Have enjoyed reading your discussion, Juno and Smilodon. I think that moments and hours of my PhD work are brain-free....as I lose a lot of time on somedays searching for the right music on Youtube, or reading my horoscope in as many places as possible, or ( eep) reading the Daily Mail religiously. As far as deadlines, I am pretty good at meeting self-imposed ones, but this came out of the sort of unique circumstances of trying to balance a PhD distance learning with work, and having to make the best of the scraps of time I could carve out for study, and meeting strict submission of draft deadlines. I knew if I ever fell behind, it would be nearly impossible to keep up. That, and coming from a deadline driven profession, deadlines just click something in my head. They have to be met. Its nearly an internalised and knee jerk reaction to them. So I set my own, and try to keep to them, and now that as I am writing up there is the motivation to just be all done.

PS--Sundays are nice productive days for me ( sad?) but I feel very kicked back, no pressure, just sort of work along at whatever pace I feel like, and enjoy it.

Olivia is distracted by finding good tunes on Youtube (mellow Motown mood has morphed to Janis Joplin!) while finishing edits on a chapter draft.

Overall I find my subject really interesting, and it keeps me motivated to have the interest. Yes, there are the inevitable boring boring bits of reading and writing, but I try to keep plugged into the parts that energize me--that make me think the research is worthwhile. Some of it is, what is it that is original that I am trying to say!?!? Can you take on a particular dimension or aspect of the research and develop it into an interesting argument? What drew you to the topic in the first place? My research has leaped the boundaries over several disciplines, making it very interdisciplinary, and this has made it also interesting ( though at times hair pulling-ly challenging). Think back to what made you interested to begin with, and see if there is some thread of that you can salvage in what you are doing.

PS thinks sleepyhead deserves a star for all that.

Well, I wouldn't literally THROW the whippet.

That's a lot of work for one star. All that AND a whippet? If I throw in a whippet, I think its worth double stars. Or a round of doubles at the bar. ( rum. Pirate drink).

I think that the main thing is to simply get on with it.......one way or another, to get your work done and have progress. Doing anything at all seems to get things moving. I am trying to relax into the final phase of my PhD because getting stressed out and worked up over it is going to have a very detrimental effect on the work. I don't do good work in that state, who does? My best work is done when I am enjoying what I am doing and engrossed in it. This is the state of mind I try to find everyday. Easier said than done of course, because who does not have a million outside pressures and concerns, pressures and concerns related to their PhD, the stress of the isolation, etc. Sometimes its just mind over matter...insisting to myself I am going to be in a good mood...:-s:-s:-s even on a day like today when I woke up with persistent migraine headache. ( stress no doubt!) A few hours later, I am chugging along, finding some things to make me laugh, organising to get on with a difficult task I have been avoiding, etc. Ahoy! Is that.....could that be......pirates? :p:p

out the window, was going to be my answer, but it wasn't a choice.

ALMOST?!

What if we went to see Sheffield Wednesday twice and bought the PGF team scarves and warm socks!? ( or would you prefer flatcaps and wellies?)
Then do I get another star?

Wondering what measure the above post might get! If only I could do maths!

http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2007/11/the_rowan_sarchasmic_index.php

I found this to be invaluable advice and would highly recommend it to any international student coming into the UK. I wonder why this has not been made a mandatory part of all international student inductions.

(Mind the computations go right over my head, but no doubt someone gifted in quantatative skills can find additional utility with this. I have a qualitative appreciation of it!)

and maybe we could go see Sheffield Wednesday play. Today is their day after all.

I vote for Sheffield. Lets get out and see a bit of the country!