Top 3 dissertation writing strategies

Dissertations are long, intricate and packed with facts. It’s not something you’ll get a second chance to write because of the vast time it takes to complete, meaning that messing it up or not completing it correctly could mean the difference between passing and failing your senior year.

Students are constantly looking for some strategies to help them win the battle of dissertation writing. Here are some that you may not have thought of yet.

• The ten minute rule

Make a rule with yourself to spend at least ten minutes on your dissertation every morning after you wake up. Ten minutes is not long, but you’ll be surprised how resolving to do this gets the ball rolling. You’ll end up spending more than ten minutes doing your paper because you went through the effort of pulling up your chair, switching on your laptop, typing a few sentences and doing a bit of research. It’s incredible how this habit kicks procrastination in the butt and gets you flowing on your work.

• The reward method

What gets you excited? Money; comic books; the latest episode of Revenge? Whatever it is, use this as a method of motivating yourself to finish sections of your dissertation. For example: If you have $200 spending for the month, divide that into the amount of pages you aim to complete before the month ends. Let’s say it’s 20 pages.

Now for every two pages you complete, pay yourself $20. It’s a great way to make working on your dissertation feel like it holds some short term reward.

• Brag

We all struggle with a certain measure of pride. Use this to your advantage and go around telling everyone how many pages you’ve done on your dissertation. Tell them how proud you are of yourself for finishing 20 pages last month and how you plan to do another 20 this month. Tell your parents on the phone, your friends and even your teachers.

Your friends and family will hold you accountable and keep asking you how it’s going. This will keep you motivated when you don’t feel like spending that extra hour on your paper while knowing that you should. What will everyone say if you don’t keep up?

Try all three of these methods and see how well they work together. They’re a bit unconventional, but should work nicely in tricking yourself to get your dissertation done.