Lack of focus in books instructing on the lack of focus… isn’t it ironical?

The idea of doing a PhD has been in my mind for quite some time. In fact I already started it when I was still living in Spain some years ago. At the time, due to my personal situation and other surrounding circumstances (not really relevant for this matter) I ended up quitting when I had already done a considerable work.

Those who know me know that although I am very engaged in my job as a petrochemical trader, teaching and the academic world have never completely left my mind. Recently, along with my decision to start teaching at the FOM University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf (experience about which I have recently wrote some lines in this blog. Read post) the idea of completing my PhD has emerged again with more strength than ever before. That is the reason why lately I have been avidly reading some specialised books on academic writing and how to write a PhD dissertation.  

After having finished “El Escritor Académico Productivo: Una Guía Fácil Para La Escritura Prolífica, Sin Estrés” (my free translation would be “The productive academic writer: an easy guide to efficient writing without stress”), I got the feeling that very often some books in this genre forget their main task, which should be helping the reader(s) to define strategies to enhance its own writing style, and focus way too much on complementary issues such as time optimisation, frequent writing training, stress management and so on. You can read here my review on Goodreads of the mentioned book. I have downloaded additional titles such as “How to start a doctoral dissertation”, “PhD in the USA”, and the well known “Academic Writing: Mastering the Fundamentals of Academic Writing to Deliver Outstanding Essays, Dissertations, and Papers and to Stand out of the Crowd … Practical Strategies for Students)”.

And I must say that feel really sorry for criticising this lack of focus, at least in the book I just finished, because in the end those books mean well. The only problem is that as -following their advice- I have to optimise my time, for topics such as time management or the so labelled “self development skills”, there are titles such as “Deep work” by Cal Newport (I’m just about to finish it and will comment my impressions in a future post. Spoiler alert!! It is really great!!) or any of the Tim Ferriss titles, which describe exactly those same topics with more depth, clarity and efficiency.

Every PhD is a journey, a long one full of self-discovery and self-development, both as an academic writer but most importantly, as a person. I am still considering how to start (or better expressed, how to resume) mine. In the meantime, I will continue to search for the best advisers and companions to help me make the most out of it.