All that talk of warmth just makes me jealous! :$ But I'm told my new radiators have now been ordered - the legal threats seem to have worked! (Touching wood, quickly.) Today I'm toasty and warm on campus. Though it did take three hours to get here instead of the usual hour, because of three cancelled trains and a severely delayed train - almost two hours standing on station platforms in minus 10 degrees did not make me happy! Grrrr. Roll on summer!

Anyway, goals:

1.) Go to supervision meeting - DONE
2.) Write up notes from supervision meeting - almost done
3.) Get home before the trains are all cancelled!! - will do in about an hour!

My supervisors were really sweet to me today, very concerned about how ill I've been and telling me I shouldn't do too much between now and Christmas and should take at least a week completely off work over the holiday. Awww, they are lovely!

Hi Purpleflower. I'm in a similar position - started my second year of my PhD in October, and I do love it, and my supervisors are happy with my progress, but I'm finding I'm in a slump at the moment. My motivation has just vanished and my work rate is through the floor, and I can't quite pin down why. Not much help to you maybe, as I don't have any advice, but maybe this is just part of the process? I'm hoping that it's just a case of peaks and troughs... and that it will all pick up again soon! But maybe it's some comfort to know you're not on your own?

Yeah, it's now been nine weeks since I first reported problems with the heating. Nine weeks!! But I just phoned them and they promise me that a plumber will be phoning me shortly to arrange a time to replace all my radiators. Coincidentally, this is after I wrote to them saying I'd taken legal advice and giving them two weeks to complete the repairs before I would take further action... wonder if that has anything to do with their sudden helpfulness? :p

So now I have no excuses, I have to get on with my work! But I just can't get motivated. Everything looks impossible.

I didn't get one. I feel left out now. :-(

Ah well, my other half wouldn't be amused if I ran off with some fluzy anyway!

Hello everyone.

I'm finally back and well again after coming down with a chest infection (not helped by having crap heating in my flat!!). Lost two weeks to the illness so I'm now feeling half desperate about how behind I am and half lethargic and unmotivated. Not a good combination!

Goals for today as follows:

Goal 1 - finish making notes on statistical technique I may be using - DONE
Goal 2 - think through the data analysis for journal paper I'm writing
Goal 3 - go back to 'to-do' list made before I was ill and prioritise workload
Goal 4 - phone lettings agency about heating still not being fixed.... :-s

I second the Andy Field book - it's very clear and accessible and really makes sense of how to use SPSS and how to do the data analysis. Ditto the website.

However, the first time I came to Andy Field's book I was daunted by its sheer size, and this made it difficult for me to find a way into it. A shorter and simpler book that I found useful was Julie Pallant's 'SPSS Survival Guide'. I started out by following Pallant and then referring to Field when Pallant didn't give enough detail or didn't seem clear enough. Now that I'm more confident with the basics, I've discarded Pallant and mainly use Field.

Another thing is that the help guides in the SPSS package itself are actually pretty good - much better than most software help sections. The tutorials and guides there are very clear, so that might be another place to look for guidance.

Hope that helps!

Trip to the doctor this morning, who says I have a virus and a chest infection and should go back to see him again if it doesn't get better in the next few days. And expressed surprise that I'd even tried to do any work. Rightly or wrongly, I'm taking that as permission to not do any work today, and possibly tomorrow as well.

On that note, back to lying on the sofa watching DVDs I think...

Hello everyone.

Been tucked up in bed poorly for the last week and am now ridiculously behind schedule on everything. But still feeling too rubbish to focus properly on the work. So today is about easing myself back into it....

Goal 1 - send several emails that should have been sent last week while I was ill - done
Goal 2 - stare pointlessly at my to-do list and realise I'm not up to doing any of the important tasks listed there :$ - done
Goal 3 - go through journal alerts and prioritise reading (about all I'm capable of doing right now!!)

Goal 2 achieved, and then I started thinking about other work, but my cold is getting worse by the minute. I feel really fluey and shivery now. May well just go to bed. And the lettings agency people haven't called me back, even though they promised to when I rang them at 2 o'clock. Gah.

Boo to supervisors, they're hardly ever as nice and encouraging as we want them to be!

I'm cold again today, and feel like I'm coming down with a cold too, which would hardly be a surprise. Director of the lettings agency promised to phone me today with news about repairs to my heating but so far no phone call. Oh I am so surprised. I haven't got the energy to shout at them again but I suppose I'll have to. I'm giving them til 2pm.

Goal one achieved, anyway. That's some progress. Now for goal 2.

Good morning everyone. Seems like lots of people were busy over the weekend - hope it all went well!

My goals for today are:
Goal 1 - Think through last week's meeting with potential study hosts and plan how to use them
Goal 2 - Draw up a 'to do' list for between now and Christmas
Goal 3 - prioritise the stuff on the 'to do' list and get on with it!

1.) I'd either still be in my old job and waiting for redundancy like all my old colleagues are (and no fat payouts either, I'd have got a month's wages and that would be it), or I'd have managed to find another public sector job after finishing my Masters, in something I was more passionate about and earning more money, but would also still be looking at the possibility of redundancy.

2.) No, I was out with old work colleagues last night and they're all deeply depressed and demoralised and can't see any future apart from unemployment and severe poverty, so being a PhD student is way way way better than that!

My first goal has taken all morning too! I just can't get motivated at all today. Maybe I'll go through journal alerts and stuff like that this afternoon instead of actually trying to think about stuff.

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I would say that with such a gap between the Masters and your application, the grades aren't going to be a deciding factor. If the stuff you've been doing in the meantime can be shown to feed into the studies you now want to undertake, I'd say that will be just as valuable. And the Masters shows that you can study at postgrad level, so I think you'd just be causing problems for yourself if you didn't mention it. Good luck!

I was supposed to be up early and working on data analysis today as well. Didn't happen. I overslept (didn't get up til 9.30, the decadence!), and then found a leak from the toilet cistern that's dripping down through the floor and must surely be close to leaking into the flat downstairs. Oh dear! So, another call to the landlords, and now I'm waiting to see how long it takes them to get a plumber out to this. Trying not to be cynical!!

Goal 1 - assemble the statistics notes from the classes I've been attending into some logical order
Goal 2 - decide on a strategy for further analysis of data I collected a while back
Goal 3 - erm, start the analysis I suppose! Or maybe take the rest of the day off, I'm out with old workmates later so have to get ready :-)