I will preface this by saying that I did not take my own advice, and I know that if I had, these last nine months would have gone much smoother and I would have yielded a result that I would have been far more satisfied with.
Start Early!
Wondering when to start? There is never going to be a convenient time to start a project like this, but the earlier you start, the sooner that you will realize that your original plan is not going to work; and trust me, things will change over the course of your project. Things will fall through, and you will want more time than you ever anticipated needing. If you procrastinate, you will simply run out of time. This does not mean that you won’t get it done, but you might not achieve the results that you aimed for. You are investing far too much time to throw something together at the last minute that you are not proud of.
Are You Satisfied with Your Topic?
Do you want to spend the next several months thinking about snails or pollution in the tropics? Just remember, you are going to think about your question every day multiple times a day at least until you are finished (but more realistically, it is going to cross your mind daily for the rest of your life). Make sure that you choose something that you are truthfully passionate about. Don’t pick something because you want your peers to think you are smart or you want to impress someone, (we have plenty of smart miserable people in this world, do you really want to be like them?) pick something that you want to know about! This part, I got right at least.
It’s Not the Writing that Gets You
On average, it takes less than 5 hours to type 10,000 words. What takes a long time is determining what you are writing about. Obtain your data early! Once you have data, you can determine how the rest of the project will flow. If you realize early on that participants flake on you, then you have the opportunity to replace them or come up with something that will work. If you wait until the last minute, you are just going to have to roll with it. If you want to take a break, make sure it is after data collection. If you have your data collected and interpreted, you could feasibly write the rest of your paper in 24 hours. I’m not saying to do this, (I promise, it is far more miserable than any other project you have ever procrastinated on) but if you find yourself in this position, don’t give up.
Choose an Advisor Early
Consider your advisor to be your guide through this experience. They have made it thus far and conquered something more difficult than your project. Use them, they like it. I don’t care if you think you are all right on your own, they can make you think of things that you had never thought of and then tell you how to do it.
In the End, You Survive
Don’t take years off your life with this project. Enjoy the time and the people that you are doing this with. You made the choice to do this, now go make the most of it.
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