How To Tuesdays: How To Write A Thesis

New thing. Since I spend a lot of time staring into space, thinking about what I could theoretically teach people to do, I'm starting a feature called How To Tuesdays.

My first topic is going to be How To Write A Thesis, since writing a thesis is what I'm usually doing.

It's not Tuesday, you say? Well, let's think of How To Tuesdays as more of a clever title and less of a restrictive label. I hate restrictive labels.

So,

How To Write A Thesis
(Or other lengthy academic paper)

• Start with the lit review. It will suck the most to write and will take up the most of your time.
• When you're reading all the other academic papers you might cite in your lit review, don't actually read them. Just scan them, paying the most attention to the introduction and the discussion (beginning and end). The introduction should tell you why the paper is relevant and the discussion should tell you what the results mean (if an experiment was conducted). Take notes on important details. You can always go back and do a more in-depth reading later if the paper seems particularly relevant. The notes I take generally look something like this:
• Background: social psychology, mob mentality, mass hysteria, hazing (Make note of topics discussed in the paper's lit review. If you want more information on those topics, you can look up the cited papers.)
• Purpose: How does group size affect severity of hazing at universities? (What question is the paper hoping to answer?)
• Study: Hazing reports were used to assess correlation between severity of hazing acts and number of perpetrators. (What is the study, in general terms? How was it done and what variables were involved? You should be able to sum this up in one or two sentences.)
• Results: Severity of hazing acts increased as number of perpetrators increased. (What were the results or the outcome of the paper? What were the relevant implications? What was the final point?) 
• Break the paper into manageable parts. Nobody can write an entire thesis in one night so don't get yourself into a situation where you sit down to start writing and don't stop until you're done. Because even if you manage to finish, the quality will likely be questionable.
• Set deadlines and work times for yourself. When I have some free time, the last thing I'm going to do is decide to sit down and start working on my thesis. I actually need to schedule times for myself to work and I write them down on my calendar. I also estimate how long it will take me to finish something and set a reasonable deadline for myself. That goes on the calendar too.
• Use procrastination to your advantage. If I don't want to do something, I won't do it unless I'm under a lot of pressure to meet a deadline. If I know I have to work at 4:00 on Friday, I'll set a deadline at 3:00 on Friday. I can't break the deadline because I'll be leaving for work. I get motivated to finish on time, especially if I've already told a friend, classmate, or teacher that I'll be emailing them my progress. It keeps me accountable because I have someone waiting for my email (I like to at least imagine someone is impatiently refreshing an inbox) and I can't send it 15 or 20 minutes late, assuming the recipient won't mind, because then I'll be late for work. I need to keep the pressure on if I want to  make any progress.
• Pay yourself. This isn't something I've tried yet myself, but I have a feeling I'll be doing it in the near future. Even though I don't have a lot of money to spare, let's say I really love the tacos al pastor from  El Sabroso (which I do). If I pay myself 50 cents for every hour of work, after 8 hours, I'll have enough to buy two tacos. It's not much, but it's a reward I can work toward by earning actual money (albeit from myself) and there is no delay to my gratification because I can buy the tacos immediately after I put in an 8 hour day of work, thereby making my association between working and awesome tacos extra strong. I've had jobs that were less rewarding.
• Know what makes you get burnt out. I happen to get burnt out when I have the same obligation every day. It wears me down to never get a day off from something I don't particularly enjoy. So I dedicate one or two days a week to full days of working on my thesis. Even though I might end up putting in 7 or 8 intense non-stop hours, it's worth it because I know I won't have to think about my thesis for the rest of the week. (Well, I'll probably think about it. But I won't feel obligated to work on it.) If you're not like me, you might want to set aside manageable amounts of time every day to work on something. Maybe it will become a routine for you. And you won't have to endure full-day episodes of desk chair sitting.
• Lastly, keep up with your sleep, nutrition, exercise, and recreation. Really. I'm notoriously bad about this and there are entire semesters I don't remember because I was sleepwalking through everything and barely able to get anything done. The more balance you allow yourself, the easier everything will be.

Did I miss anything?