If you want to follow my research, subscribe to my monthly newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n I’ve never done such an in-depth analysis before, and I think we can sum up the blog post about 2025 pretty well with this meme. But\u2014spoiler alert\u2014this year ends on a very positive note! <\/p>\n I\u2019ve lost my naivety by now. Doing a PhD is tough\u2014mentally, academically, and sometimes physically, too. But this year, something has changed, thankfully. I\u2019m spending less time searching and more time choosing. I no longer want to do everything; now, I mainly want to finish what I\u2019ve started. <\/p>\n\n 2025 began with me trying to shake off a mental and analytical hangover from the fall of 2024<\/a>. I was stuck in my data analysis. Not because I didn\u2019t have enough data\u2014quite the opposite\u2014but because I\u2019d lost track of the big picture. Too many codes, too many layers, too many things that were interesting but didn\u2019t yet help me draw clear conclusions. I had no idea how to proceed, and my spirits sank at the thought of having to go through that enormous mountain of data all over again. <\/p>\n\n I started the new year with a new coding framework. No longer just data-driven<\/a>, but also incorporating insights and frameworks from the literature. I applied this right away to the two articles I wanted to write about the field. For one, I used the ISO standard \u201cHuman-Centered Design\u201d<\/a> as a guide. For the other, based on the literature, I created an overview of everything that needs to be coordinated within the government when developing services, as the Clustering Rijksincasso program (my case study) does. I combined this with the phases of the program itself, which I had already identified from the first round of data analysis. <\/p>\n\n Now that I\u2019m writing this down, I think, okay, this is actually pretty well put together. But it was a huge challenge to get there. And especially to then go through all the diaries, interviews, and documents again using this new analytical framework. Up until the summer, I very disciplined scheduled 2\u20133 documents each week to code using this new approach. As a result, just before summer, the dataset was neatly prepared for further analysis while I was writing the two articles. <\/p>\n\n This spring, Aniek, my fellow PhD student from Delft (who defended her dissertation last week!!), caught the writing bug to finish her papers and dissertation. She\u2019s a year ahead of me, and her writing bug was contagious. <\/p>\n\n Since I already had more than enough data, I gradually started taking a step back from the day-to-day work. I still contributed to projects, but not on a weekly basis anymore, and I certainly wasn\u2019t writing everything down anymore. (Because then you don\u2019t have to code it either, hey, hey!). I dusted off the conceptual framework we\u2019d started working on back in 2024, but which had been on hold for a while. I wanted to finish writing that one first. <\/p>\n\n Conceptual articles are a genre of their own: everything has to add up, every term has to fit into place, and there aren\u2019t really any rules or templates for their structure. Before the summer, I managed to get the framework itself and the underlying rationale fairly well defined, but in terms of positioning and structure, it remained too broad and lacked focus. <\/p>\n\n In hindsight, I think I should have structured the literature review more simply. Developing your own conceptual framework is also ambitious for a PhD, especially when combined with an ongoing 2.5-year ethnographic study in the field. But anyway: once the truck is up to speed, you don\u2019t turn it around halfway across the road. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Just before summer, I decided to stop collecting data altogether. I put the collection on hold. Even though some really interesting things were happening, I\u2019d had enough. This brought a lot of peace of mind. Of course, I still helped colleagues out with things from time to time, but I no longer had to be on high alert, wondering if I\u2019d need to use that information for my research. It gave me the space to really start writing after the summer. <\/p>\n\n I\u2019d been experiencing some strange physical symptoms for quite some time. But when I was walking through the French mountains during my vacation, completely pain-free, and especially when all the symptoms came back very quickly within two weeks of sitting at my laptop again, I knew enough. I was no longer able to properly release the stress that had built up in my body. I had trained myself to push through for too long out of discipline, to let my mind override my body<\/em>, or to stay in the right frame of mind: the debt had gotten way out of hand, and by then the bailiff was already at my doorstep. Even as I write this blog, I\u2019m reading again in the 2024 recap<\/a>: \u201cvacations fall by the wayside.\u201d <\/p>\n\n Most people I tell this to say, \u201cYeah, that\u2019s just part of doing a PhD.\u201d But why, exactly? Why do we find it so normal for PhD students to consistently push themselves beyond their limits? <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n After the summer, I decided I didn\u2019t want to keep going like that. So I\u2019ll aim a little lower\u2014a shorter book\u2014but I don\u2019t want to burn myself out. The dissertation doesn\u2019t have to cover everything I\u2019ll ever want to say about good public services. Above all, it just has to be good enough<\/em> \u2014and finished. <\/p>\n\n Here it is<\/a>, for anyone interested in the table of contents. <\/p>\n\n In the fall, I traveled to Sweden again to work with one of my advisors. There, we took another look at the positioning of the conceptual article. The content remained largely the same, but the structure was simplified. Fewer layers, fewer claims, and a clearer focus. I\u2019ll be working on this further in the coming months, with the tentative goal of submitting it in the spring of 2026. Will I succeed? No idea. We\u2019ll see. <\/p>\n\n And so, the milestone for 2025 was finally reached: the first practice paper was completed, along with Chapter 4 of the dissertation. <\/p>\n\n Since I had all the data ready again before summer, I was able to make real progress with a new focus and a healthier daily routine. I forced myself to keep it simple. No all-encompassing narrative, no comprehensive theoretical paper, but one clear analysis that\u2019s good enough. This could potentially be expanded into a journal paper later\u2014 a nice-to-have<\/em>\u2014but for now, the most important thing was to finish something and submit it. <\/p>\n\n I benefited immensely from the work I had done before the summer. Since all the data had already been recoded, the building blocks were in place. Sometimes it seems as if there\u2019s little progress for months on end, and then suddenly everything falls into place. Earlier this year, for example, I wrote a blog series on the principles of people-centered work<\/a>, mainly to reflect on them myself. I\u2019ve now been able to incorporate those ideas into the article in a much more comprehensive and analytical way. <\/p>\n\n![\"Fun](\"https:\/\/klipklaar.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/a7yx0n.jpg\")
<\/a>Start of the Year<\/h2>\n\n
Spring<\/h2>\n\n
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<\/a>Summer<\/h2>\n\n
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<\/a>Autumn<\/h2>\n\n
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<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/klipklaar.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1E739534-0C2D-42DB-982A-85A6EF897849_1_105_c.jpeg\")
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<\/a>Looking back<\/h2>\n\n