It's hardly shocking that, with only a few weeks remaining before the thesis' due date, you still haven't written a single word. You've finally decided to put your personal life on hold in order to devote yourself fully to writing your thesis. Although you may have to alter your eating habits and sleep schedule, it is possible to keep your personal life and thesis writing in harmony. 

 

Please adjust your plans.

It's common for PhD students to fall behind or miss their self-imposed deadlines. Constant obligations force them to limit time for leisure pursuits like going out with friends and getting enough sleep. Priorities should inform how you adjust your timetable. Your calendar is fluid and subject to alter as your priorities shift. Therefore, every week you should make adjustments to your schedule. 

 

Avoid prioritising online communication.

Earning a doctorate degree is no easy feat, requiring extensive study, lab work, writing, and defence of a thesis. Focusing on your doctoral dissertation is essential. Time and effort are being wasted mostly because of digital communication. Starting your day by checking and reacting to emails and social media messages is a surefire way to get behind on everything else that needs to be done. More time will be wasted than necessary since other individuals, if they happen to be online at the same moment, will respond to you simultaneously. You need to use your brain. Your day should begin and end with you focusing on writing your thesis, and any time you have left over should be spent responding to emails.

 

Organise your work in stages.

Indecisiveness about where to begin is a major challenge for PhD students working on their dissertations. As the deadline for submission approaches, people panic and start writing for long periods of time, sacrificing the quality of their work in the process. If you want to avoid this, talk to your superiors about how you can divide up large projects into manageable chunks so that you can stay on track. 

 

Set some objectives.

Every day, you should aim for something. Your goals for the day should be planned out in advance. Make a priority list of everything you want to get done today. Start the day with the hardest things you need to get done, then work your way down to the easier ones. Motivated work performance is more likely if the day's most challenging tasks are finished by lunch. This method will help you stick to your daily schedule without compromising your wellbeing or the calibre of your work. 

 

Don't try to do too much at once.

Being a jack-of-all-trades is fashionable these days, but sadly, multitasking has become the norm. When you're juggling multiple responsibilities at once, your brain is constantly switching gears. This prevents you from giving your whole attention to your work, lowering productivity and quality. But if you need to focus on two things at once, set a short timer for each one so that you can give your whole attention to one at a time. If you're a freelance manager for a company, you can be tasked with coordinating the questions of your colleagues in online hangouts. Set aside time each day, say from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., to answer their questions. This will allow you to devote your full attention to inquiry resolutions, and leave the rest of the time for thesis work.