Procrastinating writing a research paper or a thesis chapter? Here I am going to share how I overcame procrastination and writer’s block during my PhD journey. This method worked well for me and I was able to publish my all four chapters of PhD thesis before my viva anniversary (Viva anniversary? Is that even a term !!).
In my previous blog you can see how to effectively deal with a situation where you are stuck and don’t feel like writing at all. Even the thought of starting or writing a chapter feels very overwhelming or boring. This blog is actually continuation of my blog. In that blog I share my tips on how to kick start a paper or chapter.
Once you are past that point, here comes the actual action. I actually don’t fully agree when some say that just get your chapter or paper written, ugly writing or draft. Well that’s my opinion. Yes, you do need a first draft which you can keep tweaking and refining, but imagine writing an ugly draft and coming back to it after weeks or even months, it becomes difficult to sort that out. I believe one should start a draft and keep writing it accurate and neat as much as possible before moving on to next statement. Very important step – my advice do not skip citations at this point, otherwise when you come back you will be struggling to find the references which at that point were fresh in your mind but now you are like where the hell did I get that statement from.
Ok now how I was able to write my papers which were then published in good impact factor journals. This is how it worked for me:
For every chapter or paper, first I do the outline as follows:
Tilte – concise
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and methods
Results
Discussion
References
Easy right!
The most important advice STRUCTURE STRUCTURE STRUCTURE… I cannot emphasise enough on this point. Once we have the skeleton of the paper, half the job is done.
Once done with the skeleton, I would stop at that point otherwise if I carried on I would become overwhelmed and then keep procrastinating. So what I would do then, I’d write a task for my to do list for the next day which would be:
Outline for ‘Material and Methods’
So the next day I write my methodology chapter outline. I start my chapter or paper with Materials and Methods rather than in sequence. Methodology is usually straight forward, it is what it is, so usually it is fairly easy to write. My advice is to see related research papers that are similar to yours. This will give you an idea on how you want to structure your methodology. And once your methodology section is written, trust me that feeling of accomplishment will give you the boost and confidence to move on. It really feels good to finish a section. In case of research paper, most journals require citation of the method if that is already published, so even easier. If not, write down your methods and adding citations where necessary and keeping record of it in a reference manager software. If your reference manager doesn’t support book or website references, keep a record of it somewhere but DO NOT leave it till the end. It is very important to keep a track of your references as you go on, it will save you a lot of time and stress.
Results
Next I usually write Results section.
Before writing down results, I’d have analysis done, graphs, photos, tables all ready before writing results. Once all these are ready, writing text around the graphs and tables becomes less difficult. Again as previously said – outline for Results headings and sub-headings and taking ideas from other research papers or theses on how to structure the Results section.
After results I move on to Discussion.
I collect points even before starting to write a paper or chapter. Whenever I am reading papers or other material and I come across something relevant and I say to myself Ah.. this could be interesting to argue in my Discussion or this statement or results could be used to justify my xyz discrepancy. I copy these statements or facts and figures or a whole section of a paper and paste in a document named ‘draft Discussion’. I again emphasise to write down the references next to the pasted section and also keep a record of which folder you have the full text paper and with what name. These points would then help me when writing the final Discussion. I also found that at times there were really good points that came up during meetings with supervisor and I would then take a note of it. I am an old school sort of person and I like to keep a note-book to write down random points that I need to discuss and then once all is on page, I then number them systematically as to in which order it needs to be written. It would ideally go in the chronological order of Results. Other things related to methodology that you would like to clarify could be added in the Discussion section. I generally add such information towards the end. Any information with regards to methods and results that don’t fit in their respective sections, I add in the Discussion. I would finish it off with a concluding paragraph and highlighting future recommendations. Some journals demand a separate conclusion section. Don’t stress over it at this point. You can always change this according to the journal or thesis guidelines. I think of Discussion as a pyramid, starting it with specific findings and moving towards general.
Introduction
I prefer to write the Introduction in the end. You may disagree with me but I find it easy this way. My supervisor would say, ‘think about it as an inverted pyramid’. Start it broad and narrow it down to the research gap and objectives. I would recommend starting the introduction with latest facts and figures. We can take idea for introduction from similar research papers. For example, if the topic is about a disease, after introducing the disease, write some latest facts and figures of prevalence. If possible, instead of quoting figures and statistics from a research paper, find latest statistics from, say, CDC or other website.
References – Again can’t emphasise enough, keep a track of your references as you go. This will save you a lot of hassle in the end. Use a reference manager software like Mendeley or Endnote. I personally used Refworks for my PhD thesis, and it went fine.
This blog is not a description of how to write each section of a chapter or a paper. This is more about tips and tricks on how to kick start and finish your paper.
What works for me is that I always finish off my work for the day by making a to do list for tomorrow. The first task for the next day would be an easy one so I don’t feel overwhelmed when starting the next day and keep procrastinating it. An easy task could be again an outline, typing subheadings, tweaking a photograph for results and so on.
I hope these little tips and tricks helps you with overcoming procrastination and motivates you for getting that chapter or paper or essay done. YOU HAVE GOT THIS!!