Why your PhD literature review feels like a mess (and what to do about it)
If your literature review currently looks like a chaotic Google Doc, five colour-coded folders, and a graveyard of half-read PDFs... I promise you, you are not alone.
The PhD lit review has a reputation for a reason. It’s one of the most overwhelming, time-consuming, stress-inducing parts of the whole process. But here’s the good news: it doesn’t have to be perfect to be powerful - and there are things you can do right now to save time, cut the panic, and actually enjoy parts of the process. Yes. Enjoy. Wild, I know.
Let’s break this down.
It’s meant to feel messy
Let’s get something straight: your literature review is not a one-and-done job.
Unlike your undergrad or master’s dissertation, where you wrote up the whole thing over a few weeks or months, your PhD lit review is a living, breathing thing. You will be tweaking it, reshaping it, pruning it, and sometimes questioning your entire existence - right up until submission.
This isn’t a failure. It’s normal. You’re not “behind” - you’re just mid-process.
So if it looks like a hot mess right now? That’s a sign you’re doing the work. We don’t write clean literature reviews - we build them slowly, with lots of false starts and rethinking along the way.
Stop trying to boost your word count
Tempting, isn’t it?
You’ve got 80,000 words to write, and the literature review feels like a safe space to crank out a few thousand. But here’s the thing: padding your lit review to look productive is a trap. The goal here isn’t to write more - it’s to understand better.
A short, focused, well-argued lit review will always beat a sprawling, repetitive one. So ditch the urge to bulk it out. Focus on clarity, criticality, and making a case for why your study matters.
You’re not trying to write everything about everything. You’re telling a story about what’s already been done - and what still needs doing.
Working with an outline
Trying to write a beautifully polished literature review straight away is like decorating a cake while it’s still in the oven. It’s just not time yet.
Instead, start with a rough structure - a few main headings, bullet points of what goes where, quick notes on key authors or gaps. This gives you something to build into, without feeling like every paragraph needs to be journal-worthy from day one.
Bonus: it makes updating way easier as your thinking evolves.
“Trying to write a beautifully polished literature review straight away is like decorating a cake while it’s still in the oven.”
Your supervisor doesn’t expect a masterpiece
If your supervisor asks to see your literature review early, don’t panic. They’re not expecting you to have it all figured out. They just want to check that you’re:
engaging with the literature
starting to think critically
not accidentally writing a Wikipedia entry
It’s totally fine to submit a few sections, a rough draft, or even just an outline with notes. Think of it as a conversation starter - not a finished product.
How many headings is too many?
Worried you’ve got 12 different headings and subheadings and they all sort of overlap?
That’s normal in early drafts. You’re figuring stuff out. Most polished literature reviews end up with 3–5 main sections, but in the messy middle, it’s completely fine to have 10, 15, even 20.
Write long, edit later. That’s how you get to the good stuff.
“Most polished literature reviews end up with 3–5 main sections, but in the messy middle, it’s completely fine to have 10, 15, even 20.”
What to do when you feel stuck
Let’s recap. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your lit review, here’s your permission slip:
You’re allowed to feel messy
You’re allowed to write rough drafts
You don’t have to hit a magic word count
You can change your mind about what matters
You’re doing better than you think
Honestly, the students who struggle the most are usually the ones who care the most. The goal here isn’t to be perfect, it’s to be thoughtful.