beginning of your thesis. The thesis is about moving forward (sometimes blindly), making mistakes, reorienting oneself, adapting to the results, finding new leads, etc...

Please, keep in mind that having a bad result in research is not a failure. You have explored a new path and it did not succeed, so what? It took 5126 failures for the Dyson vacuum cleaner before it became a worldwide success. You need to keep on doing tests.

2 - Take a break and don't feel guilty about it

The thesis is about 60% of pleasure and 40% of difficulty. Obviously this varies from one period to another, but if you feel demotivated to the point that the percentage of "pleasure" is less than 40%, it means you need to take a BREAK!

When we say "break", we are not talking about a day or two, but at least a week's break, an actual holiday. And for this break to be effective, we must not spend 7 days in bed eating ourselves up with guilt for not being working on our thesis.

Take the opportunity to spend time with your loved ones, especially those who are not in the academic or research world and who will help you forget about the thesis for a week. Take this opportunity to also rediscover your hobbies: piano, singing, surfing, tango, etc. You need to remember that life is not all about the thesis, keeping this in mind will help you to rationalize and regain your motivation!

Beyond taking a break, it is always good to keep having hobbies and interests that are not thesis-related: spend time with your friends, invest yourself in your family etc... The work-life balance is crucial -to put things into perspective and not feel overwhelmed by your thesis.

3 - Ask for advice from a trusted person

Seek advice from a kind promoter or post-doc. They've been there before and will have practical advice to give you.
Ask for advice or seek support from a caring colleague(s).
Make an appointment with Jean Dubois or Clémentine Jacobs, Euraxess cell associates, who are available for you in case of any difficulty or question related to the PhD: euraxess@unamur.be.
Speak to an understanding relative who is not part of the academic world, he/she can help you to "play down" the thesis and take a step back.

4 - Join the PhD community

Join the facebook group of UNamur PhD students (doctoral students@UNamur) to share tips, events, humor, etc. Link : https://www.facebook.com/groups/1826844684260115/
Take part to the PhDs' lunch organized by the Euraxess unit once a month and during which the doctoral students meet around a theme to share advice and support each other.
Take a look at this page : http://phdcomics.com/ where you will find hundreds of cartoons on the life of doctoral student. Because sometimes it's better to laugh than to cry!
You can also find the movie "PHD the movie" on the UNamur website.

5 - Vary your tasks

If you are an assistant, vary your daily tasks between assistant tasks and thesis work (for example Monday schedule: 2 hours of writing, 2 hours of exam correction, 2 hours of research, 2 hours of TP preparation, etc.). )

You can also vary your tasks by investing your research time in popularizing science. Among other things, you can take part in the MT180 (my thesis in 180 seconds) training and competition to learn how to popularize your research work and your thesis. It will also give you the opportunity to meet other PhD students from various disciplines and create an actual camaraderie together. Isn't that a good motivation?

Participate in training courses in transversal skills, such as those offered at UNamur: U2ES and the TRANSUNIV training courses. The doctoral regulations provide for a minimum of 5 credits in transversal skills. By taking part in these training courses, you will therefore vary your working hours and obtain credits, waht else can you ask?

6 - PrepaRE YOUR FUTURE after the thesis

We strongly advise you to participate in job fairs for young researchers to meet recruiters from companies and public organizations looking for your profile. On the one hand, meeting recruiters who value your thesis and your skills will re-motivate you. On the other hand, it is also a great opportunity for you to already plan your post-thesis project, to see which skills you need to develop further, etc.

Assess your skills using tools such as VITAE. This type of tool will help you analyse the skills you have already acquired through your thesis and the skills you should develop further. Achieving the acquired skills (which you had not thought of! ) through the thesis will be a real source of motivation for you and will give you the strengh to go on.