Thread by @JoFeanelwa

I'm going to write down my advice for how to write a thesis (or do any work really) when you have very little motivation and are miserable. I was fighting depression quite hard when I was writing up and had undiagnosed dyspraxia so I made up loads of ways to keep going. 1/n

When you start writing up, a thesis looks like a great big wall that you will never climb. You need to make it into a staircase or a climbing wall with holds on. Do this by breaking it up into pieces. You will need: giant piece of paper. Pens that make you happy.
2/n

Decide how you are going to structure it. This may have been decided for you, if your uni says it has to be Lit Review, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, or something. If so, write those down. If you DON'T have to use a certain structure, you can figure one out 3/n

My PhD was developing a technique using two methods. So my chapters were:
Introduction
Method 1 intro, implementation, results, discussion
Method 2 same
Theory development for method 2
Comparison of the two
Conclusions
4/n

I just decided to do it that way because that's how I ended up doing my work. I didn't plan very well at the start so I had to find a way to put it together at the end. That's ok, a PhD is for learning how to do projects yourself. 5/n

So when you know what your chapters will be, give each of them a bit of space on the giant piece of paper.

Then think of the things you have done (look through lab books?) and decide which bit goes in which space. Write or draw it in, messy if you want to.
6/n

You may start seeing holes here for things it would be good to do. Make a list of those off to the side. You need to decide later which to do and which you don't have time for.

Now you have a first draft! Or I call this the -1st draft. Hurray well done. Have a rest. 7/n

For each space on the paper, open a document file on your computer. Word? Latex? Whatever. Literally just transcribe into the file, what you have on that space. No think. Just type. You can include swears. Latex: you don't need to do markup yet. Be your own secretary. 8/n

This is the 0th draft. I do this for EVERYTHING. Papers. Emails. The 0th draft is sweary, involves the words "thingy" and "stuff" a lot, and is not for public/supervisor consumption. It's all for meeeeeee.

Congratulations. You have started. By scribbling. 9/n

Here I would recommend: make backups. Daily. And backups of backups. If you can use some kind of version control (Time Machine on macs, or something like Git) I strongly strongly recommend it. I once deleted a whole figure by accident and cried in the office. 10/n

The next task is not writing. It is a pre-writing task and you get to be a boss for a while. For each chapter, open a different file in some kind of to-do list app, or just Word or Notepad or Google Docs. This is going to be your main reference point for yourself. 11/n

Go through your 0th draft and for each bit of notes in it, add a to-do list item, e.g.
-paragraph about how I processed particle images: write it
-add reference to that paper with the triangle picture: find, add
12/n
-

You can do compound to-do list items, like this:
-figure to show how STEM works
--sketch on paper
--draw diagram in Inkscape
--prepare image with scale bar in ImageJ
--add image to left
--add arrows and shit from image to picture
13/n

Making up these to-do lists is a few days' work at least, depending on how much work you can do each day. It feels like you're not writing. But this is real work and it's important. When you have done them, have another rest. Or a rest after to-do-ising each chapter. 14/n

Before you start writing, decide how you will manage references. This is really, really important. EndNote, Bibtex, whatever. Ask people. Decide which one is easiest for you to use. Once you have started, use it. Every time you read or refer to something, put it in. 15/n

This is more important than the writing, it really is. Everybody wishes at some point they'd started putting what they read in their ref management software when they started their PhD. So if you are just starting your PhD: do it. More important than cramming in an exp't. 16/n

Dyspraxia means I forget what I read a lot. So I started making reading journals. As I read a paper I would make notes in a separate exercise book. I would draw pictures, reproduce graphs, colour with felt pen. Whatever will stick in your head for later. 17/n

I would definitely recommend this if you work better in pictures than words. When I have ideas I see "that picture from that paper by that tall bloke in Oxford", then I go through my reading journal and find the picture so I can check and cite it. 18/n

I still do this too, I have about 10 reading journals so far. I also number the pages and index them in the back by subject with colours for each subject, so I can find stuff quicker. 19/n

In the top corner of each page, I write the name of the paper as it's referred to in the ref management software and draw a box round it in that subject's colour. The name in the ref management software is also its filename in the computer. 20/n

And in the computer, my folders of papers are organised by subject. So I can find stuff by colour really fast. If you have colour vision differences, this may not work so well. I have no suggestions, I am sorry, but you are inventive and clever, and you can. 21/n

Talking of indexing, this is really dull to do, but index your lab book. Give each page a number. Then go to the back and write each task and what page you did it on. e.g.
9-12 TEM Tecnai Satoshi sample STEM mode
12-13 thinks: how best to process Satoshi data
22/n

For every minute you think "this is dull as fuck" while you are doing that, you save yourself an hour of lookiing for shit in your lab book later. Believe me. SO helpful.
23/n

Ok nowww I think we are ready to start the first thing on the first to-do list. So.
AAAAAAAAAAAGH
starting is scary.
But we have already started! That's the 0th draft. So here's how to stop procrastinating. Listen carefully, I will say this only...lots of times.
24/n

Open the document. Open the folder of images or whatever you will be working from. Open the paper you want.
Then fuck off and make a cup of tea. Do the dishes. Have a wee. Something that isn't work.
Then come back and type one word. Draw one line. Scroll to the right place. 25/n

Then, piss off again. Do something else. Then come back and do one more word. Or a sentence. Or another line. Or one image processing step. Then when your brain starts screaming, go away again. Super micro steps. 26/n

When an animal sees something new, it goes closer, looks, jumps back. Comes back, smells it, jumps back. Comes back, touches it, jumps back. Comes back for 5 seconds, jumps back. You are an animal and this is new and scary. It is completely natural to need to do this. 27/n

And when you finish a to-do list item, even if it takes you a week and you think it should have taken you an hour, be kind to yourself. Cross it off the list. Tell yourself well done Have a proper, not-housework, sit and look at the sky type break. 28/n

Other people might judge you. Your supervisor might. They can nob off. You are living your life, you are living in your brain, and you are doing it. If you can't do something perfectly, do it like everybody else does it - the best you can. 29/n

I'm going to have a rest now but I might add more stuff later if I think of it. Phew. I need tea. 30/n