Tusco - my boyfriend's Welsh so by default I support Wales! (He's very grumpy if they lose so it's in my interests to cheer them on!) I only started watching the game because he does, and I only usually watch the international matches or the big Welsh matches. But it's enjoyable - more visually interesting than football, I think.

Star-shaped - that was an early start! Hope you get the work done. I'm looking forward to taking this afternoon off too.

Today, I'm going to have a final read-through of the schedule for Monday's interview, and then work on the two sections of my questionnaire that are still under-developed.

======= Date Modified 11 Feb 2011 16:45:36 =======
So so tired now, and not thinking sharply any more, so I'm going to call it a day I think. Back to it tomorrow for a few hours, then off to watch rugby and then have a girlie film night with some friends. And then more work on Sunday. Ah well, it'll be worth it when I get past my nasty deadlines next week and everything feels more under control!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Morning all

Sneaks, that sounds really frustrating!

Overslept a little this morning but not much of a surprise given how many late nights I've worked this week! Feeling in a much better position about the ridiculous amounts of work I'm trying to do - working so hard this week has paid off, it seems.

Goals for today
1.) Think about presentation before academic I'm co-presenting with phones to talk it through!
2.) Go back to my a&o/gaps in lit and check I know how I'm measuring everything I intend to look at
3.) Write summary sheet showing what I'm measuring and how
4.) Revise questionnaire

That does sound like a lot of work Ady - very impressed! How you haven't fallen over with exhaustion yet....

I've been working hard all day and don't feel like I've achieved much, even though I know I have really. I've prepared paperwork and most of my interview schedule for interviewing a participant on Monday, apart from a couple of points that rely on me getting development of my questionnaire finalised. And the finalisation of the questionnaire relies on some information I hope to get from Monday's interview. Hmm, feeling a bit of an impossible circle there! I think I need to stop trying to make everything perfect and accept that I don't yet have the information to make things as final as I'd like!

Ooh, congrats, Sneaks!

I've written and printed my Participant Information Sheet and Informed Consent form for Monday's interview, and am now finalising the interview schedule. Feeling productive today, on a roll, hope it continues!

I agree with Sneaks - I'd jump on it. Post-docs are so difficult to get, especially with the way funding is going these days. It sounds like you're excited by the opportunity and you won't just be doing the same thing as your PhD, so I don't really see the downside (although I'm in social science so maybe things are different in your field).

Morning everyone! Good luck with the work today.

I'm leaving my journal article to concentrate on other (now more urgent) stuff. So today's goals are:

1.) Renew books in library - DONE
2.) Sort out confidentiality agreement for interviewees
3.) Sort out data portection etc statement for interviewees
4.) Finalise and print interview schedule for Monday's first interview
5.) Work on revising questionnaire

Hmm, that should keep me busy I think!

Evening dunni, hope you get the work done.

I'm calling it a night now. Finished the evening making notes on the structure of the rest of the journal article, so I can now leave it for a few days while I do all my other work and hopefully I'll still know where I got to when I come back to it! I'm now going to unwind for a bit then get an early night - catching the 7.30 train to campus tomorrow so will have be up at 6.30 :-(

Aaaarrrggghhh!! Stress level was just temporarily sent through the roof by an email from an academic sent to me at 7pm tonight saying - "sorry, you got missed off the circulation of an email on 2 Feb saying that you and I need to do a joint presentation at a seminar next Wed morning, can you email me back with ideas..." Yikes! Erm, no, I'm kind of busy writing this paper I'm already supposed to have sent you!!

Oh well. Now I've climbed back down off the ceiling I can see that it is just about possible for me to do this. I have a window of two hours on Tuesday afternoon when I can write the presentation (gulp!!) But the academic has at least given me another week to finish writing this paper, so tomorrow I can abandon it and get on with all the other incredibly urgent things I need to do before next Wednesday....

======= Date Modified 09 Feb 2011 13:57:18 =======
It's usually things I've come across that I realise will have an impact on the direction of the research - maybe an area I've just realised will be particularly important to include, or an area I think I need to cover but can't find literature on in case they have suggestions of where to start. Sometimes it's things I'm not sure about, but then I try to frame it as a direct question - forming the question sometimes helps me answer the question myself! They don't need to know everything I've been thinking about. You'll very quickly find you're more of an expert on your own area than they are - at least, that's what I've found!

On edit - I agree with Ady about keeping it light too. They don't need to know when I'm really anxious about something or feeling stressed, unless it really is affecting my work. I've only once talked about personal stuff, and that was when my brother was hospitalised twice in the space of three weeks and I realised I needed to explain his circumstances in case I had to drop everything and be with him (he's a lot better now, thankfully).

Thanks Tusco, I tend to skip over referencing etc in first drafts for just that reason - tend to type '(reference here)' as a note to myself to come back to that point and then just carry on.

It's going a little better this morning. Progress is slow and torturous but I'm confident I'll get there.

======= Date Modified 09 Feb 2011 12:18:20 =======
I don't know if my experience is similar to other people's (I'm not part of a group project so that may make things different) but I don't share too much of that sort of stuff with my supervisors, mainly because they're so busy that I know they won't read it. I'd rather only give them things to read when I really want their comments on it.

The 2 page summary sounds like a good idea to me - it will give you something to talk through when you meet your supervisors and will probably be useful for clarifying your own thoughts and identifying what's important out of the information you've found (it's very unlikely that in one week you've found 80 pages that are all completely relevant or useful, I'd have thought - useful for you to frame your thoughts, of course, but that's not the same as being useful for your supervisors to see, if you see what I mean). If they're interested in the longer version I'm sure they'll ask you to email it to them.

At my meetings, I tend to have two or three points that I want to mention to them, but this tends to be quite superficial discussion - detailed stuff is left for written work submitted at various points, eg early on I produced a background chapter of about 3000 words, and after about four months gave them a draft literature review of about 3000 words, followed a month later by a redrafted, expanded version of about 5000 words.

Whatever you do give them, make sure it's got your name in the header - it's easy for them to lose track of who's given them a document otherwise. Mine always ask me before sharing anything I've given them with someone else.

Hope that helps!

Morning everyone!

After getting really stressed out yesterday, I spent the evening with my boyfriend, drinking wine and eating curry and watching stupid nonsense on tv. It was just what I needed - took me away from the work completely. I've done some bitty jobs and replied to some emails this morning, and now I'm ready to tackle the paper again. But this time I'm not going to make myself stare at it all day - I intend to complete one section and if that doesn't take all day (hah!) I'll do something else instead.

Hi Tommy

Yes, it's normal! We all feel like charlatans at one time or another. We all suffer from imposter syndrome, convinced that at any moment our supervisors/other students/other academics wandering along a corridor are going to spot that we're not good enough for this, and turn and point and laugh, and kick us unceremoniously out of the door. And it never happens - so that's one good thing! I think such fears are natural when you consider how much we're all stretching ourselves, and how much this kind of work relies on us alone doing it and motivating ourselves. It's stressful - but it's also one of the things that makes studying at this level so rewarding, IMHO.

I think the advice to break down the work into small chunks so it doesn't feel overwhelming is very good. I'm not at the stage you're at yet, but even with smaller deadlines or just with the terrifying thought of how much is involved in writing a thesis, being able to break things into manageable chunks is so useful. It all feels more possible that way.

Also relaxing is a good idea, however you personally choose to do that! Take a deep breath, try to release the tension and feelings of panic. You can do this - plenty of other people have, and you've come this far already. None of the other people who've done this before are superhuman, so there's no reason for you not to be able to achieve the same.

Good luck!