Congratulations! It's good to hear the happy PhD stories

Hey Lara,
How's it going? I saw your owl post...I'm an owl too, although yesterday I just wanted to sleep the whole day regardless of the time! Hopefully I will be more awake and productive today...hopefully!
Hope things are going ok with your work...I like your Will Smith work technique...he's so nice to look at!

Hope it all is going/has gone well

As mentioned by Sjo4 in an earlier post...Britain's got talent is now the ultimate viewing (after neighbours, of course!). Ant and Dec...awesome, Amanda...probably cries more easily than I do, Piers...clearly wouldn't know talent if it bit him on the arse, Simon...the teeth, the cynicism, the realism...my ideal man?!
What does everyone think of the acts? What were they thinking letting the keyboard man through to the semis? Who's going to win? (I think Fararll...if only I could spell her name...). And the very talented belly dancer wins for inspiring the best facial responses from Piers and Simon!

BHC...that's great...submitting papers is academic frog kissing, I'll think of that when I get round to it myself and it'll make me smile!

That is why I like you guys...I feel anonymous which means I can be totally honest, and you give me the support I don't get from uni. And yes, sometimes just knowing you're not the only one who's struggling helps - that's the whole part about uni, everyone else is hiding behind their "life wonderful, I'm doing great at my phd" facade too, which makes me feel even worse. I've said it before...there's solace in comradeship...
Oo...that was longer than I thought it would be!

Bellaz I totally agree with the covering up thing...I find it really hard to actually tell the people I work with when I'm struggling with motivation, havne't produced any work, haven't got a clue about things etc etc. And that is part of the reson I have struggled so much with my PhD. In the meantime I put on this facade of pretending everything's ok and everyone probably thinks it is, even when I sit and cry at home because it is so not ok. I have a sneaky feeling I'm not the only person in my dept to hide their fear/unmotivation/unproductivity etc.

hey birdsandbees...i think the bank holiday has turned into a brain holiday! It started off ok for me - brain was working despite being fed up (and also, it's very quiet on facebook...almost as if I need reminding that everyone else is having fun!).
Since lunch I've been distracted by stupid jobs, have now been back at my desk a while and my brain is clearly not in the same room. Grr!
Hope your day is going better!

Hi Lara,
Sounds like you're making progress in the right direction. The email to your supervisor was good too.
Hope you're feeling a bit less floored by the situation and managing to sleep and eat ok. This is the first things that go to pot for me when I'm stressed, but not eating or sleeping properly just make it all worse...oh dear...I sound just like my Mum!
Hope you and BB have a good day

Good moring Jojo (I haven't had lunch yet so yes, it's still morning )

I take it you have a thesis-tastic bank holiday planned too?! I look forward to the days when I don't define a good day by how many words I've written or papers I've read!

Get yourself some comfort food this evening and try to find a distraction if you can. With email replies to supervisor I recommend writing your response in word (so you don't accidentally hit send with the wrong thoughts enclosed!) and once you've written it, ignore it for a few hours, then go back and re-read it to check how it sounds. Sometimes things don't come out quite right the first time... For your meetings, have your points written down and practise saying them before hand. You may well cry (is there anyone out there who hasn't cried in front of their sup?!) but keep going anyway. This may be simple advice but it's what someone taguht me to do a while back and it helped a lot.
Lots and lots of postive thoughts for you
Keep us up to date.

Hi Lara,
Good for you today for dealing with a horrible situation and still being determined to give it your best shot. Your supervisor sounds like hard work in himself, and clearly lacking in a few areas, but I guess you just have to manage around that now. The uncontrolable tears are awful (been there myself, frequently), but they will stop eventually. PhDs are as much an emotional challenge as they are an academic one. It's really good you have your Mum's support.
With regards to what people think of you if things go wrong, I have found that "the people who mind don't matter, and people that matter don't mind". Love and friendship isn't conditional on qualifications!

Thinking of things as little mountains and taking small (realistic) steps, I seem to be making a bit more progress. Sitting at my laptop and being utterly miserable because I haven’t written my whole thesis before lunch time may, possibly, be being a little hard on myself. Especially since I still have data to collect!

It’s Friday night, I’m home alone, again, so I thought I’d share my metaphorical story with all the other phders chained to their desks.

Here’s to a productive weekend everyone

A short time later, conscious of the time pressure, I muster the courage to get out of the tent again. This time I don’t look up at the summit, but just look slightly ahead of where I am now. I think about things. Where will my next camp be? What needs to be achieved today and what is realistic? I know the summit is there; I have enough provisions to get there and achieve the huge overall goal, but by not looking directly at it, I keep my underwear clean ;o)

Hopefully, by addressing the smaller tasks in turn, and climbing a number of smaller mountains as part of the bigger plan, I’ll eventually reach the summit…

There have been various posts recently describing how unmotivated many of us feel, I am very much a member of this group! Half the time the fear of the task ahead freaks me out completely, and stops me even getting started.

I have a challenge ahead: I’m going to climb Everest.

I am sat in my tent at base camp. I have previously climbed other, smaller, mountains successfully and Everest has always been a dream achievement. I have done various bits of preparation, kit selection etc. to get me to the base camp stage.

The time comes to assess the challenge. I unzip my tent and get out.

Oh. My. God.

Chin hits the floor, knees go to jelly…how did I ever think I could climb that? It’s HUGE.

Cue rapid retreat into the tent to busy myself with far more pressing matters such as cleaning and tidying, folding my sleeping bag etc. Also need a clean change of underwear…