Thesis Writing Sprint — Writing in the Agile Way

I read many articles, and they all suggested carefully planning your thesis and taking it as a marathon instead of a sprint. I disagree for two reasons. First, I am a very bad student and procrastinate on tasks. Writing right away rather than hesitating is the only way to get me started. Second, I prefer getting things done quickly and revising/correcting them later iteratively. So I want to try the agile way, more specifically, try writing sprints.

I need to hand in a paper of around 10,000 words next month; let me try to finish it in two weeks — one sprint.

1. Start in the middle, not from the introduction.

Introduction, literature review, methodology, experiment and discussions are the main sectors. But I don’t need to start with the introduction; pick the one I feel more comfortable starting with. This time, it’s methodology.

2. Write as fast as possible and revise it in the second week.

Perfection slower us down. I decide to write as fast as I could in the first week, no matter how bad my writing is.

3. Mark the issues with place holder and keep on writing.

I might make mistake in doing the experiment, or the results can be further improved. Leave those stuff aside, and improve it in the second week or the second sprint.

Let me start writing on the methodology, I hope the first draft is done next Friday.