Jewish Council

Academic Guidelines for Students: Organizing Your Dissertation Writing Process

In order to write a good dissertation quickly, you will need to organize your time in the most efficient manner. If this is your first experience of this kind, the following tips will help you achieve success:

  • Work every day.

    Make room to work on the dissertation in your daily schedule. Even if it’s only 30 minutes for research, you will be able to complete the paper much faster if you work on it regularly. This will also make motivating yourself easier.

  • Develop your personal scheduling strategy.

    There are dozens of planners and time management techniques you can use, but none of them were created for you personally. This means that they may not be 100% effective, especially considering the fact that they cannot account for your actual work/study schedule. The best thing you can do is study as many of those planning strategies as you can, and use the acquired understanding of the topic to develop a unique schedule that will be most efficient for you.

  • Write a schedule for every day and stick to it.

    It’s essential to make following the schedule into a habit. This will not only help you write a good dissertation quickly, but will also have a profound positive effect on your professional life.

  • Plan for any eventuality.

    Emergencies happen when you least expect them, and you need to make sure that no unpredictable occurrence will ruin the progress you make on your dissertation. This means that you need to leave some room for emergencies when you develop your primary dissertation writing plan. When you have some leeway, you can be sure that you will be able to complete the paper in time, regardless of the circumstances. In case nothing happens, you can use this extra time for an additional revision session. There is no such thing as too much editing when it comes to dissertations.

  • Deal with procrastination.

    It may seem strange, but your biggest enemy is usually yourself. You cannot allow immediate issues to distract you from writing the dissertation. Do not allow yourself any weaknesses, as every “I’ll just write more tomorrow” takes you one huge step closer to failure.

  • Prioritize your daily tasks.

    Only a few students can afford to focus on writing their dissertations without any distractions. The majority of people have to fit this process into their lives alongside work and various social activities. If you are from the second group, you need to prioritize your tasks every day in order to make sure that you succeed in every area.

Writing Resources

Writing Ideas