I'm certainly intending to! But the photos I'll be using will be photos of the places my main study occurred in, or of (unidentifiable) study subjects doing stuff, so directly related to my own study rather than generic pictures just to illustrate background, if you see what I mean. Not sure about just randomly including pictures otherwise. I worry that it wouldn't be seen as very professional/academic. Don't know what other people think about that?

Finished the section I was writing yesterday and am now half way through another section. Trying not to think about how much there is left to do! I'll just have to do what I can in the time I have.

I volunteer too, in a slightly different way - I'm the Chair of my local Fairtrade Town group (actually, I set the group up when I was working as a community development worker before my PhD, and decided to continue as a volunteer when I left that job to start my PhD). I find it great - it gives me a connection with my local community and means I spend time with people who aren't connected to the university and work on things not connected to (and completely different from) my PhD. Otherwise the only connections I would have with people would be at university and in the pub with my mates, and those two things don't feel like a rounded view of society to me! I didn't want to feel cut off while I did my PhD.

I'd agree that the regular commitment is the important bit. Sometimes I resent all the work involved, if I have to rush from doing PhD work to doing something for the group, but I don't regret being a volunteer. And having those regular commitments gives me a structure to my time that isn't just about the PhD, so I feel much more rounded that way.

Morning.

My first goal is to finish the section of the paper I'm writing that I began yesterday.

I've got three figures that sound quite similar to yours that explain theories I'm using, and when I include them in papers I always put something like '(From Bloggs et al 1999)' or '(Adapted from Bloggs et al 1999)' or whatever. Seems to be the standard way to do it.

Yeah, maybe. It's the advice I'd be giving to someone else so I probably should follow it myself! I'm just daunted by how much there is left to do. And I took yesterday off for the same reason. Oh well, I'll do some easy note-making I think and then call it quits and watch rubbish TV or something before an early night. Thanks, anyway!

I'm achieving nothing today. Think I'm still not feeling that well. But I have to write this paper by Monday and have only managed two paragraphs so far today! This is really really not good.

Morning everyone. Had a day off yesterday as I wasn't feeling well and just couldn't concentrate, so I'm really up against it to get my journal article written - have to send a first draft to my supervisors on Monday. So, nose to the grindstone all day, and probably all weekend too...

Morning!

Had a doctor's appointment this morning and went to the supermarket on the way back as it's near the surgery, so I'm only just sitting down to start work now. The aim for today is to make a lot of progress on the journal article I'm writing.

Morning! Hope you feel a bit better soon. (And yes, three years is probably long enough to have an idea what you feel about the teaching - but enough of that for now...)

Today I need to make some serious progress on my journal paper, but have other bits and pieces to do as well. Oh well, I made an early start so it's all underway. Tasks for the day:

1.) Book hotels for holiday! (Half done - waiting for them to reply to emails)
2.) Finish poster and email to supervisors for comments (Done)
3.) Look at booking details for conference
4.) Summarise feedback from pilot questionnaire
5.) Make significant progress on journal article

Hello. Congratulations on the offer - it sounds very exciting!

I think these things may vary quite a lot between universities - at mine, our stipends are paid monthly. Worth checking with the university. It's also a good idea to check with them about the other expenses you mention - at my university, there are people who are regularly expected to go to London for seminars and so on at a partner university, and their expenses are paid, but if I wanted to attend the same seminars I would have to pay for the travel myself as I'm on a different programme. At my university it seems to be that if it's expected that you do something then funding is provided for it, but if there's any element of choice about whether you do something then the funding being there is much more hit and miss. So it's definitely worth asking them - if there's an admin type person in the department who's been dealing with things then I'd ask them (email them a list of specific questions like the ones you have above) but if there isn't a specific admin type person, just ask the supervisor, they shouldn't mind.

Morning everyone! Or the few people who still visit this thread, anyway.... :p

Today's tasks:
1.) Finish designing poster
2.) Make detailed plan for journal article I'm writing
3.) Go food shopping and prepare salads for the week
4.) Prepare for this evening's meeting of voluntary group I chair

The pub is a very good plan, star-shaped, everyone should try to do that on a Friday!

Re the teaching - how long have you been doing it for? I started doing some teaching about five years ago and hated it at first, found it really difficult and awkward and just not my thing at all. But since then I've got more confident at it, and as my confidence has increased I've started to find I enjoy it a lot more than at first, and can get real pleasure out of seeing my students grasp what I'm teaching them. It took a while though, and I'll admit it's still not my favourite thing but it's not unpleasant any more, so if you are just starting out, don't see initial dislike of teaching as a reason to give up on working in academia - you might get past that stage. (Or you might not, of course, only you know how you really feel about it!!)

Anyway, I've designed the basic layout of my poster and chosen a pretty colour scheme and the photos I intend to use. I suppose I really should work on the words that will go in each section next!

You're very welcome to join!

Tasks 1 and 2 complete. Though somehow I'm in a really evil mood and had to hold myself back from snarling at people who got in my way in town. I am clearly not fit for human company. So back to work it is....

Working from home today so ready to crack on with things! Tasks/goals for today:

1.) Go to bank and run a few other errands in town
2.) Email pilot volunteers to remind them to complete the questionnaire
3.) Work out timetable up to end of June
4.) Design poster for university showcase
5.) If there's time left over, think about structure of journal paper I'll be writing next week