The most common piece of writing advice given to doctoral researchers is “write every day” or some variation thereof. This advice appears consistently across academic writing guides, dissertation workshops, and mentor discussions. I bet you’ve read this.

The reasoning behind this advice, yes there’s reasoning, highlights some key benefits. Regular writing helps you to maintain momentum and prevents the overwhelming feeling that can come from facing a blank page after long breaks. It helps you to develop your ideas incrementally rather than waiting for complete thoughts to emerge fully formed. Daily writing builds the discipline and routine necessary for you to complete a long-term project like a dissertation.

The “write every day” advice is so common because it addresses one of the biggest challenges doctoral students face: the psychological barrier of getting started and maintaining consistent progress on such a lengthy project. Even writing for just 15-30 minutes daily, the advice goes, can make a significant difference in both productivity and confidence over time.

This advice works for many people. But not all. The “write every day” advice has several significant problems that make it less helpful or even counterproductive for some doctoral researchers. This post is for you.

It ignores the non-linear nature of doctoral work. Research involves periods of reading, data collection, analysis, reflection, and sometimes getting stuck on complex problems. Forcing yourself to write everyday during these phases can lead to you producing low-quality filler content just to meet the daily quota, rather than engaging in the deep thinking that your doctoral work requires.

It can create guilt and shame cycles. When you miss days due to illness, family obligations, fieldwork, or simply needing mental breaks, you can feel like a failure. I didn’t write today, there must be something wrong with me. This guilt can become paralysing and actually reduce overall productivity. The advice sets up an all-or-nothing situation that doesn’t reflect how a lot of creative and intellectual work actually happens.

It assumes a one-size-fits-all approach to productivity. People have different writing rhythms – some work better in intensive bursts, others prefer longer sessions a few times per week. Some need extensive preparation time before writing, while others think through writing. The daily writing mandate can force people away from their natural productive patterns. You need to find what works for you.

It prioritises quantity over quality and process. The focus on daily output can discourage the kind of deep revision, restructuring, and conceptual work that doctoral writing actually requires. It can also make you feel falsely productive if you’re avoiding more challenging but necessary tasks like grappling with theoretical frameworks or methodology.

It doesn’t account for the emotional and psychological demands of doctoral work. Dissertation writing often involves periods of uncertainty, imposter phenomenon, and intellectual struggle that may require you to step back rather than push forward with daily writing.

And you know that experienced writers do not all write every day. The research done by Helen Sword reveals a much more nuanced picture of professional writing habits.

The key difference seems to be that experienced writers have moved beyond the anxiety of “write every day” as an external rule and instead have developed sustainable practices based on understanding their own creative patterns. Many successful writers emphasise consistency over daily frequency – having regular writing periods rather than forcing daily output. They’ve learned to distinguish between the discipline of showing up to work and the rigid adherence to daily quotas that can become counterproductive.

If this is you don’t despair. It’s the advice that needs fixing, not you. More nuanced advice for doctoral researchers might focus on developing sustainable writing practices that align with individual work patterns and the demands of specific research tasks and phases.

This is what you can do.