I was in the library just after 9am this morning; it’s now 1.45am, and I got home 15 minutes ago. A 16.5 hour day, not bad. It was punctuated by an hour spent with my classmates, first year and second students on our course, in a meeting about the Year Abroad. That was fun. It was also really nice to see so many of us Japanese studies students together, you know, like one big family. Even making it through the first year is quite an accomplishment – so in a way we were all survivors.

I think Angela (joint head of Japanese language) does a fantastic job in co-ordinating our year abroad placements. It’s one of those things you take for granted, but she must put in an awful lot of work to make it all happen. Thanks Angela.

…But anyway, apart from that interlude I was in the library, or the basement of the Arts Tower, working on my dissertation. It’s nearly done. I just have to check over my referencing and insert a Table of Contents, then that’s it.

Unfortunately there isn’t really all that much of a sense of achievement. The reason for this is that originally, it was what I felt was a pretty good study of Japan’s NGO sector. That was when it was 13,000 words long. But the limit, imposed on the department by the powers that be (who require uniformity across the faculty), is 7,700 (that’s including the 10% leeway), which means I have basically had to hack it to bits. What I’m left with is a footnote-heavy scribble, jam-packed with only the essential information, and lacking in context – I feel it’s rather a dull read.

I tried to get it down to the prescribed length, but it won’t go. Thus, I’ll have 2% knocked off my final mark for exceeding the word count, but I’d lose more if I tried to cut anything else out, and in a way I think its important to lose the marks – a vain attempt to make a point – you can’t really write a ‘dissertation’ with multiple chapters etc in 7,700 words. Extended essay yes, dissertation no. How about we are told “Between 7,000 and 10,000”. That would make more sense.

Perhaps I should just treat it as an exercise in being Concise.

But anyway, it’s not really about the final mark, it’s about the process, right? No, seriously, it is, and despite the stress and writer’s block, it’s been a really good module, and I’m glad that we’re required to do it. I’m also very grateful for the support I’ve received from my tutors, who saved me from a couple of nervous breakdowns.

And yeah, this procrastination thing: In a bid to avoid this dissertation, I have been very busy over the past few months getting all sorts of things done that would otherwise have gone undone. And now, with so much work to do on the piece and so little time to do it in, I’m forced to be highly productive for hours on end (like today). So, the overall effect is high productivity, high productivity. Win Win.

Must do this productive procrastination thing more often.

Anyway, best get off to bed. I have a team bonding session at 10am for an exciting new project I’m involved with at uni aiming to bring Web 2.0 tools into the learning process. I’m guessing it will mainly involve hugging and things, which is nice for a Thursday morning.