Writing a thesis is no cake walk. People can spend anywhere from weeks to years working on their Master’s Thesis. The reason why I think it can be so difficult is because at no time in our graduate education does anyone actually teach us how to write one, how to prepare for one and therefore, nothing really prepares you for it.
I attempted to work on my methods and outline and introduction a year into my thesis. It was for nothing. For one thing, you may not truly understand your thesis as a Master’s student because you work on a project for a graduate student or professor who have years of thought behind the project. Another reason is that your methods and ideas are ever changing. The third reason is that the research brain is so different from the synthesis brain and it is virtually impossible to use both.
This is what in part makes the thesis so difficult. Because as you write the thesis, a lot of times new ideas or thoughts will come to mind on data analysis or perhaps you notice something in the data that is wrong. So you have to switch back to programming and coding and analysis that you may have in someways forgotten after weeks of not touching the code. Then once you get the new data or plots, you go back to the thesis, where you have to again skip the papers, read what you wrote and try to make sense of it all.
For me, there was an added issue of becoming diagnosed with ADHD. People with ADHD fall into two categories: those who fail at life and those who continuously work to compensate for ADHD to marginally succeed if just avoid constant failures. My life was pockmarked with people thinking I was smart but lazy and careless. This is normal for someone who has undiagnosed ADHD. It was normal for me to have slow starts, to be up until 12 am before I start work ( I’m writing this at 1am), it was normal to wait until the professor emailed me (deadlines are a godsend for adhd people). So I will go over some of the tactics and strategies that I developed to make progress on my thesis. I was on medication for less than a week (it helped A LOT) but I couldn’t continue due to side-effects, so all of these tactics helped me and will help you ADHD or not.
- Read How to Write a Thesis by Umberto Eco
This is an old book but he writes so well on why you write a thesis, how to make a bibliography, how to create a logical dissertation, how to spend time writing etc etc etc. This book just makes you feel more prepared and like you know what is expected and where you are going. I read it months into the process and once I did, I feel it accelerated things. - Keep a notebook and write in it.
Having a notebook helped me have a place where all information was placed but also where I could write ideas and tasks. There are many good resources. A book by Fitzgerald said to put in KP for key point, * for Action Item and ! for an important idea that allows you to see what you have to do. One problem for me is I forget to read my notes, but it is good to have them. - Journal
Writing in a journal was very helpful to keep my thoughts in place, to review what I did, the mistakes I made, and what else I have to do. Even a short entry of “didn’t get anything done” was great because then I would think why I didn’t get done. One of the issues of ADHD is a lack of introspection and understanding what you’re thinking, doing, and why. Journaling helped with that. - Deadlines
I hate talking to people about failing, but as months dragged on I realized that I need accountability. As it turns out, accountability is great for people with ADHD as it puts a fire under our buts. I told my professor that I would let him know about my progress every Tuesday, not for his sake but for mine. It helped a lot! - Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets with as much information as I can get on my experiments that I can quickly lookup. Each tab in the spreadsheet had important information about the files, about the data. The more organized it was, the easier it was to go back and find the information I needed in my writing. Overall my files were a mess and it was hell to find things, but the spreadsheet with all of the plots and data simplified things. I still made many copies and screwed up and got lost, but it was better than nothing. - Support Network.
The draft I sent to the professor is atrocious. One issue with ADHD is being terrible at editing because of a lack of ability to sight details. So I had to enlist friends (those poor souls) to read my terrible writing to help me find the logical missteps and terrible grammar and spelling. The more people read the thesis the better. To help them out, I would send a section at a time, and then as they worked on the next, I’d fix the one they sent me and then forward it to the next person. This way I was going through several rounds with every person. One thing I did was to have people who understood the science least edit first so that clarity was fixed as well as grammar and spelling and then I would send the drafts to the people versed in science who I would not want to torture with bad grammar but instead want to review my scientific thought process. - Routine
The more you can create a routine the better. Running, meditating, lack of drinking, working all day, making sure some work gets done, writing out a daily plan, and then working to stick with it are all things that helped me make progress. I even had a plot with the number of hours worked per day to show myself if I am doing better or worse. There is nothing harder for someone with ADHD than a long term project that requires a lot of reading, a lot of writing, and a lot of thinking, so the more systems you can create, the better. People with ADHD have to move, it helps us think but humans, in general, do better after moving, exercising, calming. Making blood blow through the brain and then taking some time to just sit and de-stress is helpful for all people, but it is a must for anyone with ADHD. When I did not do this, my progress slowed to a crawl. - Print Out The Papers.
I had to read over 100 research papers. With the terrible memory, I needed to take notes, I needed to print them out (it’s not the same as reading them on a computer) and I had to review them over and over again. So if you have to read a lot of research paper, get a printer and print them out. It will help. An additional thing that helped was stapling a blank piece of paper to the front on which I wrote the name of the paper, the name of the first author, the year, and then important notes and references. This created a one-pager reference (learned about this from Astronaut Chris Hadfield). So when I was writing and needed to find the reference, I just went and found it by looking up the first page. - Side Projects
My wife hates them but the more things I had to do, the more progress I made. When I had all day to work on the thesis, my brain which is incapable of keeping track of time would waste the day. But if the day was filled with things to do, it would actually get more work done on the thesis. It created more pressure and that helped me progress.
I’m still not done with my thesis (although I’m closer than I ever was). I’m sure with medication, I would have finished a while ago. However, I am also very proud that I’ve done this well in spite of not being medicated. The positive thing is that I also developed some techniques that I can use for the rest of my life with many other goals that I set for myself (like a PhD) and perhaps help some of you. So if you have a thesis to write, and you are taking a long time, check the problems you have, it may not be your fault and design your own system that will help you finish your goals. It’s a lot of work, but if it was easy, you wouldn’t be doing it.
seven year degree 