MGMT 8910M Week 2 Writing Plan Example

A Plan Set From the Pace I Actually Keep: A Writing Plan for a Dissertation on Schedule Flexibility and Turnover Intention Among Utility Call-Center Agents, With a Week-by-Week Table, Two Flagged Dependencies, a Missed-Week Rule and an Empty Buffer Week

Student Name

Walden University

MGMT 8910M: Dissertation Development Process

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

A Plan Set From the Pace I Actually Keep: A Writing Plan for a Dissertation on Schedule Flexibility and Turnover Intention Among Utility Call-Center Agents, With a Week-by-Week Table, Two Flagged Dependencies, a Missed-Week Rule and an Empty Buffer Week

The Pace Behind the Targets

Over the past four weeks I produced 11 pages of new draft text, an average of just under 3 pages a week, in four one-hour sessions each week. I had planned for 5 pages a week. The targets below are set at 3 pages a week, the pace I actually kept, not the pace I hoped for. Buehler et al. (1994) found that people predict their own completion times optimistically even when they remember that similar tasks ran late, so the plan uses the record, not the estimate.

The dissertation asks whether flexible scheduling options reduce turnover intention among call-center agents at investor-owned electric utilities.

The Schedule

Table 1

Writing Plan, Weeks 3 to 11

Page targets equal the author's measured average of about three pages a week. Revision weeks carry lower targets because revision is slower per page.

The Dependency Note

Two rows depend on other people. Committee comments on the prospectus are expected by the end of Week 5, but the committee has not committed to a date. Permission to survey agents at the partner utility depends on its human resources office and its labor relations staff, since agents are represented by a union. Neither can be hurried by more writing. Each flagged row has an unflagged task that can replace it if the gate has not opened: Week 10's synthesis can move into Week 6, and Week 7's measures can be extended into Week 8.

The Missed-Week Rule

If I produce less than half a week's target, the shortfall moves into the buffer week and no later week's target changes. If I miss a second week before Week 9, the lowest-priority remaining task, the history of call-center staffing, is cut to one page and the plan is reset from that week forward.

Why the Buffer Is Empty

Week 9 has nothing assigned so that it can absorb one missed week or one late gate without pushing everything after it. Silvia (2007) argued that productive academic writers protect a regular schedule rather than waiting for free time; an empty week protects that schedule from the one or two weeks that always go wrong. Locke and Latham (2002) report that hard, specific goals raise performance, provided the person is committed and can see how the work is going; the weekly target is specific, the record of actual pages is the feedback, and setting the target at my real pace is meant to keep it challenging without making it a goal I have already shown I will not meet.

References

Buehler, R., Griffin, D., & Ross, M. (1994). Exploring the "planning fallacy": Why people underestimate their task completion times. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(3), 366-381. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.3.366

Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705-717. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.57.9.705

Silvia, P. J. (2007). How to write a lot: A practical guide to productive academic writing. American Psychological Association.