The Smart Way To Write A Dissertation

From MIT lecturers to project management experts: Here’s what works 🎓

By: Derek Jansen | Reviewed By: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | Published: 21 November 2025

TL;DR – The Quick Guide 📌

Stop confusing activity with progress: Identify your top 1-2 weekly priorities that actually move your dissertation forward, then protect that time ruthlessly.

Create a working hypothesis early: After initial focused research, outline your provisional thinking to guide your investigation. This helps you identify what evidence matters for answering your research questions.

Build structure before perfecting details: Create your framework with main headings and brief intros, cluster sources by theme, then write non-linearly—tackle whichever section you’re ready for, not necessarily in order.

Adaptability is key: Structure enables productivity, but rigid plans hinder it. Stay disciplined with milestones while remaining flexible enough to adjust when something isn’t working.

If you’re deep in your dissertation journey, you’ve probably experienced that sinking feeling when your to-do list keeps growing, but your progress doesn’t. You’re putting in the hours, ticking off tasks, but somehow you’re not actually moving forward. Sound familiar?

Here’s the thing: productivity in dissertation work isn’t about doing more. It’s about managing better.

Let’s explore some practical strategies that can transform how you approach your research project, from MIT lecture halls to project management classrooms, these insights have helped countless researchers work more effectively.

The Activity Trap: Are You Busy or Productive?

First up, we need to address one of the biggest mistakes dissertation students make: confusing activity with progress.

You know those days when you’ve been “working” for eight hours, but can’t quite pinpoint what you’ve accomplished? That’s the activity trap. You’re responding to emails, reorganising notes, tweaking your literature review for the hundredth time, attending meetings. You’re busy, absolutely. But are you productive?

Alyssa Chatani, who teaches project management at Northeastern University whilst managing complex projects, puts it perfectly: productivity isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing what matters with intention. The most effective researchers start every week by identifying the one or two priorities that will create the greatest impact, then protect their time ruthlessly to execute them.

So before you dive into your work each week, pause and ask yourself: what are the one or two things that will actually move my dissertation forward? Not what feels urgent, not what’s easiest to tick off your list, but what truly matters. Then build your week around those priorities.

Start at the End: The Counterintuitive Approach

Alright, here’s a strategy that might sound backwards at first, but it’s remarkably effective.

Robert Pozen, Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management, advocates for starting your high-priority projects at the end, not the beginning. Don’t wait until your research is finished to figure out your conclusions. Instead, spend one or two days doing focused research, then outline your tentative answers.

This approach gives your work direction and helps you concentrate on gathering the evidence that really matters. Think about it: when you know where you’re heading, you can navigate there much more efficiently. You’re not collecting every piece of information you encounter, you’re strategically gathering what you need to support or challenge your provisional conclusions.

This doesn’t mean you’re committing to fixed conclusions before doing the work. Rather, you’re creating hypotheses that guide your research process, making it more focused and purposeful.

Build Your Dissertation Like a Building

Let’s move on to structuring your work. Dr Derya Turkkorkmaz from the European School of Economics uses a brilliant metaphor: think of your dissertation as constructing a building.

Start with the main structure, then design the rooms, and finally move on to the decoration. When you approach your work this way, you’ll find yourself working faster and staying more focused.

Here’s how this works in practice:

First, establish your main structure. Identify your key chapters and what each one needs to accomplish. Don’t worry about perfection at this stage, you’re laying foundations.

Next, design your rooms. Cluster your research materials into thematic groups. You’ve probably collected dozens of articles, studies, and sources. Group them by topic or theme. You don’t have to decide immediately how much of each you’ll use, that refinement comes later.

Then, create your framework. Write down your main headings first, then draft an introductory paragraph under each one. Suddenly, you’ve got a clear skeleton, a structured dissertation with its main framework already in place.

Finally, add the decoration. Return to your clustered materials, review the articles in each group, and start weaving your findings together with your own interpretations.

This method tackles one of the biggest productivity killers: perfectionism. When you’re trying to perfect each sentence as you write it, you’re constantly switching between creative and critical thinking modes. It’s exhausting and inefficient. The building approach lets you work in stages, each with its own clear purpose.

Embrace Non-Linear Writing

Here’s a productivity boost that many students overlook: you don’t have to write your dissertation in order.

Jana Roberts, who leads Doctoral Leadership Studies at Trevecca Nazarene University, emphasises that outlining gives you the freedom to move between sections as inspiration strikes, whilst still maintaining a cohesive flow.

When you’ve built your framework, you can tackle whichever section you’re most prepared for or most energised about on any given day. Your methodology chapter feeling daunting this morning? Work on your findings instead. Struggling with the introduction? Jump to a section that stands alone.

Completing these independent parts first increases your overall sense of progress and momentum. There’s something psychologically powerful about seeing completed sections accumulate, even if they’re not in sequence. It builds confidence and maintains motivation.

Planning Meets Adaptability

Throughout these strategies, there’s a common thread: structure enables productivity, but rigid adherence to plans can hinder it.

As Mike Vargas, Visiting Professor at Saint Leo University, notes from his experience teaching project management, productivity thrives where planning meets adaptability. High-performing researchers demonstrate that success stems from structure, communication, and continuous improvement, not from sheer workload or inflexible schedules.

This means establishing clear milestones and timelines, absolutely. But it also means being willing to adjust your approach when something isn’t working. If your current writing schedule leaves you staring at a blank page, try a different time of day. If your chapter structure isn’t flowing, rearrange it. If a particular methodology isn’t yielding results, communicate with your supervisor and explore alternatives.

The key is maintaining that balance between disciplined planning and flexible execution.

Your Practical Action Plan ⭐️ 

Let’s bring this all together with concrete steps you can implement this week:

Set your weekly priorities. Each Monday morning (or Sunday evening), identify your top two dissertation priorities for the week. Write them down. Everything else is secondary.

Outline your tentative conclusions. If you haven’t already, spend a focused day sketching out where you think your research is heading. Create provisional answers to your research questions. Use these as your navigation points.

Build your framework. If you’re in the writing phase, create or refine your structural outline. Get all your main headings in place with brief introductory paragraphs. Don’t worry about perfection, worry about structure.

Cluster your materials. Organise your research sources into thematic groups. Even a rough categorisation will help you work more efficiently later.

Write what you’re ready to write. Don’t force yourself to write Chapter One if Chapter Four is clearer in your mind. Work where your energy and clarity are highest.

Protect your deep work time. Block out specific hours for your top priorities and guard them ruthlessly. Turn off notifications, close unnecessary tabs, and give your most important work your full attention.

Communicate proactively. Maintain open dialogue with your supervisory team. Share your progress, your challenges, and your plans. Good communication prevents problems from festering and keeps you accountable.

The Bottom Line

Your dissertation is a major project, and like any complex project, it requires both strategic planning and disciplined execution. But here’s what often gets lost: discipline doesn’t mean grinding yourself down with endless hours of unfocused work. It means working with intention, structure, and clarity.

When you focus on what truly moves your research forward, when you work from structure rather than chaos, when you protect your time and energy for what matters most, you’ll find that productivity isn’t about working harder. It’s about working smarter.

You’ve got this. Now go identify those one or two priorities for this week and give them the focused attention they deserve.