inshaaAllah how to manage your result and discussion?

this is a great advice from Norazah Abdul Aziz. just wanna share it with all of you.

:) hope it helps!

Assalamu'alaikum wr wb Ungku Azmi,

Just thought I should keep to my promise before I leave the Uni and walk home

2 weeks ago, I was struggling with structuring the flow of reporting my findings because I have too much data (66 items/questionnaire and 350 respondents) and the constructs to my survey instrument was not tightly grouped together. As a result, I had to reword my sub-research questions and pull apart my questionnaire and report the findings based on relevance to my research questions and the theory I was using to inform my study. Alhamdulillah, it’s all looking much better now

What I wanted to share was, in order to organize my thoughts and work, my supervisor suggested that prior to writing,

1. List out my research questions
2. Summarize the purpose and aim of my questionnaire
3. What are the dimensions in the questionnaire
4. What are the main findings
5. Which RQ does it answer
6. What do the findings mean – can be theoretically grounded or just a hunch/gut feeling

and submit a 2-3 page report of all of the above. It took me just a day to come out with the report but the result of this reorganizing my thoughts and writing a summarized version of the findings chapter helped tremendously in the planning and structuring of the actual full chapter. It was like building a framework and once the framework is solid, you just need to pluck and put in the relevant data and analysis. In addition to that, the 3 page report I submitted made it so much easier for me to finalize my interview questions so I can tease out in-depth information that was either unanswered through the questionnaire or additional information to triangulate my findings and make it richer.

Anyway, that’s my experience and I just thought that if I shared it with you and you had your own experience to add on to it, it’ll be a good post for your blog . I've shared it recently with a couple of Malaysian friends (DSG member and ex-member ) studying here and they found it useful too.

Anyway, if it is useful, by all means, make full use of it, if not, I'm fine with the idea that I have share it with a fellow PhDian

May Allah's help and blessings be upon us and other PhDians we know out there, aameen.

Best regards, Azah

inshaaAllah how to do research part time or when u're SUPER busy? - PART 2

remember what we learned before?

DHL

Divide and conquer

Habit

Log daily progress

ahh.. okay. now let's look at the second one. Habit!

Habit

what do u do everyday? do u watch TV everyday? or maybe read the newspaper? do u notice that u dont need any push to do these things. they come naturally, almost automatic. that's the magic of having a habit. it happens everyday without any conscious effort.

freedigitalphotos.net

when u're really busy or doing research part time, u need to make research a habit. yes, im gonna say that again. u need to make research a habit. something that happens automatically, on auto pilot. why? well.. isnt the answer obvious .. wouldnt it be great if you could do research like watching TV? and suddenly after one month, u get the results? :)

to make research a habit, just pick one task from your plan everyday. the plan is the thing that u made from divide and conquer. u need to do this daily if u can. just one simple task from the plan and no more. the task should take at most 20 minutes. 

Study theory of relativity

• learn basic principle
• look up on wikipedia (20m)
• what?
• why?
• how?
• use?

so, today i will just look at what is theory of relativity from wikipedia, understand and write it down inshaaAllah. an important principle to remember here is consistency. it's okay to start small. as long as you are consistent. inshaaAllah within a month u will see how far u've progressed.

inshaaAllah how to do research part time or when u're SUPER busy? - PART 1

remember the 3 main principles? Tawakkal, Imperfection coolness, Purpose (NICE). why is it important to use NICE? do you know why? if you can answer all these then let's go on to the next lesson.

freedigitalphotos.net

the next thing u gotta do is practice DHL. yeah, DHL. the superfast courier service. u can send a teddy bear from malaysia and it will reach north pole tomorrow. :) and the teddy bear would still be warm from your hug. wow.

DHL

Divide and conquer

Habit

Log daily progress

Divide and conquer

i've talked about divide and conquer before in the DSG forum but let's look at it more closer. the thing about being human is our need to procrastinate something that looks heavy. imagine the thought of moving your whole furniture into a new room. do u feel tired? yes... and that's just your imagination. now, imagine moving a single book. is it tiring? not really. 

so, we're gonna use this in our part time research inshaaAllah. for every goal that u have, break it down again and again until they're munching size. in other words, divide them again and again into tasks, until the thought of doing each task would not require any strong motivation. the rule of the thumb is to divide it into a task that can be completed within 20 minutes or less. let's look at an example.

Study theory of relativity : 2 months 

(whoa.. sounds heavy. the 2 months timeline is a great excuse to procrastinate)

so.. im gonna employ divide and conquer here .. to make it appear less daunting inshaaAllah.

Study theory of relativity

• learn basic principle
• look up on wikipedia (20m)
• what?
• why?
• how?
• use?
• find real life examples
• look for examples in youtube (20m)
• write findings
• end
• read up simple tutorials
• find three simple tutorials
• tutorial 1
• tutorial 2
• tutorial 3
• read tutorial
• what is theory of relativity?
• why is it that way?
• what is the use?
• how to calculate it?
• example of calculation?
• end
• read theoretical foundation
• what is the basis of the theory?
• run program on scilab
• download scilab
• run scilab
• find source code
• end

and everytime u complete a microtask, scratch it from the list and pat yourself on the back. well done! feels good to get things done, no matter how small it is. so, let's say u found it on wikipedia and read it.

Study theory of relativity

• learn basic principle
• look up on wikipedia (20m)
• what? .. 
• why? ..
• how?
• use?
• find real life examples
• look for examples in youtube (20m)
• write findings
• end

ok, hope it helps! :)

inshaaAllah how to do research part time or when u're SUPER busy? - INTRO

yes, i know the feeling. :) tonnes of work to be done but u have only a few minutes at ur disposal? planning to graduate with your friends who are doing their phd full time? when u're doing it part time, u're gonna need these things first ..

1. tawakkal

pray and learn to rely on Allah swt. don't rely on your intelligence or hardwork because it's gonna be too much. when ibnu sina did his research on medicine, he did it alone, for about 5 years and published a journal on his findings. a university from the western civilization found the journal and studied it. how long do u think it took them? 400 years. yeah, 400 years. why? because ibnu sina relied on Allah but the westerners relied on their IQ and hardwork. so, make the right choice inshaaAllah. :)

2. imperfection coolness

u have to let go of perfection. i know it's not as good or not as perfect as u want it to be .. but u gotta let it go. remember the pareto principle. 20% of effort results to 80% of outcome. so now, u gotta be cool with imperfection. dont get me wrong. u can always improve things bit by bit later on.

3. purpose

u have to be clear with your purpose. for everything that u do, u gotta ask yourself. ..

do i really need this? 

for instance, if u need to do an interview, and the author suggests 70 candidates. then ask yourself, do i really need 70 people? is there another alternative with lesser people? if u can find another literature that shows 40 people will give the same accuracy, which one is better?

inshaaAllah, for everything that u do, the scope or how much work can be in four layers (remember NICE)

Need - what u really really need

Impact - what brings the most impact

Case - what u should consider in different cases

Extra - what u add to 'polish' ur research.

REMEMBER, finish all that u really 'need' to do before progressing to the impact, case and extra.

for instance, u wanna do the experimentation. figure out exactly what u really need. i've seen students spending a lot of time because they wanted the experiment to look grand. if u're a part time student, u should reassess the needs. only do what u need to do. when all of that is finished, look at things that can bring the most impact to ur research. then, if u hv more time, emphasize on different cases and finally, polish it with the extra things that can make it shine.

why do it this way?

okay.. let's say u have to write 3 chapters and u have 2 months ..

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

so, u started writing the 2nd chapter and u spend a lot of time polishing it .. u add up a lot of extra etc. what will happen? ur overall progress will look this way ...

CHAPTER 1 - ??

CHAPTER 2 - Need, Impact, Extra, Extra, Extra, Extra ..

CHAPTER 3 - ??

if the 2 months are up, can u submit ur work? definitely not! it's far from complete. chapter 1 and 3 are untouched with zero progress.

however, let's say u do it in layers, focusing on the Need, Impact, Case and Extra.

first cycle

CHAPTER 1 - Need

CHAPTER 2 - Need

CHAPTER 3 - Need

second cycle

CHAPTER 1 - Need

CHAPTER 2 - Need, Impact

CHAPTER 3 - Need

and suddenly u're out of time. can u submit ur work now? YES! although they're not perfect. u can still submit them inshaaAllah.

so, remember.. define your purpose in layers .. Need Impact Case Extra.

only do what u REALLY need first before going to the other layers.

hope it helps :)