Oh Sneaks, that sounds so frustrating! I think I'd try to do something like Skig suggests and just pretend to be going along with her changes - even my supervisors (who are generally great) are completely incapable of remembering what changes they suggested in a previous draft and frequently contradict themselves. Hope you manage to battle through it!

And Skig, glad you've had a productive morning. I am feeling full of energy today - I think it's because I went swimming yesterday after being stuck indoors writing solidly for a few days, and the exercise has really lifted my mood. Gonna go again tomorrow morning to try to keep this mood going!

My supervisor just threw a spanner in the works of my big plan to get my data analysis finished, though. My main supervisor is on holiday, and he tends to dominate, so today I just met with my second supervisor to discuss my journal paper. He's more junior than first supervisor so usually sits back and just comes in with sharp observations now and then, but today he was on fire. We dissected my paper for an hour and a half - he got very excited and wants me to rewrite it by 5pm Thursday and meet him on Friday to discuss it. And like a fool I agreed. So that's hardly any sleep for the rest of the week and no chance of looking at the data analysis then! Oh well, it's great that he's so enthusiastic, and he was incredibly helpful, and getting the paper submitted will be good for my PhD viva (and job applications!) anyway, so it's all good really!

Hello everyone! Hope you're all raring to go!

I worked through the weekend, finishing my journal paper (ridiculous how long that took). Yesterday I planned out what I need to do to get a full draft of my theiss done by 17 September, which is the deadline I've agreed with my supervisors. It is just about possible, but yikes it's going to be tough!

My plan for the next few days is to get to grips with the last bit of statistical analysis needed in the thesis (wow, saying that makes me feel good!) It's going to be tough because it's a method I haven't used before, and software I'm not familiar with, but we'll give it a go!
Goals for today:
1.) Re-read notes I made when I went on a training course for this stats method
2.) Start drawing up 'idiot's guide' notes on using the software to apply the method
3.) Read some key journal articles that use the method
4.) Go to supervision meeting to discuss journal article
5.) Write up notes from supervision meeting
Hmm, that should fill up the whole day!

Almost finished my journal article - just the final part of the conclusions and then refeences, formatting etc to do now. But I just can't concentrate today, so I'm calling it a day now.

Hope your days have gone well!

Morning all.

Skig, I hope you find a way through yolur question, that's the sort of thing that would slow me down too.

Today, I want to finish my journal article. I feel like I've been writing it for weeks and I don't have time for this! I only have the discussion and conclusions to do (and I know roughly what I need to say) so this should be perfectly possible. Concentrate!

Good luck everyone!

Heh, I admit I'm finding it hard to drag myself away from the Olympics at all!

Cheers, that's what I thought about the job thing. I'm very aware that I haven't actually completed my PhD yet, and only have one journal paper accepted (and not published yet), so I'll be competing with people who are way ahead of me on paper. So, yes, happy really! Fingers crossed.

Time to do some work, now the diving is finished!

Ha, Button, I'm planning my work around the Olympics schedule too! Allowing myself a break at 3pm to watch the diving, and going to have the gymnastics on in the background while I work later, and then I'll relax in front of the swimming this evening. Heaven! I'd really resent working if I didn't allow myself this time.

Hi Sneaks, good to see you back here! Hope the job's going well, and you get the paper done okay.

I applied for a postdoc job a few weeks ago, and got a rejection email this morning, followed by an email from the guy in charge of the research project saying they'd rejected my application because they got hardly any decent responses, so they're readvertising it to try to get a better pool of potentials, but they liked my application so could I re-apply please. Which was both great and disconcerting. Should I be happy they liked my application, or disappointed that they didn't like it enough to go ahead and interview anyway?? Of course I've replied saying great, I'll re-apply, thanks etc! Fingers crossed...

Made good progress on my journal article but I'm starting to run out of steam, so I'm switching to marking up changes needed in a print-out of the thesis-so-far. Something I can do fairly well while keeping an eye on the Olympics, I hope!

======= Date Modified 01 Aug 2012 09:00:56 =======
Hello everyone!

Feeling a bit guilty because I haven't done any work since Friday - I took the weekend off, and never got started on Monday (ended up watching the Olympics) and my parents came to visit for the day yesterday. So I need to get a good day's work done today. It's not the end of the world, I'm intending to work through this weekend anyway.

Labpixie, I know exactly what you mean about being crippled by having too much to do. I wish I knew a solution to that! The only thing I can do to get around it is to break the tasks down into easy steps and focus on each step instead of the huge enormous impossibility of the whole task!

Today, I want to get a serious amount donw on my journal article. It'd be great to finish it (I need to get back to the thesis) but that might not quite be realistic. If I can finish it tomorrow that would be good enough.

Hope you're both awake! Have to admit I'm feeling all droopy eyed now!

I just finished the new data section of my paper, and my eyes feel very tired, so I'm going to call it a day now. I need to do some cleaning and tidying of the flat before MrBatfink comes home for the weekend!

hope you all have a good weekend.

Hello all!

I was hoping to get my journal article finished today, but I underestimated how much time my new section with new data would take to add in (I always forget how long tables etc take to do!). So the revised plan for today is to finish the new section and tie it into the surrounding sections. That should mean I can finish the whole thing on Monday, if I don't have time over the weekend.

Hope you all have productive days!

Oh, it's so heartening to feel that this is all perfectly normal and how everyone else deals with it!

Seems like we're all powering through (fuelled by yumminess) so that's great to see. Hope you can get stuck in too Skig (to the chocolate? the work? whichever!)

I just finished my Methods section. Now into the tricky bit, the results, where I need to write a new section with some new data. This may take a while. But I've set myself the goal of finishing the paper by the end of tomorrow, and that's feeling manageable now.

Heh, yes, not sure it's a good system really, bad for the waistline!

Intro/background section finished so now I'm eating a bagel with cream cheese :-) Next step, rewriting the Methods section.

Heh, yes, medicinal chocolate is the best kind!

Back for another battle with low motivation. I'm going to try to finish the intro/background section of my journal article and then stop for breakfast - that should motivate me!

Good luck everyone!

======= Date Modified 25 Jul 2012 17:41:04 =======
Heh, I'm not criticising anyone who has got married, of course :-) I can see the appeal when you're with someone you really want to be with.

Anyway - still plugging away, mostly finished my introduction/background section now, so I'll probably look through and make some easy changes to other sections in the paper and then call it a day.

Skig - being careful not to burn out is a good idea. I think one reason I'm struggling for motivation at the moment is that I put in a lot of long hours over the last few weeks. I think a gentle balance of hours would be much more effective overall!

======= Date Modified 25 Jul 2012 15:45:04 =======
Thanks Linda. Yes, it was the equality thing that really made us think about it. Both of us had always said we'd never get married because of the historical/religious aspects (the religious thing particularly for me cos my parents are very very religious but I'm an atheist, but also the equality/women as property to be handed from one man to another man, etc etc) - we felt even registry office type ceremonies didn't completely escape that. And then some gay friends were talking about their civil partnership, and MrBatfink asked me if I'd consider a civil partnership if it became legal for opposite-sex couples, and it just seemed like a powerful statement of equality and partnership, so we agreed that we'd do that if the law eevr changed. Which I'm not sure it will - I think gay marriages will become law eventually, though who knows how soon (though great to see the Scottish news today), but I don't think they'll offer civil partnerships the other way. Oh well!

Anyway - paper now re-ordered, so time to get on with some actual writing. I'd like to get the introduction and hopefully most of the methodology sections rewritten before the end of the day.

Good luck with your work! I'm looking forward to having a full thesis to look at, but it feels like a very long way off...

Abstract done - or as much as I can until I re-order some of the sections and add in a little more data.

Next task - re-order the sections and make notes on the extra bit I need to add.