PhD Researchers: How do you know when your work is good enough? Are you being thorough, or is something else going on?
As a PhD researcher you’ve probably experienced that feeling of your work continuing to expand and expand and expand because you’re unsure when to stop. You start losing the plot, getting tangled in what on earth you’re trying to achieve and feel like you’re working in a vacuum. Is it ready? How much detail do I need to go into? I just sound really un-academic. Gosh, even that phrase is unsophisticated! I wish I had a bit more faith in myself when it comes to my work.
[sigh]
Then, you take a deep breath, tell yourself, I can do this, and crack on…
I’ll just read a few more papers. I’ll just go through and code that interview again. I’ll give that chapter one more read through before I send it to my supervisor.
Yes, that seems like a sensible thing to do, but that familiar looming sense of overwhelm soon starts slithering in.
It’s like Jungle Creep in the film Jumanji, but rather than vines bursting through the ceiling, you’ve got a wall of unread PDFs slowly taking over your computer’s desktop. There’s just too much to hold in your head at once and you just need a BIT longer, just to get on top of it all and think clearly.
You’ll nitpick at a chapter for weeks whilst your supervisor waits patiently, occasionally asking, “How’s it going?”, and you’re like, “Nearly there! Just give me a bit longer!”, as you pluck a bit of vine out of your hair.
You may also be having a series of increasingly bizarre conversations with yourself (and perhaps your pets), that go along the lines of, “Does that sound sensible or have I got the wrong end of the stick?”. Don’t take your dog’s enthusiastic response for confirmation, it was the word “stick” that they got excited about.
You worry that your supervisor is going to think you’re lazy or work shy. What if they picture you rolling out of bed at 11.00am, having leisurely lunches with your friends and staring blankly out of windows, just avoiding the work? Urgh. You’re not avoiding the work, you’re actually working very hard but what you’re struggling with is deciding when your work has achieved the purpose it needs to. Okay, the staring blankly out of windows thing might be true though. 😉
Why is it so hard to know when to stop working on your PhD?
“Good enough” is a really slithery, slimy thing in a PhD. Unlike your previous educational experiences, where you might have had model answers, marking schemes, unmovable deadlines and clear parameters around your work, that’s just not how we party in PhD Land.
Throw in the fact that qualitative research is interpretive, which results in there rarely being one “correct” answer, but multiple viable and wholly defensible ones where reasonable people might make different judgements about the same material and you’ve got yourself a very weird, Matrix-like set up. As they say in The Matrix, “There is no spoon.” There is, however an examiner who's going to want you to explain why you've made the decisions you've made. I’m really going for it with the film analogies in this one. Sorry, not sorry.
PhD Perfectionism vs Academic Thoroughness: What’s the difference?
The main thing I want you to take away is this: there is a difference between being thorough and being a hardcore perfectionist procrastinator. As a PhD researcher, you need to be thorough, and that involves improving the accuracy and coherence of your work, ensuring its integrity, being able to stand behind your analytical decisions. That’s one thing, okay? It’s a whole other thing to be a busy, busy little bee in an effort to delay your exposure to judgement or uncertainty. Ouch. That stings.
Let me get one thing clear about perfectionism – you’re never going to achieve the “perfect” thesis. The perfect thesis does not exist. I mean, sure, you perhaps could technically read absolutely everything written on your topic. You could master every possible dimension of your theoretical framework. But, WHY would you do that to yourself when you don’t even need to? Even your examiner has not read everything ever written on your topic. No, really, they haven’t. They have a life, and laundry to do.
You’re never going to be able to cover every possible angle and write a bulletproof thesis. Your PhD viva examination is highly unlikely to be a nice chat over lunch in which your examiner says, “Well, you’ve got me! There’s nothing here to criticise or even discuss really. Here, have a free sandwich, you’ve earned it. Anyway [takes a sip of tea], did you do anything nice at the weekend?”.
Your thesis presents an argument, which you support with evidence. Your examiners want to understand how you arrived at your decisions, and they might see things differently – which is entirely reasonable.
Now, those are things we can use when we’re trying to figure out if our work is “good enough”, right?
What does ‘good enough’ mean at different stages of a PhD?
Let’s begin by getting a bit more specific: “good enough” for what?
The standards your work needs to meet will vary depending on what you’re doing with it. If you’re writing a rough paragraph simply for your own understanding, that’s going to require a very different standard than a submitted thesis.
You need to make a judgement that’s linked to the stage the work is at, and what you are going to do with it next.
Example 1: Sending an early literature review draft to your supervisor
If you’re getting a section of your literature review ready for your supervisor to look at, and it’s the first time they’ve ever looked at your work, it needs to be “good enough” to give your supervisor a grasp of where your literature reviewing and writing skills currently are.
You’re basically giving them a sample of your work, whilst your thinking is still taking shape – and no, it does not need to be polished and lovely, they’re expecting it to be a bit wobbly at this point.
It needs to be “good enough” to: convey what you’ve read, demonstrate that you can read across the literature, rather than just summarising one article after another; identify themes or headings that are beginning to take shape.
It does not need to be neatly structured, contain word-perfect sentences, or be written in a super confident tone - it’s fine to make notes in it saying, “I’m not sure where I’m going with this”.
Obviously, if your supervisor or programme has given you specific requirements for a draft or milestone, those still apply. “Because Elizabeth said so” is not a good reason for ignoring them.
Example 2: Finalising your literature review before PhD thesis submission
If you’re two weeks away from handing your entire thesis in and you’re focusing on finalising your literature review, it needs to be “good enough” to enable your examiner to understand the scholarly context of your work.
That might involve: Making sure there's a clear argument running through the chapter; Demonstrating that you've engaged critically with the most relevant literature; Making it clear how your research is situated within that literature, and how the chapter connects with other parts of your thesis; Checking that your claims are supported.
This STILL does not require perfection. If there's a significant gap in your argument or you've realised you've misunderstood an important piece of scholarship, yes, absolutely, sort that out! That's being thorough. But if you're just finding increasingly tiny things to fiddle with because the idea of handing it over makes you feel sick to your stomach, that's something else entirely.
Four questions to help you decide when to stop revising your PhD work
Here are some simple questions to bear in mind when you’re wondering whether your work meets the ‘good enough’ standard:
What is this piece of work supposed to do? Think about its purpose and the stage you're at. Are you writing to help yourself think, to get feedback from your supervisor, to present an argument that's ready to be examined? The answer makes a big difference to what “good enough” looks like.
Where is it still falling short? Can you point to a specific problem? Perhaps the argument is difficult to follow or you've not sufficiently justified a decision. These are things you can actually do something about. “It's just not quite right yet” is a bit harder to work with(!)
Who needs to read it next, and what do they need from it? Your supervisor doesn't necessarily need a beautifully polished chapter to give you useful feedback. Your examiner, on the other hand, needs to be able to follow your reasoning and evaluate your contribution. Think about what that particular reader needs to understand or respond to.
Why am I still working on this? Be a bit curious about your own answer here. Is there something specific that needs improving, and can you explain how the next piece of work will improve it? Or are you hoping that just a little more editing or analysing will make the uncomfortable feeling of uncertainty disappear? Because newsflash – that’s not happening! 😂
As a PhD researcher, your job is to make considered academic decisions that you can explain and stand behind, even when there's still some uncertainty. It's not to produce work from which every possible doubt has been eliminated. That's never going to happen.
I’m going to throw one more film reference in here now: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Jurassic Park, a classic! 😉 The fact you could improve something doesn’t mean you need to. If it’s not necessary for helping the work do what it needs to do, LEAVE IT ALONE!
Remember those Jumanji vines? There's always going to be another one creeping across your desk, probably with another PDF attached to it. You’re not going to be able to clear the entire jungle. You are however, completely capable of dealing with the vines that are genuinely blocking your path and recognising when you've cleared enough space to move forward. Now, put the machete down and send the chapter to your supervisor. 😉
What’s next?
⬇️ Download my FREE GUIDE - The Discussion Chapter: What they don’t tell you. I won’t even ask for your email address. 😉
🤓 Read my short book, The Hidden Curriculum. It’s about all the other stuff they didn’t tell you about doing a PhD, a lot of which is kind of important for your sanity.