How to write your PhD thesis #2: Productivity vs Perfectionism

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0:00 The problem of perfectionism in academic writing
0:52 You need a bit of perfectionism
1:59 The secret...
2:50 Let your writing pace vary
3:57 Perfectionism is often actually indecision

[@James_Hayton]

Do you suffer from perfectionism? And if so, how do you deal with it?

[@emmafmaurice]

My perfectionism has meant im in my fourth extension of my deadline for submission. Its legit crippling. I did writing and now in editing i have a horrendous amount of word vomit to sift through, most of which will get deleted. I'm beginning to think my initial proposal was overly simplistic and vague, hence the struggle now to extrapolate out 100,000 words. Sigh.

[@EmiWoodScully]

Yes!! More great tips!! sometimes I am afraid that my writing isn’t going to be good enough/perfect so I don’t write anything at all… Really appreciative of your videos! Also, I just purchased your book!

[@asyasarimusic]

This is actually good advice

[@riya6688]

Hi, could you elaborate on how much to cite other pieces of literature in the introduction part of a paper?

[@James_Hayton]

I can't really say how much. You have to chose reference on a paragraph by paragraph basis. Different introductions will have different amounts of references (as you'll probably see when you read other papers)

[@ghma4822]

I have a problem with prioratizing what material to include, eg in the findings, sometimes they are equally important and i feel it’s important to mention the details of each, especially if it is related to the topic, however, this will result in a very very long chapter exhausting the word limit if the whole thesis!

[@James_Hayton]

I'm not sure if this will help in your exact situation, but sometimes the way to deal with this is to think about the minimum you could include. What are the absolute essential details that you couldn't do without? Sometimes it's easier to think this way, then add to it than to include everything then try to cut it down. Another way to approach it is to think back to the original questions and decide which findings help you answer them.