One of the most problematic pieces of advice I see is the suggestion that you should ‘write from day one’ of your doctoral candidature.

You probably shouldn’t start writing drafts of the thesis before about the 3 month mark. Most people have not yet clarified their research question, selected their methodology, or surveyed the literature before they commence. There’s no way you can write any part of your thesis before getting this work done. And people who try, often write themselves into terrible corners and end up having to delete tens of thousands or words.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t be producing text, but you can’t start writing your thesis just yet.

Instead, here are 4 helpful kinds of pre-writing to help you start writing early and often. 

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1. Take notes using the Cornell Method. 

As I wrote over on The Thesis Whisperer blog, using the Cornell Method of Notes