You’ve been dreading it for years, but the time has finally come: you have to write your thesis. You know it will be the single most comprehensive work you’ve ever written. It certainly won’t be an easy task and it will involve boredom, sleep deprivation and maybe even social isolation. So how can you get through (relatively) unscathed?
How will you make sure you stay sane while you’re working on your thesis?
Writer’s block
Writing your thesis will take months, so count on getting some type of writer’s block at a certain point. Don’t panic or worry too much about it. It’s all part of the game. The fact that you are so emotionally invested in it could even be what’s causing the writer’s block in the first place. It’s most likely caused by our conflicting feelings of wanting to finish the thesis fast, yet at the same time wanting it to be perfect. In order to beat writer’s block, try not to focus on writing the best thesis you can, but focus on writing. Make sure you keep writing, even if it doesn’t sound perfect or you can’t find the right words. You can always make corrections later. Waiting for the right words to come can seriously hold you back in the writing process.
Also, act on your inspiration: you may suddenly feel inspired to write about a topic that you’re not supposed to cover yet. Still, write down what you know, even if it doesn’t relate to anything else or if you didn’t get that far yet. Don’t be too strict about sticking to the order of your thesis. In the end your thesis may consist of several patches of seemingly unrelated paragraphs. The whole thing may look completely disorganized, but at that point, all you have to do is connect the dots, and that’s always much easier than having to write from scratch. You might even end up having to cut certain sections because you’ve written too much.
But then, there may be times when it seems impossible to put anything on paper and you’re just stuck. At those times, continuing to write can be counterproductive and may lead to you losing more precious time than you bargained for. The best medicine might just be to get your mind off it and focus on something completely different. It will help you to focus better once you’ve taken some distance from it. When you take into account the fact that the average attention span for an adult is about 20 minutes, it makes sense to take regular breaks from writing.
Sleep deprivation
It’s a condition well known to college students: sleep deprivation. Any student will be familiar with the feeling of knowing you have to study, when you’re already completely exhausted. Having to make those deadlines for your thesis certainly won’t help. Not only is sleep deprivation detrimental to your health, it won’t help you with your thesis! Sleep deprivation can cause you to have trouble focusing on your daily tasks, according to Dr. David Claman of the UCSF Sleep Disorders Center. If you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll end up being less successful at the task at hand and, the worst part of it all is, once you’ve finally accomplished your task, you won’t even be able to enjoy it.
In the event you’re overly tired, make sure you abide by these general tips to help you get some sleep:
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No caffeine before bed (Caffeine can stay in your system for up to eight hours)
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No electronics ( TV and cell phones keep you awake at night)
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Have a 30-minute powernap every day
Social isolation (battle depression)
Once you’re working on your thesis fulltime, it will in essence become your day job. For days at a time, it can be just you, a stack of books and a computer. My thesis-writing days were definitely the loneliest days in my entire college existence. Luckily, there are ways to battle this. Chances are you’re not alone in this, so try to set up study groups for thesis writing. Even though you’ll all be working on different topics and there won’t be much discussion, it can still be comforting to have some company while you’re slaving away at your thesis. If you don’t have any more classes, try to at least meet up with some other students for lunch. Social interaction is important for your mental well-being and it will keep your morale up during the thesis-writing process.
Work schedule
To make sure you don’t get distracted by other things, it’s very important to have a regular working schedule. Try treating thesis-writing as a fulltime job and try to work on it from 9 to 5. Make sure you make a schedule for each day, so you’ll know what to do and you’ll have goals to work towards. When the going gets tough, reward yourself for what you’ve accomplished that day.
