I have just come across an interesting blog post by tom.basson, titled 16 Tips to Simplify Your Life (and Increase Your Productivity). Some of his tips I found surprisingly great – although I would not have related them to simplicity in life – e.g. Tip No. 10: “Eat a big healthy breakfast.” 
However, I agree that a healthy and relaxed breakfast definitely is a better start into the day than getting up and ready in a rush and quickly downing a cup of coffee before you run to the train station.
For the past 8 weeks, my friend and I have been working on a simplification plan for our dissertation projects while we were pursuing a slightly adapted version of the 16 week challenge. Both of us work in a large company to earn our livings, both of us have to squeeze the research and writing in between of work, household stuff and our social lives, which is not always easy. So, we have been looking into how we can make our lives really simple and be more productive in writing and doing research without neglecting other things.
So, I would like to share our findings so far… 5 really great tips to simplify your dissertation project:
1. Have a social life. Spending an evening with your friends and having fun can be a lot more inspiring than staying at home, desperately trying to get that one more page written.Plan at least one per week.
2. Plan minimum goals. Nothing is more frustrating than planning too much into your day. We, in our situation, found that sparing 1 hour a day for writing (at best, this is the first thing you do in the morning; cf. ->) is achievable. This is our minimum goal. Reaching it (almost) every day makes us feel a lot better than aiming at the stars, to no avail.
3. Learn to say no. (#5 on Tom’s list) …and I would like to add a quote from Tom’s site to that: “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” This is particularly true for working doctoral students.
4. Plan your week ahead. (#6 on Tom’s list) My friend and I both found planning and goal setting very helpful. Each week, we sit down together and have a look at what we achieved, talk about what went wrong, why, and how we will do better in the future. Then we commit ourselves to minimum goals we want to achieve until the next week. However, don’t make the mistake and over-plan. We found that staying flexible and being able to move appointments and to dos around makes us feel a lot better than sticking to strict time tables. It can always happen that you wanted to write the end of a chapter, but, somehow, your head is awefully empty. As soon as you realize this, go and do something else. Excercise, have an Aperol Sprizz with your friends, or knit yourself a beanie. Don’t use this as an excuse, though. It’s rather an emergency plan that should prevent you from falling into depression.
5. Enjoy the process of writing and be proud of yourself.
. No, seriously, it’s great! Check it out!
But, oh well, another blog with valuable tips and tricks… I once read a dictum on one of those tear-off calendars saying: “You never get what you want, but what you deserve.” *haha*
