Topic outline

  • Here I give you advice in writing your master's thesis, suggest some useful material that you can use when writing your thesis and finally provide information on how to proceed with the thesis writing process in the Department of Management at Aalto School of Business.

    At first I would like to emphasise that a master's thesis is not a lifelong project. It is quite possible and even preferable to complete a master's thesis in six months. When you make the thesis your top priority for those six months, you are able to submit your thesis in time.  You are the only responsible person for your master's thesis. You will complete your thesis only if you want to do so.

    “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. This statement, known as Parkinson’s law, illustrates well the time used for writing a thesis. If you think that it takes a year a complete a thesis, then it takes a year. If you think that it takes three months, then it takes three months. So, set a date for submitting your thesis and stick to it!



    • It is very important that you create a writing habit for yourself. This means that you should write every day and prioritize writing. Even though cleaning is important, you can skip it every now and then. Don’t wait for inspiration, but schedule and plan writing and reading for your thesis. Usually, feelings follow actions:).

      Freewriting helps to get started with your writing. Read more about it in the attached file.


    • Reading basic literature on the topic of your research is key in your thesis writing process. Literature review is a very time consuming phase. However, devoting one month for literature review should be enough. It is important to include both the ‘classics’ of your topic as well as the most recent research articles. Remember that you cannot include all the articles in your thesis but you need to choose the most relevant ones for exploring your research questions.

      In the attached file you can find some useful conjunctions that you may use when writing the literature review in order to make a synthesis between different texts.


    • In creating a writing habit, you may decide where you will write: at home, in the library or in the cafeteria, and which time of the day and which days of the week you will work. It is recommended to have writing goals. Your writing goal may be time-based, that is, you may work a certain amount of time every day. It is also useful to break the time into small units and have breaks between the time blocks.

      Pomodore technique helps you to break your work into focused time blocks. Pomodore comes from the Italian word for tomato, kitchen timer. First, you choose a task you need to accomplish (e.g. read an article), then you concentrate on the task for 25 minutes (one pomodoro). You work until the timer rings, after which you take a short, 5-min break. Then you make a new pomodoro. After a few pomodoros, you may have a longer break of 20-30 minutes. You main goal might be 6 tomatoes of work. You may also work for longer blocks, e.g. 45 minutes at a time.

      Another way to set goals is to have text-based goals, to write  a certain amount of text each day, i.e. 2 pages.

      It is also good to understand that there are days when you are more productive than in some other days. You may have focus day, when you concentrate on productivity. In those days you use at least 80 % of time for activity that is essential for reaching important goals, such as writing, collecting data, making notes on literature. The other days can be buffer days that are devoted for preparation. Then you do things that make the focus days possible, such as meetings, searching for literature, emails, phone calls. You also need free days that are meant for recharging, when you only relax. A recommended weekly ratio might be 3 focus days, 2 buffer days and 2 free days.

      In the above link you can read more about time management.


    • Procrastination is the biggest obstacle in your thesis writing process. Creating a writing habit and getting support from your peers and your supervisor are the best ways to avoid procrastination.

      Have a look at the video about procrastination in the attached link.


    • In this page you can get support for mental wellbeing and study capacity.