How I wrote my PhD thesis in just 3 months

[@James_Hayton]

Check out my PhD Thesis Writing Masterclass: phd.academy/the-writing-course

[@babyroo555]

I'm meant to submit my thesis in March, but because English is my first language - and let's ace it, I'm a last minute student - that's not happening. I'm happy I bookmarked this, James. Will subscribe to your emails again now - it's the right time. Thanks, from Melbourne.

[@kaustubhthapa5743]

James, you make excellent points, which are very similar to my PhD journey. The pandemic severely impacted my fieldwork in Vietnam and Nigeria, and adapting one online and waiting for Vietnam to open their border took way longer than anticipated. Long walks after lunch (we had a botanical garden next door), cycling to and from work (30 minutes one way), and a quick 5k every day after work really helped me “slow things down” and manage stress. My research was not going my way despite my best efforts, so I just focused on what I could do and let go of the expected results. The obstacles were my path, and I embraced them. I also got two months paid extension, which helped me a lot. The department head assured me that I could apply for more if needed. I also had some wonderful supervisors and a few friends (also doing PhD) where we could discuss our frustrations and challenges; this was an invaluable gift. For thesis writing, I focused on one hour every day (not a set word limit like yours), and if I was in flow, I did not overextend more than 5 minutes. I managed to publish five papers (all first-author in reputed journals), and I am defending my PhD in 10 days :). I will recommend your video/channel to people who might benefit from your content.

[@taediumvitae5613]

Hi James, just wanted to thank you for this video which did A LOT to give me the confidence to start writing! Long story short, I have been working on my PhD in the humanities for several years and was just stuck in the reading and drafting phase without producing actual results. Then came a traumatic life event which almost made me give up on myself and the thesis. Now I have set my goal to finally submit the thing in mid-October, so I have about 5 months. Your video not only gave me faith that it CAN be done in such a limited amount of time, but also provided me with a bunch of practical advice that helps me organize my days. I'll come back here in mid October to let you know if I made it!

[@王一多-u2w]

Hi wish you all the best for your PhD submission

[@msog8488]

Did you make it?

[@finemeyday]

Really enjoyed this video. I just submitted my thesis - literally yesterday which took longer than expected but I had a covid extension. I really wish I had known some of these tips earlier. I completely agree about the writing being much more straight forward when you're confident with the material/results, I have so many unused drafts because I felt like I had to just get something down. I feel like if I had taken the time to slow down and really think it might not have been such a laborious process of rewriting. Walks saved my PhD life too!

[@James_Hayton]

Congratulations on your submission!

[@komteera7494]

Thks James, I'm at the stage where I've the final 6 months in stressful time of my PhD life. Many good things to know and realise, esp. relaxing from writting-stress, walking&trying not to expect the final best Thesis. So will keep pacing slow&speedy at my best knowledge and skills... / Thks indeed for the clip. Will follow your advise. /cheers! 😊😊😊

[@esmaym2943]

me reading this a year late... CONGRATULATIONSSS!! hope it all went well :)

[@rajaniram5552]

James, You are a true motivator. I kept following your tips and I feel confident about my work. I have started to write my thesis. Thank you

[@todddunn945]

I agree totally about setting daily progress goals. I set a goal of 3 pages per day. If I hit a block, I worked on the details - references, drafting figures, writing up procedures, literature review, etc. That allowed me to meet or exceed my productivity goal even if what I produced was very mundane. Actually typing up references to the correct format made me rethink the references I cited because I hated typing up the citations. I wrote before the internet so that wasn't a distraction. In addition, my first draft was hand written, so my first revision was done when I went to the computer center to use a terminal to type the material into a computer file. I donated a day to that about once a week. Typing the hand written material into the computer gave the opportunity to tighten up my presentations. I got a third opportunity to make revisions when I did the formatting for the word processing software - Things were different then since you had to enter codes for fonts, print size, blank space on pages, paragraph ends, etc. The final review came when I went over the first printed draft. Note that back then I printed what I had typed in as soon as I finished the formatting so I would have a hard copy because computer tapes did fail now and then or the computer systems nightly backup sometimes deleted files. I then let that sift or a week or so before I read through it again. During the writing process I spent a couple of evenings a week in the library reading the newest papers to keep my thinking up to date. Remember that the internet didn't exist then, so we had to read physical papers in the journals and make a photocopy for our individual files. I used to advise my grad students to set goals like yours and to work around blocks by doing the mundane stuff. I actually found it harder to write up research after grad school because as a prof it was really hard to get clean blocks of time without interruptions.

[@James_Hayton]

Thanks for sharing!

[@hoddy007]

This is great! Thanks James. I'm in need of motivation like this as I'm a bit over the whole doctoral journey! 🙂

[@terrys_world]

I am encouraged to do this. Still doing my PhD. Course work. I pray when I get to my dissertation writing period that it doesn't take too long. Love from Kenya.

[@James_Hayton]

Best of luck!

[@terrys_world]

@@James_Hayton thank you 🙏

[@amandac3362]

I'm a Physicist and writing my dissertation right now--- I needed this so much!!! THANK YOU!!!

[@sashanealand8315]

well thanks for video, Im at the end of 6th year in USA and was having a severe psnic attack freeze for several months about writing thesis I knew I had to write it but couldnt figure out how to go about it and just sat at the desk reading papers and writing random pages and distracing myself by planning and doing more and more experiments. It was really making me ill that after all this time I havnt even got much good data IDK thete were so many challenges, getting permits to import bacteria which took a whole year and took so much time just to repair stuff, come up with procedures and get them working, source materials cuz my lab didnt hsve miney to buy anything. Trying to deal with advisors disparaging comments throughout and not get too depressed also having to wirk part time. IDK if I have enough data to write a decent thesis but at least your videos cleared up some of the confusion and got me unstuck.

[@magtazeum4071]

Thank you very much for sharing James

[@stevenedwards2532]

Great video. Thanks for the effort you put into it. I'm in the middle of writing my dissertation and have faced some of the difficulties you discuss here. This helps.

[@lauramarcelaqs]

OMG I am more anxious now... I only have a month to write it! :(

[@jasminepercha561]

I am a phd student and I have only a month and a half to finish my phd thesis (just ti mention I already have the most of the needed data and still have to search some of othors and too I have to translate some data to a writing but I don't know how to do it especially by not having any help from my supervisor because she is a narcissist

[@James_Hayton]

If you're still gathering data with a month and a half left, you probably need an extension. You also probably need somebody to talk to about the results

[@jasminepercha561]

@@James_Hayton yeah but I study from 2am until 5pm everyday excepted the 2 days were I have to work so I total I stay home and study 5 day a week

[@James_Hayton]

I understand, but you cannot finish writing until you've finished gathering and analysing data. It really sounds like you need an extension, and it's better to apply for one now than in a month's time when it might be too late

[@jasminepercha561]

@@James_Hayton thank you so much for your help

[@shinra2755]

@@James_HaytonGreat advice. In my experience many PhD students require extensions, even more so due to the pandemic. This delayed my fieldwork significantly and I had to get an extension, which worked out well for me.

[@melaniebatista7768]

Hi James, thank you for putting this together. I have a question that I’m really curious about, I struggle with this a lot: You say that when writing your thesis, you set the target of 500 words/day, and you planned two weeks per chapter. Which results in a chapter of 6000 words - perfectly reasonable to me :) My personal struggle is to write 500 words a day.. the selecting literature, reading and annotating, making mindmaps or tables to compare papers, the, so to say, finding out what actually I want/need to write. How did you account for this time, or how did you make it work fast?

[@James_Hayton]

I set a daily *minimum* of 500 words. some days I wrote 3000 (though that didn't happen often. If you can't write 500/day, set a target that you can beat. I'd done all the research and a lot of reading before I started to write. I wasn't including areas of literature that I didn't already know about, so any reading was really just checking details or filling some small gaps.

[@jonathanbambokela8308]

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. It really encouraged me.

[@ayasarsour2860]

Thank you very much

[@mauriceburudi4439]

This is quite encouraging.

[@riniarchdasaputri8946]

Hi James, thank you for sharing :)

[@engineers_hub]

Loved this

[@fatimaozcan3867]

Thank you for your videos. Also I really enjoyed reading your book . One question. Is it sensible/possible to write a PhD in a year in social science? (No lab work or data collection needed) I’ve already written 30k but I feel like it’s rubbish and I’m coming towards of my 3rd year. I’m wondering if I can do from scratch in last year?

[@James_Hayton]

By doing it from scratch do you mean an entirely new idea, or just rewriting it? It's definitely possible to rewrite it, but you've got to know what you want to present.

[@fatimaozcan3867]

@@James_Hayton not a new idea, just rewriting it. And I’ve already collected most of my sources. It’s just the lack of coherency structure so I wanna redo it.

[@James_Hayton]

OK, well then it's doable! Check out my full lecture on how to write your thesis... it talks about the principles of structure!

[@fatimaozcan3867]

@@James_Hayton Thank you so much, I’ll do! Wishing you a great weekend.

[@thegirlchild6389]

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏👏👏👏👏👏 so helpful. Thank you a million times

[@James_Hayton]

Glad it was helpful!

[@snehasurpam]

Thank you 😊

[@BarialyAkbary-k8p]

As a final year PhD student in Social Sciences , I am starting to panic , as I am yet to decide what methodology to select for my thesis - luckily I have some data to work with , but I feel like I am losing it all- I do not even have a complete chapter and I feel so behind. I only have 10 more omnths to go -

[@James_Hayton]

With so little time, you need to decide quickly what methodolgogy to use. You may have many options, but go with the one that's quickest and easiest for you to apply. If it's really impossible to finish in 10 months you may need an extension, and it's better to ask early than to wait until the last minute

[@BarialyAkbary-k8p]

@@James_Hayton Sorry I should have been more clearer - I am talking about the overarching ontological paradigm for my qualititave research.

[@James_Hayton]

A lot of social scientists pick an ontological position at the end. It's given a lot of importance, but usually people pick a method, then pick the ontological position that best describes it (rather than it being a starting point that influences the method). There's a great blog post on research paradigms (including ontology and epistemology here: salmapatel.co.uk/academia/the-research-paradigm-methodology-epistemology-and-ontology-explained-in-simple-language/

[@fatimaozcan3867]

Also what reference software do you recommend? Thank you.

[@James_Hayton]

Try a few and see which one you like, then stick with it!

[@JKreal678]

Thank you very much for the helpful and valuable hints. Take home msg for me: establish a routine (beginning and end of day) & daily lmit of 500wrds daily. One question: how many hours was your working day?

[@James_Hayton]

My daily minimum was 500 per day, but set a target that's right for you (that you can smash on a regular basis). My working hours varied quite a lot, but I'd say about 6 on average. I made sure not to work to exhaustion and keep something in reserve for the next day.

[@ajaynayak-qk8vb]

I have hearing problem I cannot even talk on phone I have lost profound hearing ability in my both ears so can I get admission in PhD plzzzz help me plzzzzzzsss😢😢😢😢😢

[@KimmyTheOne]

Yes, you absolutely can. They will make accommodations for you.

[@nadasoliman9748]

Does this three months thing work in the humanities? Things need more reading and research unlike more practical fields .

[@James_Hayton]

I titled the video "How I wrote" in 3 months, rather than "How to write"; there are so many factors that affect speed (for example, whether you're writing in your native language, whether you can work on it full time, etc) You might not write as fast, but you can apply similar principles in the humanities and save a lot of time. One of the big problems I see is that many students write as they go, generating a lot of text but without making clear decisions, so it's not about the amount of research or reading per se, it's that it hasn't been given any boundaries.

[@nadasoliman9748]

@@James_Hayton good point! Thanks.

[@imadeddineoubrahim]

I am a PhD student. I have to finish my thesis dissertation before September. It is possible if I already have all the data and I only need to add a small part in my thesis, which will be based on the MCDM approach and require only 10 responses from experts??

[@James_Hayton]

I have no idea. I don't know what you've done already and don't know how quickly you can write. BUT it's good that you have the data already!

[@imadeddineoubrahim]

@@James_Hayton my potential is one page per day, I could not work more than 2 hours per day, as I worked very hard during my thesis and my energy started to be decreased.

[@kokoro9218]

I have to finish writng before Septemebr but my supervisor has holidays this july so i actually need to do most of the work before mid august and just do minor stuff at the end. In a week a wrote just 5 pages about stuff i already know so i am not really satisfied. i hope i will have a better momentum. My problem is that on, my unproductive days i panick a lot . i want to manage that since still have time to make it possible to finish

[@shwetadogra4782]

Hi, just bumped to this video, I have to submit my thesis by end of June. M not clear on a few hypothesis, I have all the data and have run some tests. Need to write all things down. Kindly advise on how to progress , this is my last extension.

[@ajaynayak-qk8vb]

Also et me know online phd is valid or not plzzzz

[@aminkhafizi4364]

i got question is this article about chatgpt was right or what ?? or we just can can copy other person thesis ?? ChatGPT can be used to write a PhD thesis by leveraging its advanced language generation capabilities to produce high-quality, well-structured text. The first step would be to provide ChatGPT with a clear topic and research question, as well as any relevant background information and sources.

[@James_Hayton]

No, you can't just copy another person's thesis. Is this a joke?

[@babyroo555]

😅 perfect response@@James_Hayton

[@footpath0592]

That's slow haha, I wrote mine in the last weekend