Confession: I fancied my supervisor when I first started. Situation was not helped by the fact I'm 22 and he's only about 30. I got over it pretty quickly though and it doesn't even pass my mind now. Don't make excuses to go past his office and try to act professional around him. Sorry if I sound harsh but I'm sure you'll get over it soon. Meet a boy at a conference and snog him instead, much more professional :-);-)

======= Date Modified 02 Dec 2009 13:39:28 =======
Ugh, I'm a bit behind with my plans and now I'm SCARED of my work. Does anybody get this? I procrastinate and actually feel fearful when I think about opening word, ha ha. Pull yourself together woman!

Checking in for today.

I've seen people using the 'DONE' system of marking things off which looks fun so:

read up to p.300 of Jane Eyre DONE
Continue making adjustments to my chapter: neaten up bits I've added, add some more close textual analysis. Hmmm, second part DONE
Finish JE, map out lesson plan Still to do tonight :-( Nights before teaching are the worst.

So I made a list of all the adjusments I wanted to make to my chapter and then I spied a chapter in a book which I thought would be really useful. I ended up reading all of that. It was about Hegelian dialectics and Derrida and other mind-warping stuff, so although I think it will be useful in the long run it has just made me question even more things in my chapter, making an even bigger mess. WHY DOES EVERYTHING TAKE SO LONG?! So I haven't had time to neaten anything up and now I really need to go and plan my lesson. I ALWAYS end up sitting until the wee hours before I teach so I'm not bothered about that. It's my technique :p

Hope everybody's had a good day. How have you all done?

Hi Emmanki,

I think AC might have accidentedly posted that post here as it came up in another thread too. However, part of what they said seems to apply here- the PhD does not define you as a person. It is a piece of work, a project, which needs to be carefully managed and organized to ensure you have enough energy to complete it. It's great that you have such motivation and passion but, as you know, trying to cram all your work into one day is not going to benefit the project.
Next time you set yourself a task, perhaps sit down with your diary and split it into a number of mini-tasks which can be spread out over a reasonable time frame. Completing those tasks every day will give you the knowledge and satisfaction that you are (steadily!) working towards your goal. Then go home and relax! Give your mind time to recover. There is evidence that suggests our brains 'work out' problems whilst we're seemingly switched off.
But, most importantly, the PhD is not you! The PhD is, when it comes down to it, so many pieces of paper. The world will continue spinning whatever happens.

Hello fellow 2nd yearers.

I'm definately up for being held accountable. I would like to use this a few times a week, I reckon, as I think admitting to the Internet every time I fail to so something will be a great motivator :-)

So, by the end of the week (Friday) I need to have:
1) made all the adjustments I agreed with sup to chapter 2 and have sent it back to him- for Wednesday.
2) Looked again at abstract for conference in Jan and worked out a plan for writing my paper (gulp).
3)Worked out what primary/secondary reading I'm going to do over December.
4)Started marking essays. If I could get about 10 done, that would be great.
5)Read Jane Eyre and taught my seminar.

Tonight I need to read up to p.300 of Jane Eyre *sob*

Tomorrow I will:
1)Continue making adjustments to my chapter: neaten up bits I've added, add some more close textual analysis.
2) Finish JE, map out lesson plan.

Hi Cobweb,

I'm sorry if my advice is crummy but I couldn't read and not post. I'm sorry to hear you're feeling down at the moment.
With regards to your work, try not to worry about missing your deadline (easier said than done, I know). What I would do is this: e-mail your supervisor asap and write down the reasons you haven't sent him/her your work and what you are planning to do about it. Did you find some aspects of it are taking longer than you thought they would? Have you hit any stumbling blocks? Is it mainly a problem of motivation? Whatever it is, write it down, and think about how you can get around these problems. Suggest a new date for submission, making sure it gives you enough time to work through these issues.
This advice was given to me when I posted about missing a deadline and it really, really helped. I'd not really thought about why I couldn't do the work, I'd just assumed I was incapable and lazy. When I forced myself to think about it, I also realized how I could get round it. My supervisor also suggested some techniques, and I managed to turn my ill-fated chapter around. Your supervisor might not have noticed it's late. In which case, they will be impressed that you have taken the deadline seriously and have taken the initiative to work out what might be wrong.
I'm afraid I can't give you any relationship advice but I'm sure a friendly soul will come along and do so.
Don't panic :-)

I've been thinking about this all afternoon! (Well, it has flitted idly through my brain). Best I could come up with was 'Elevate your capabilities and sense of motivation until they are sufficient for the job in hand.' So, um....yeah, I'd delete it!

Hope I didn't offend you Walminksi. I thought a good way to deal with Clogs was to stop taking him seriously. I don't know though. I'll bow out.

I love you Clever Clogs. Will you be my friend?

I actually think guys, we've got our own forum troll! How fun!

Hey,

I'm in humanities and I actually work much the same way as Sneaks. My first year was slightly different and I would occasionally spend a block few weeks reading, as you mention you have done, but even then I tended to mainly read as I needed to. I might read a book or article which would spark an idea, but then I would only consult the parts of secondary criticism I needed in order to write whatever it was I was aiming at. I would find that I ended up getting through most of the core texts that way, as the bits I had read built up.
I have no idea if cherry picking in this way is the right way to go about things, but it seems to have worked well. I finished my first year with two pieces which will hopefully become chapters in my thesis. I didn't originally intend to take them this far, but I became interested in them and ended up re-drafting numerous times. If they don't end up as chapters, however, I can certainly cut and paste most of it for my introduction, and they've provided me with several conference papers and possibly a publication.
I would advise aiming at lots of short and rough pieces, and don't worry about refining them too much. Allow yourself to gather lots of different ideas. You may find, like me, that one of them grabs your interest and starts to grow into something with more substance.

I am in search of a jam doughnut. I want a jam doughnut!

I'm so sorry to hear that Bug :-(


8-)

The ideal age to start a PhD is 22.5. Leos and people with brown hair are especially well suited.

;-)