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I've procrastinated working on my thesis for more than a year

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Re: I've procrastinated working on my thesis for more than a year

#111

Post by ordu »

neilv wrote: post #74
KVFinn wrote: post #2

If you're not just making slow progress but literally unable to make a single bit of progress, my goto strategy is similar to what writers call a vomit draft. For writing it conventionally means means writing words without stopping to plan or edit, no corrections allowed, the rule is you just have to keep typing, no matter what. It's about something being better than nothing, creating momentum, and also avoids being…

Vomit draft can be great tool, but there's additional risk in science to keep in mind... I've heard of a person who advocated this kind of draft, and then did a vomit draft themselves for a research project, with the draft including discussing stand-in results of an experiment that they planned to do. Their colleague on the project saw the draft, and called out that the experiment had not been done. The writer said t…

I think, the problem here stems from making vomit draft a social technique instead of keeping it at a personal level. It is potentially harmful if other people can read it. OP describes it as a personal method and it may work by breaking some psychological issues, like a fear of under-perform or something like. But to do this one need to overcome all fears, to get rid of anxiety, and it needs a safe environment where you can write anything. Literally anything, to try it and to show to your mind that it is harmless thing, nothing bad happens, it is ok to write not good enough, because you can dump it later.

Re: I've procrastinated working on my thesis for more than a year

#113

Post by sackstein »

I did this with basically every project that took longer than a couple of days in university. Somehow I never had the courage to finish stuff, even though the constant feeling of guilt was making me miserable. Every second you don't shut up your brain with a constant stream of information, you begin to think about the stuff you need to do but don't. It's always in the back of your mind. Not a single moment to relax.

Re: I've procrastinated working on my thesis for more than a year

#114

Post by mnky9800n »

I directed a short film on scientific models while procrastinating writing my masters thesis.

https://youtu.be/dkTncoPqo5Y

I coauthored a series of papers on a rock mechanics experiment while avoiding working on my PhD (which was in computational social science).

Procrastination seems to have only demonstrated to me in my life that nothing actually matters all that much and you can do whatever you want. And most certainly you will do the things you want to do while you procrastinate assuming you avoid Reddit and video games.

Re: I've procrastinated working on my thesis for more than a year

#115

Post by kwanbix »

neilv wrote: post #74
KVFinn wrote: post #2

If you're not just making slow progress but literally unable to make a single bit of progress, my goto strategy is similar to what writers call a vomit draft. For writing it conventionally means means writing words without stopping to plan or edit, no corrections allowed, the rule is you just have to keep typing, no matter what. It's about something being better than nothing, creating momentum, and also avoids being…

Vomit draft can be great tool, but there's additional risk in science to keep in mind... I've heard of a person who advocated this kind of draft, and then did a vomit draft themselves for a research project, with the draft including discussing stand-in results of an experiment that they planned to do. Their colleague on the project saw the draft, and called out that the experiment had not been done. The writer said t…

The problem is not the technique, but the inmorality of who publish it as something it is not.

Re: I've procrastinated working on my thesis for more than a year

#116

Post by llm_sent_me »

theshrike79 wrote: post #48
scrappyjoe wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is genius. Anecdotally I’ve seen a high correlation between procrastination and perfectionism. Once you have a vomit draft I can see how the perfectionist bent suddenly works in your favour.

When coding I have a rule: "first make it work, then make it pretty". The MVP can be a complete spaghetti piece of crap, just make it work. When it works, you can iterate on making it elegant. Oh, and if you work for a Corporation, don't tell them it's done when the crappy MVP finally works. You're still "working on it" if they ask. Otherwise the spaghetti crap will end up in production.

My variation on this. Make it work then make it slightly less horrible.

Re: I've procrastinated working on my thesis for more than a year

#117

Post by jakkos »

adomingues wrote: post #77
KVFinn wrote: post #2

If you're not just making slow progress but literally unable to make a single bit of progress, my goto strategy is similar to what writers call a vomit draft. For writing it conventionally means means writing words without stopping to plan or edit, no corrections allowed, the rule is you just have to keep typing, no matter what. It's about something being better than nothing, creating momentum, and also avoids being…

Having written 3 dissertations, a bunch of research papers and writing code daily, I'm a huge fan of this method. Sometimes I just create bullet points stating "here i need to talk about this and that" adding a bit of actual information whenever it comes to mind. If I have to write a piece of code that I really don't feel like, i use a mix of comments and meta-code. The procrastinators among us have now an excellent…

If a tool can help people create genuine research, then that tool is good!

However, I worry on both the plagiarism and correctness fronts. When you aren't writing it by hand, it might be easy to miss both.

Re: I've procrastinated working on my thesis for more than a year

#118

Post by MrDrDr »

shikshake wrote: post #27

Hey, I'm the author of this blog post. I didn't think anyone would even read it, let alone post it on HN. To be honest it's a little scary how many people are seeing this post since it's basically my 2am anxiety-fueled cry for help. But it's also motivating reading all these comments from people who've had similar experiences and are offering encouragement. I'm reading every one of your replies and they're giving me…

I took more than 3 years to write up my thesis. It was the most depressed I have ever been. There are many good comments here and I hope they motivate you.

The advice that worked for me came from a professor in the depart (who was not my supervisor) which was essentially: - Make sure your thesis title is framed as a question - Each chapter should be a subquestion to the general overarching question - Start each chapter by asking the explicit subquestion - Conclude each chapter by summarising the answer to the subquestion and asking the subquestion of the next chapter.

In this way you have an overarching narrative to your thesis - without actually writing it.

Next add the headings and subheading of how you answered each subquestion (I image this will be cutting and pasting what have already written). You can breakdown subheading until each section only requires one or two paragraphs. Then start writing one paragraph at at a time. Do not worry about word count until you have finished a first draft. The narrative will make it much easier to read, understand and finish. You may need to get creative about how the narrative will flow so it makes sense - but you can ask for help with this.

Hope this helps.

Re: I've procrastinated working on my thesis for more than a year

#119

Post by martopix »

shikshake wrote: post #27

Hey, I'm the author of this blog post. I didn't think anyone would even read it, let alone post it on HN. To be honest it's a little scary how many people are seeing this post since it's basically my 2am anxiety-fueled cry for help. But it's also motivating reading all these comments from people who've had similar experiences and are offering encouragement. I'm reading every one of your replies and they're giving me…

There's one thing I couldn't find in your post: do you WANT to finish this PhD?

Also, have you talked to your advisor about this procrastination problem, your fears, and the possibility of quitting? He sounds like an approachable person.

Re: I've procrastinated working on my thesis for more than a year

#120

Post by Fell »

I'm also in the same boat. I've been trying to complete my Bachelor's degree since 2011. I've been working on a pre-thesis assignment since 2021.

However, I recently found a solution that works for me:

I commute to work for one hour every day. In May 2022 I had a car crash and wrecked my car. Not having the money for a new car left me stuck with using the train to get to work. After a few days I was already looking for something useful to do with my daily two hours I spent on trains. It was a hassle, too, because I have to change trains 2-3 times.

So, I installed Linux on my laptop and configured it for maximum battery life and, more importantly, making bootup, hibernate and resume as quick as possible.

I did that, so I can pull out my laptop even if I'm just spending 15-10 minutes on one train, and do something with my time.

So every day, before and after work, I make a little tiny progress on my thesis. And it quickly became a habit, too. I can't avoid it, because I can't avoid going to work. And there's not much else I could do with that laptop.

So, even on days when I don't feel like it, I always think: "might as well work on my thesis"

It worked so well, I even missed my stop once because I was too focused!

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