Day 26: Inconsistency

I went to the office yesterday (any sentence that starts that way is bound to signal a day of not getting any writing done). I didn't get any writing done. BUT, what I did get done is scanning all my field notes, and starting my thesis binder (found on the left here). The binder actually has a bunch of white papers that serve as placeholders.

When I first held the stack of papers, I nearly cried. They were still at about 128, but I realized that whatever I had achieved up to that point, was a monumental task! It takes a lot of energy, discipline, and focus, even to produce that much! And, that's about what my thesis was.

So, the next step now is to turn a thesis into a dissertation, and almost double the amount of writing I have to do. That's not true, actually. I just need to write about seventy pages between now and January 26, about two weeks from now. That's 35 pages per week, which is totally doable. Right. Meh. I need another month to get this puppy in a presentable format! Worse comes to worst, if I'm not fully done with a polished version by the time I defend, I'll have a couple of weeks, or even a month to get everything in. But, I don't want to take that option. My goal is to defend on March 26. Period. And then I'll deal with the rest later.

Today's goal is to finish cataloging my fieldnotes, and then code as many as I can. By tonight, I really would like to start the analysis. It's going to be a Rapid Coding day, but so what. The point is to get it all done, and then get to the analysis. My committee will not care the least in the quality of my coding. All they care about is my write-up, and I'm nowhere near that point yet.

But first... breakfast!

Day 24: No sense of perfectionism!

I'm very overwhelmed with the amount of data that I have. I honestly did not think that I had this much, but after I've compiled my notebooks and everything, I'm realizing that I have a massive amount of data. Well, I think it's big enough to get a dissertation out of, anyhow.

Now, how to organize it all.

I have a number of options:

1. Type everything up, and then code everything
2. Scan everything, and only code what's important
3. Catalog everything, and only code and enter what's important into a spreadsheet, or even directly into Atlas.ti.
4. Catalog everything (notebooks, etc.), and then only type the quotation that I need, and then code that.

I think essentially 2 and 4 are basically the same. But, with 4 I don't have to scan things first. I can just enter in what I have.

But, I think before moving forward, I should just code the 135 pages of notes that I already have typed up, and see how that goes. I don't think I want to code every single thing like I did with the interviews, but I think I should at least try to figure out what I have, and what I still need from my notes, and go from there.

Remember also to keep a notebook to the side with observations or things I remember as I go through the process of reading and coding.

Today is Friday. I am determined to get all my FN coded and/or cataloged by Sunday night. That's it. Period.

Do them in chunks at a time, and just keep going through them as I go. I don't need to spend too much time on grunge work. I just have to get done.