Cat Videos and Dissertations

April 4th is Tardar Sauce’s birthday. Tardar Sauce, aka Grumpy Cat, is perhaps the most famous internet cat of all time. What do cat videos have to do with your dissertation? Read on, grasshopper…

Grumpy Cat became an internet sensation due to her unusual appearance in a Reddit photo and YouTube videos posted by her owners in 2012. Now, she has a line of promotional products as well as a cat-food sponsorship.

What on earth does all this have to do with dissertations? Absolutely nothing. In fact, internet cat videos, popularity notwithstanding, appear to be entirely without utility.

The only thing they are good for is procrastination! Maybe cat videos aren’t your procrastination activity of choice. But I bet something is. What distracts when you sit down to try to work on your dissertation? Scrolling through social media? Looking at sports scores? Reading the news?

Rest and relaxation (and maybe even cat videos) have a time and a place—but be careful! You need to commit at least 10-15 hours a week to working on your dissertation. You aren’t going to get there with cat videos. Set a timer if you need to and give yourself 5 minutes to check sports scores or look at funny cats. But when that timer is up, get to work!

Do you seek comfort in distractions when you should be working on your dissertation? Click here to schedule a quick, 15-minute chat with me to see if you’re a good fit for our Fast Track Your Dissertation Coaching Program. If you are, then I’ll invite you to join the fastest group of dissertation students out there and help you to reach graduation a good year or two faster than you would on your own.