Dissertation Disaster!

So, you may have noticed that I've been away for a week...unfortunately not to a far away country or lounging by a pool somewhere exotic. Amongst other things, I have been glued to my desk for the past week trying to get my dissertation paper finished for my most important written assignment at university in my final year of undergraduate study. It's safe to say, however, that when it comes to working, I'm not the most organised person on the planet, and it takes a lot of pep-talking to get me to a place where I can tackle a piece of work with enough enthusiasm to make it good. So, when it came to writing 10,000 words for my dissertation, you can see where the problems started coming in. After the week from hell, I wanted to share with you the things I have learned from this experience to hopefully better prepare anyone else facing such a task in the future to not make the same mistakes I have done this past few months.

Tip #1 . Keep yourself organised

Keeping organised is definitely one thing I didn't achieve whilst writing this paper. Whilst I had a fountain of knowledge and information that I had researched, when it came down to writing the actual paper, I realised I had no clear plan of action of what I wanted to put where and the structure for the locations of the pieces of paper I needed for each chapter. I was faced with piles and piles of paper and scribbles in notebooks that had no real organisation or flow to them. Believe me, wasting a whole day sorting through piles of paper and notes was such a waste of time that could have easily not needed to happen.

What I did: Kept all my dissertation notes in multiple notebooks and in one plastic folder.

What I should have done: Separated my notes into separate folders for each chapter of my dissertation.

Tip #2 . Have a clear plan

Planning is one of the most important parts of any essay. And something, stupidly, that I didn't make the most of for my dissertation. When it came to writing the final piece, I had all the planning I needed, down to what my chapter titles were going to be and how many words I wanted to write for each chapter. However, none of this has a purpose unless you link what your planning to what you have researched. This could have been tackled by following Tip #1 as well, by having a clear and concise plan of action, rather than a load of information and a chapter plan done at completely different times. What I realised when I came to do my work, after I had sorted my contents page and written all the chapters and sub-chapters in, that when it came to filling in the gaps with the information I had, I was left with some information that didn't appear to have a sensible place to slot, and some sections of my sub-chapters with hardly any writing in, and some quite frankly, dodgy links between sections.

What I did: Planned my chapters after gathering information and wrote the chapters in sub-sections first

What I should have done: Planned my chapters as I went along gathering information, written the chapters as one large piece and sub-chaptered afterwards

Tip #3 . Give yourself plenty of time

As with most things educational, I left the bulk of the work until the last few weeks. I strongly advise that nobody does this. I can safely say that, as far as university work goes, I have had the week from Hell! At the beginning of my dissertation module, we were told "You only have 27 weeks worth of planning and execution before submission". 27 weeks, at the time, seemed like a life time. But, it really is amazing how quickly time flies when you don't want it to. Especially for myself, who did primary research and sent out a questionnaire to people to complete for my work, the time constraint seemed shorter than ever. Throughout most of my first semester I lazily planned a small amount of my work at a time, and had no real clear direction to follow. I didn't make the most of my dissertation supervisors, which was a really dumb move, and I neglected the help and support that they could offer. Being faced with a 10,000 word essay and thinking that planning 250 words a week will get you by (taking out the odd month or two for Christmas and birthdays and shopping trips of course!) is not a nice situation to be in. With four days until my dissertation was due to be in, and having completed my primary research and introduction, I came to realise that once I had exhausted most of my information on my introduction and my primary research discussion, that I was approximately 3,000 words short of an appropriate literature review chapter. Enter the frantic scramble to get everything together and arrive at the library at 6pm on Tuesday and not leave until 2am on Thursday morning, still jacked up on Monster energy drink and Twix bars!

What I did: Lazily gathered information with no real plan, neglected resources available to me at university and did an all night work-a-thon

What I should have done: Worked with my supervisors and used all resources available to me to make a month by month plan, a chapter at a time, and paced my work each week

Tip #4 . Work with friends

It's amazing how much easier working is, especially on something so large, when you have friends there to support you. Granted, they can't do the work for you, but being in an group of people who are working towards the same goal is a fantastic motivator. For the first month of my dissertation writing experience, I worked with friends from my course to gather ideas about how they were going to tackle the time constraints and work load. What I failed to do was actually do any of the work when I was with them. Whilst talking about how we were going to tackle the time and work etc. was helpful in it's own way - after a week it should have stopped and I should have knuckled down with the new ideas of work ethics to follow I had been equipped with. What I did instead was procrastinate, and go to coffee shops rather than the library.

What I did: Procrastinated and used the time with my course mates as relaxation and free time

What I should have done: Balanced free time with my course mates with working

Tip #5 . Work in an appropriate environment

With the daunting task of having to write 10,000 words, I thought, at the time, that the best place to tackle such a task was either in my dining room or in bed. Big mistake. It wasn't until the frantic week I have just had that I realised that working in an environment where Netflix, YouTube, Twitter and all other means of internet procrastination tool were readily available, was the wrong thing to do. One of the great things I find about a lot of universities, is that working on their computers has restrictions of what you can view online - or at least some my university's computer labs do, meaning things like YouTube and Netflix wouldn't have been such a major distraction. I came to the realisation all too late that whilst I was enjoying watching 'Once Upon A Time' and Dan Howell (swoon inappropriately) on the internet, my stress levels were going through the roof when I realised how little I had actually written. On the days where I was distracted by online antics, I managed to write about 1,500 words a day, if that. It wasn't until I banned all electronics on the final day before having to hand my work in that I realised I had written the final 4,000 words in just 5 hours!

What I did: Worked in a noisy, distraction filled environment

What I should have done: Made the most of the facilities available at university, working in a calm, quiet environment with no distractions

I hope you enjoyed, and learned something, from my experience of writing my dissertation. If there is one thing I have learned from my degree it is to not leave things to the last minute, plan properly and make the most of what you are given. Putting in just that little bit more effort can make a worlds worth of difference! Let me know of any more tips or tricks you have for working on essays or projects in the comments below, or any disaster moments you have learned from!