Good--I am not the only one doing many multiple drafts!!! =) Like you said SJO I do also cringe when I look at the early work...EEEK!!!! but as you said, that is all part of the progresion. I see it as a definite GOOD thing to be able to look at my work and see that it has moved on ( and hopefully up!). I am soon to gut my entire literature review chapter- that was done in early days and revised in early days--and is almost irrelevant now to the work I am doing, so much more and a different focus! But you have to start somewhere!

I was once told to expect to do about 8 drafts of a paper to get a final product. This was doing papers on my LL.M. course so I don't know if it is at all applicable to PhD work...but my own experience so far seems to bear out that it is...I have done drafts of nearly all my chapters, but they have been revised at least once with plans to continue to revise and synthesise them as I go. My early drafts are often what my supervisor calls "PhD student thinking out loud" and then move from there to more polished ( hopefully!) work. So doing revision on drafts should not be discouraging...its just part of the process!

Are these threads being started up by people who want to advertise particular websites, and are doing it in the guise of posting these threads to ask and answer their own questions. Again, this forum is for PhDs in the UK, not online undergraduate degrees in the United States.

For those fed up with this forum, there is the ***other**** forum.

Judging from the poster's 'lingo' this is an American. So what this has to do with a PhD issue in the UK is a bit questionable.

and what Smilodon and Leone said about using very small chunks--so you can see progress- I agree! Break it down as small as you have to for it to seem manageable. And remember to reward yourself with breaks or food or drinks or whatever you need for a motivator. While it defeats the purpose of health, sometimes my reward to myself is something out of the vending machine!

The trick to all of this is make sure that what you have down is "achievable"--not what you WANT to do, but what you CAN do. Otherwise, I think the lists just increase the frustration and paralysed feeling, because you have ever increasing lists of what is not done. I have a giant plan for the month, but its not too detailed. Then I break it down by the day or week, and CHANGE it if I have to. Sometimes stuff comes up that you have to adjust for. What works for me is at the end of each day is make a list for the next day, just two or three things I KNOW will get done and have to get done...it helps get my thoughts in order for the next day--then when I start work the next day, review the list, scratch things off as I need to as they get done, and etc..I don't do this every day, but it helps me I have that HELP I AM DROWNING IN PAPER feeling.

I think the suggestion to look for an appropriately accredited university and programme is a sound one. Just because something is online however does not mean it is not sound. You might want to doublecheck the credentialling body as well to make sure it is one that has recognition sufficient to suit your aims following your degree.

walk A LOT and while its not intense enough to be aeorobic, its something. Although I have injured my foot ( I looked it up on the internet and the self diagonosis is plantar fash...something) but I am still trying to walk alot. Last night I walked for about 3 hours, between a guided walking tour and then having to walk back home! Yes, it was some starts and stops, but it was still something, and something is better than nothing, and sometimes better than nothing is as good as it is going to be, realistically!

I keep a supply of fresh fruit in my office--and snack on it a few times a day. It is how I make sure I get some fruit in my diet, and also try to avoid eating crap during the day. The problem is that at some point, I get VERY hungry, and eventually hit the vending machine at some point, because I do not want to/do not have time to go off the premises for food. I should try to bring a lunch with me, but I have not succeeded at that...for dinner I try to have pasta or basmati rice with a healthy sauce, sometimes if I am lazy I just have toast and eggs. I

The conference alert website is great, thanks for posting. I found 2 conference with call for papers out for which I want to submit an abstract. Although I try very hard to keep up with what is going on, I was not aware of these, and was delighted to find them.

The Tudor history is such, I agree, that there is no need to mess about with it--it was far more complicated and dramatic than anyone could make up. That said, I have heard that the facts got changed around because the producers thought that the American audience would get confused by too many Mary's and Margaret's. So the reality was dumbed down I suppose for a TV audience. The messing about with historical fact does annoy me on one hand, but on the other, taking it for what it is, a dramatic production, it really is highly entertaining.

Oh, that sounds so fascinating Leone! Do keep the forum informed of how this goes!!!!! Part of me really envies you because wow...what a great thing to be doing a PhD in--though no doubt like all PhDs its got its challenges!

Catchiane, do you by chance read any of the Sharon Penman novels of English history!? I really enjoy her books, even more than Phillipa Gregory's.

That is a good idea, Catchianthe! I will look forward to the DVD, wonder how soon it will be out? In the meantime, I am slobbering over the few clips I can find of the Showtime Tudors 2008 series...its started in the US, and Showtime put 2 full length clips out of the first two episodes, but you cannot view them outside the US apparently. =( The few clips and adverts about this look stupendous! Yes, it makes a mockery of historical fact, but the characters are so much more compelling! THIS Anne Bolyen is complex and conniving, THIS Henry is regal and arrogant and appealing at once, this Katherine of Aragon sympathetic and infuriating...

Juno, I like the idea of your weight barometer trousers!!!! I have a pair of those! My fav pair of trousers sadly wore out shortly after I got to the UK and are beyond repair, another fav pair that came with me are still too tight to wear, but a newish pair of jeans are now starting to fall off my hips, which I think means that my weight has migrated upwards, not off...