Be clear on how much writing is needed.

When you’re writing the chapters of your dissertation, be sure to be clear on how much writing is needed for each. Stated another way- a bit of pre-planning can save you a lot of effort. Most dissertation chapters are between 25-40 pages. If you have 5 subtopics to discuss in a chapter, each subtopic can take, at most, 8 pages. If you are writing on a subtopic, ask yourself, "What is the most important information to include in 8 pages?"- and then write this first. Repeat for the other subtopics. By being clear on how much writing is needed, you can 1) make definable and discernible progress, 2) stay focused on one task at a time, and 3) keep yourself from writing more than necessary and having to cut out a lot of stuff later. If you can’t pre-plan and write, then at least write. If you can pre-plan, do that- it can break the task up and make it feel much less daunting.

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