I have written three doctoral theses and before that two masters' theses, as well as various academic textbooks. In each case the thesis or book would not have been completed if I hadn't fixed deadlines for each chapter.
My first academic supervisor, Professor Arthur Johnston, warned me about the dangers of not establishing deadlines. It was when I was working on my MA dissertation at the University of Wales. He said he had known academics who had researched and read in libraries on their topics for years: they never felt they were ready to write, and in the end never wrote the thesis. Professor Johnston said he had himself read and researched for ten years at Oxford before writing his doctoral thesis. Since then I've seen it all myself--research students, and even university lecturers, who never get beyond their first degrees, and yet who renew their registration for a master's or doctoral degree every year.
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