10 Best Tips to Complete Your Dissertation Before Deadline
Most of the time, procrastination holds you back from completing your dissertations on time. There can be scenarios where students face issues like ADHD,...
Most of the time, procrastination holds you back from completing your dissertations on time. There can be scenarios where students face issues like ADHD, doing jobs, or depression of immense workload. Or do you see your supervisor as the culprit? Even with these issues, the obligation of completing the dissertation before the deadline is still haunting you from the window.
Although we think delaying the work on your thesis was a bad decision, we still think that if you start working right away, you will have a good chance of finishing it before the deadline. You can use different strategies, including scheduling, setting early deadlines, and eliminating distractions.
Not all strategies fit every shoe, but some will. The potential for implementation may vary depending on your degree level, the time left until the deadline, and the work you have already put in. As we think these strategies can be beneficial for many, let’s not waste any more time.
10 Workable Strategies to Help You Beat the Deadline Horrors
You won’t have an excuse for not wanting to do it or procrastinating. Most students think they can treat these lengthy research papers the same as other assignments and complete them a day before the deadline. This dream shatters when they face reality, and sometimes, it’s too late to realise the seriousness of the task.
Here are some tips we have compiled to help you with the cause.
Start ASAP
Starting to write the thesis is the secret sauce. You can still complete your dissertation writing assignment if you get rid of your limiting beliefs. Those limiting beliefs may include, “deadline is around the corner and i have done nothing, i’m ruined” or “a 12000 words lengthy thesis can’t be completed in 4 weeks.” Once you know everything is possible, you are ready to go.
First of all, you need to stop feeling guilty and not punish yourself. You need to remember you have to do it otherwise you won’t get your degree. Choosing the topic is the first step, consult your supervisor and get his assistance in selecting the suitable topic according to time available.
Finish Your Dissertation Before the Deadline!
Use a realistic schedule to manage research, writing, revisions, and final checks.
Set SMART Goals
The SMART represents Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. Setting the SMART goals will hold you accountable and make you more disciplined. These parameters make sure you set achievable goals within a certain time frame.
Set deadlines for each chunk of work, such as when you will complete the literature review, what date the research needs to be done, and when you will start writing the dissertation. When you achieve each goal, treat yourself with some time off or some good food.
Be Disciplined, Not Motivated
Motivation has a very short lifespan, so you need to be disciplined to achieve your goal of completing the dissertation before the deadline. Motivation can only ignite your working grove, but to be consistent and attain your aims, you need to be disciplined. So, instead of waiting for motivation to start the work, act more responsibly and consistently in order to complete it comprehensively.
Writing a dissertation requires consistent hard work and determination. You do not have the luxury to leave it halfway or not complete it. If you do so, forget about the idea of celebrating your degree. With the limited time in hand, if you start immediately and utilise a more disciplined approach, you are bound to succeed.
Consider Environmental Cues
Your surroundings can make or break your learning experience. Try to arrange yourself in a designated study area where you can complete your academic assignments. A library can be the best place to work on your thesis, either a private or public one. If you can’t have a private or travel to the public or institute’s library. At least avoid studying in places like your bedroom, kitchen table, or living room.
The environment tends to change people's behaviour according to their primary functions. For example, if you study on your bed, you are bound to sleep. Studying on the kitchen table will prepare you for the dessert in the refrigerator. And if you prepare for your thesis, you are gonna sleep on the comfy couch or engage in family discussions.
If a separate room isn't available, you can also manipulate your brain cells and create an environment for studying in your bedroom. For example, keep a study lamp and turn off other room lights. When using the “Pomodoro technique,” you can turn the lamp off while on break.
Utilise Pomodoro Technique
Pomodoro technique is often used to avoid procrastination and increase productivity. The word pomodoro is the Italian version of tomato. This technique can help you improve concentration and time management.
This technique can help you complete your dissertation within the deadline. The Pomodoro strategy suggests working for a continuous 25 minutes of productive work and focus. After every 25 minutes of work, you can have a 5-minute short break for coffee or some music. Repeat this process in four rounds and then take a 30-minute long break.
After relaxing for thirty minutes, you can start the process again. But this time, you can increase the intervals of both work and break, for example, a 7-8-minute break after 35 minutes of work.
Create a Timetable
Creating a timetable can be another effective time management and discipline strategy. You can use Google Calendar for academic timetables. Creating a timetable will hold you accountable for your everyday designated tasks. You will tend to follow the timeline and feel responsible.
Plus, Google Calendar will send you reminder notifications to stay ahead and never miss a deadline. You can also add personalised notes about the task scheduled, like “You need to finish ‘task name’ by ‘due time’ Go ahead. After the alarm, you will feel sudden motivation and energy in yourself.
When you sit at your desk with a goal to complete a certain task, and use pomodoro te technique to keep a check on discipline, you are more certain to achieve that goal. Perhaps, because you are not thinking about completing the dissertation, you can avoid being overwhelmed and depressed.
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Consult with an Expert, It's freeMake a Daily Checklist
Everything you need to do in a day, should be listed as a checklist. When you complete a task, check that item in the list and move to the second one. Creating a checklist will keep your motivation going and urge you to check all the tasks mentioned on that list.
You can mention tasks like a literature review of 3 sources and making notes in your research week. You can also add a task like writing the methodology chapter of the dissertation during your writing week. You can also break down these tasks into smaller chunks, like completing a certain number of word count of methodology chapters by this time.
But make sure, when you are making the checklist, prioritise the important tasks and do not let the less-important works use up your time. For example, while writing the dissertation, do not bother too much about the formatting, or other mistakes. You have designated a whole 2 days for proofreading the dissertation, you should be able to detect and correct the minor mistakes.
Prioritise Tasks
As discussed above, prioritise the most important tasks first. All tasks are not of the same importance in regard to your goal of completing the deadline. For example, imagine that before doing thorough research, you start writing the dissertation immediately because you think that writing it quickly will help you complete it before the deadline. Does it make sense? No right?
You can use Parkinson’s Law to make sure you complete the tasks within the designated time frame. Parkinson’s Law declares that the assignment expands to fulfil the allocated time. This means you should set the deadlines to complete the task 2,3 days before the actual deadline.
The same goes for other tasks. Students usually spend too much time on irrelevant and less important tasks. For example, writing the introduction and discussion sections takes more time and effort, as does finding the missing citations. Imagine your writing part being pending because you were finding the missed citations. I mean, finding them is important, but not more than writing the dissertation itself.
Start Chunking
Chunking is a modern task management technique for performing tasks more efficiently and timely. Especially when you are working under tight deadlines, distributing your tasks into more manageable chunks can decrease the difficulty and anxiety of the task.
Taking the example of your dissertation, suppose your dissertation is due in 5 weeks, this is how you can distribute your time for each task.
- Chunk 1: Research— 2 weeks
- Chunk 2: Data Analysis— 4 days
- Chunk 3: Dissertation Writing— 2 weeks
- Chunk 4: Proofreading & Submission— 2 days
Following this breakdown or making one yourself can enhance your potential to complete the dissertation before the deadline. Overall, chunking is a memorisation tool or strategy, but you can utilise it in dissertation writing tasks as well.
Ask For Help
Sometimes, asking for a hello from anyone becomes so difficult for us. Some students feel asking for help is an insult to their intellect. Believe us, asking for help can ease your life. Don’t think you are late because it’s never too late to ask for help. Whether you are struggling with managing time, writing different sections, or analysing gathered data, you can always count on us for academic assistance.
Assistance could also come from your supervisor. You should contact the supervisor and inform him about your deadlines for each task. Tell him that you expect timely reviews from his side. Tell him the difficulties you are facing, and his input can certainly help.
You should also consider getting help from your friends and classmates, discussing how they meet the deadlines and their time management strategies.
Conclusion
Completing a dissertation before the deadline can be both easier and difficult tasks depending on the time left in your final deadline. These guidelines are for all tight deadlines, you can set your own time frames accordingly.
In this article, we have provided ten top-notch and realistic strategies to help you accomplish your goal of writing the thesis within the allocated time. From starting working to setting SMART goals, environmental cues, and the Pomodoro technique, everything will contribute towards your cause.
You should definitely consider creating a timetable and daily checklist to hold you accountable. Chunking and prioritising important tasks can also help. If nothing seems to fall in place, help from a supervisor, a friend, or a professional assistance can do the job.
Best wishes for your dissertation; we hope you’ll rock it.
