Templates
A thesis or research project takes a long time. Therefore, it is vital that you have the appropriate documents and structure to keep track of your ideas, and structure your meetings.
(Note that all advise is personal, and your own supervisor may disagree)
Intended for: BSc, MSc, PhD
I highly advise to initialize the below three documents at the start of your thesis, and continuously updated them throughout.
Once initialized, give your supervisor access to all these online documents (i.e., share in Google Slides, Google Doc and Overleaf).
Before each meeting, send a pdf of your meeting slides (item 1) and thesis draft (item 3) to your supervisor.
Meeting slides
Template slides (the comments below each slide indicate how you should use each page)
Prepare: It is your job as a student to make most effective use of your supervisor meetings. Therefore, always prepare for a meeting. This may seem annoying, but you will get used to it quickly, and it 1) forces you to reflect and 2) ensures that it is clear what needs to be discussed.
Send your slides: Prepare the slides and send them to your supervisor (as a pdf) the day before your meeting. Your supervisor can quickly browse through, and then already knows what's coming.
Overview & Notes
Template document (the comments on each page indicate how you should use them)
Keep an overview document to log your overall thesis progress. The document contains:
Project overview (max. 2 pages): the high-level story of your work. Initialize this at the start of your thesis, and update it when needed.
Timeline: the high-level timeline of your project.
Related work: a table with the most relevant related work. Try to fill in this table in the first 1-2 months, to ensure you have properly searched literature and understand what alternative exist.
Meeting notes: Finally, make notes after every meeting you had with your supervisor. (You think you will remember what you discussed, but you will actually forget most, and your supervisor will forget even more.) Directly after each meeting update your Meeting Notes.
Thesis draft
Nice Latex lay-outs for final thesis: mastersdoctoralthesis and classicthesis
At the start of your thesis, directly initialize an Overleaf document where you will write your thesis, and share it with your supervisor.
Then, during your thesis, write along in the process. For example, when you are reading related work, make notes (in the Overview document), and then already write a section in your thesis document. You will otherwise forget, and your thesis will organically grow over time (instead of having to write everything down at the end).
At the end of your thesis, turn it into a nice lay-out. I think the mastersdoctoralthesis and classicthesis look very clean. Remember to check your university regulations: often they require a specific front page to be added to the final draft!