then after doing something, anything that's related to your thesis, even if it's just free writing, and you're still feeling tired. take a break, take a nap. and then start afresh.

I know me too

okay, start the timer ...10minutes. must do something. you do the same...

report back what you have done at 3pm. you have 40minutes. you're time starts now. go!

but i will definately check out the feature of using word to make figures and tables contents thanks!!

hmm on second thoughts, at this late stage, i better stick with my microsoft word version

i will worry about converting it to PDF later on, when i am ready to print, hopefully will get to that stage!

Oh I see, thanks for that ! I haven't installed word 2007, I feel to scared that it will mess up everything, because right now, endnote is attached to my microsoft word which is 2001. I might test it out, once I have backed up everything onto dvds.

i wanted to ask you (sorry Sheena for hijacking your endnote thread).

but at the moment, I have my chapters in seperate word documents, would you recommend for the figure and tables contents to work, to have one big thesis document?

i'm sorry ! ignore my last message, I just re-read your message,

i understand you're talking about using microsoft word for tables of contents for the headings, tables and figures.

great stuff! thanks for explaining that. you're right, it does sound like it will be easier in the long run. thank you for taking the time to explain it, so kind of you.

oh wow thanks for that. I will do that then.
would you put the figures in the word document once all the text is complete? or as you go along?

so you recommend using endnote for figures and tables contents.

and then using microsoft for headings to make the contents?

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BB good luck with work today. Just remember.."every day is more important than how much time you spend or how many pages you produce or the quality, it's working ony our thesis everyday no matter how much or how little is what will get you to your goal"...

BB! well done! I'm proud of you :)
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Cakegirl, aww thanks so much for the kind message, I really appreciate it :)

funny how you should use the word "floored" that's exactly what Joan Bolker says in her section of " possible horrible worst case scenario" of getting a letter from the Dean saying your thesis is due alot sooner than you thought!!

I appreciate your support and encouragement. Have a good day.
:)

Whenever I get overwelmed by the huge task of writing the thesis, and it is a huge task, I take comfort in the following

"Today is all that you have. Organise the hours of this day, so that you make years out of minutes and months out of seconds"...


Charles Chaplin said "Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles". I have that on a post it on my wall, to remind me, that one day, today will be the past.

I sometimes have a tendency to wander, so i have my timer on my desk, and tell myself, to work 10mins on something, and then the buzzer goes off, but I carry on working on it, cause the ball is rolling.

It's a psychological trick. If i say to myself I ONLY have 10mins to read such and such, or write about such and such, and after that, the time is up, and i cannot spend anymore time on it, it really focuses your mind.

And I also have recently started telling myself, 'just think, you can learn alot in even 1 minute'. Like for instance, there are 25,000 protein encoding genes in the genome. It took me 30 seconds to find that out, and there you learnt something too and that probably took you 10 seconds.

And just think today is all you have, you can imagine, that you live and die in one day, and so you do as much as you can.

If it makes you feel any better, you have company! I too am working on bank holiday, but considering the weather, i don't think we're missing much! :)

I haven't actually done anything yet, just warming up hehe.

Sounds like you've got alot achieved! I'm impressed :) Just take it hour by hour. For every word, sentence, or thought or piece of writing you read, you're one step closer to finishing. Concentrate on today, and not the big picture, try to do as much as you can within today. Pretend as if, tommorow your supervisor will ask you, so what did you learn today? tell me about chapter so and so.

work accomplished
* productive time - approximately 2 hours.

* zero draft outline of a chapter i don't like, that supervisor wants me to write. (wrote up notes from my last meeting with another supervisor about the results from the final experiment)
-did some freewriting about this chapter.

*read abstract of a paper for chapter 4.


too tired and sleepy to carry on.
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how was your day BB?

words of comfort for phd writers.

a friend of mine recently got awarded her Phd,(from imperial college) and her thesis were only 33,000 words in total!!

and that she will soon have just one paper published on her whole thesis!

just goes to show, sometimes concise phd thesis are the best! the examiners were very impressed by her thesis, consise and to the point and well researched.

i think psychologically, you have to do that sometimes.

i also have decided to spend this week, and spend an hour each day on each chapter of my thesis, - just making a zero draft of each, so that psychologically i feel comforted, that there's something written down, even if it's just bullet points, and just printing what i have done so far. i think psychologically i need that security blanket. and to see physically what i have done, and what i need to do.