Start with the end in mind

  • What is your planned submission date
  • What is your non-negotiable submission date

Do you have plans after your submission? It can help to plan something to ensure your submission date doesn’t move too much. This could be coffee with friends, catching up with your favourite TV show or a wee holiday. Don’t let perfectionism get in the way of your submission date, remember you are submitting a draft of your thesis to be examined, and you might have to do some corrections. Only a submitted thesis can be examined.

Final checks

How will you decide when your thesis is good enough to be submitted for examination? Discuss what “good enough” looks like with your supervisors. Keep in mind that your research will never be finished, so use the future work chapter and your Viva conversation to allow for that. Your thesis needs to be submitted at some point. 

Examiners look for: 

  • Your contribution to knowledge
  • If your work is of a publishable standard (in part or in full)
  • That you did the work

Thesis checklist

Your thesis should include 

  • Title page
  • Abstract
  • List of contents
  • List of abbreviations
  • List of illustrations and tables
  • List of accompanying materials
  • Preface (if used)
  • Acknowledgements
  • Author’s Declaration
  • Definitions
  • Thesis Chapters
  • Appendices
  • Glossary (if used)
  • List of references
  • Bibliography
  • Index (if included)

Building your timeline

Start with end date and then work back. Key deadlines to consider are submissions of your chapters to your supervisors for feedback and their feedback to you. Allow for some downtime as well, either to get some distance from your thesis or to build in some wiggle room. Things can happen.

Ensure to allow a big chunk of time for editing and proofreading, you can do this per chapter, as well as the complete thesis. Editing in big chunks helps with flow and consistency of writing. Once you have your key dates set out, you have to pick a system to stick to them as best as possible.

Analogue planning

You might want to use a paper calendar to keep an overview of your plans and progress.

  • Wall calendar
  • To do list with dates

👍Visual reminder

👍Broad overview

👎Not easily shared

👎Not easily amended

Digital planning

Or you might want to use a digital planner, To do list, calendar or a combination of these tools. 

  • Microsoft ToDo
  • Microsoft Planner
  • Outlook
  • Excel
  • Another system you are already using (Notion, Obsidian etc.)

👍Set (regular) reminders

👍Integrates with calendar

👍Easily shared

👎Easily amended (can lead to moving deadlines)

👎Difficult to get a broad overview

I personally combine a wall calendar for the big overview with digital tools. The wall calendar lets me easily see time off, busy periods and its presence is an easy reminder. The digital tools are mostly for my planning and to make sure tasks end up in my calendar so the time is visibly protected. My digital system also lets me share relevant tasks and progress with team mates and managers.

Microsoft ToDo is a great App, that lets you share specific ToDo lists with others. Why not create a Thesis To do list and invite your supervisors. That way you can also assign them tasks and let them see your progress. Another great thing about ToDo is the integration with Outlook Calendar. You can easily drag and drop tasks to help you protect time for them. If your institution has Microsoft 365 then you should have access to ToDo. This ToDo Tutorial video is a good starting point.

More resources

Finishing the PhD – or What happens to otherwise normal people in the last few months of the PhD?
My strategy for ‘writing up’ my PhD thesis
The persuasive power of ‘when – then’ planning to make you a more productive writer
How not to run off the end of the PhD cliff