PhD candidates face heavy workloads and lack strategies to prioritize their dissertation, resulting in limited writing opportunities and low confidence in writing capabilities. Although writing retreats are known to propel academics' writing productivity, little is known about how they may assist PhD candidates in enhancing writing self-efficacy and self-regulation. An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Method with a quasi-experimental design was used to examine the impacts of writing retreats on PhD candidates' internal factors (writing self-efficacy and self-regulation) and external factors (urgency and opportunities to write). An experimental group (n = 34) and a control group (n = 64) answered a questionnaire measuring retreat effects, after which a subsample (n = 30) was interviewed to further interpret these effects. In sum, writing retreats enhance PhD candidates' writing self-efficacy and self-regulation through goals setting and time management practices. Recommendations are provided about using socially structured writing activities to support PhD candidates' dissertation advancement.