Jouri and jojo... just curious - are you both single?

This has been said many times on this forum before - but if you put your life on hold because you are so busy with your PhD, then you will probably put your life on hold again when you are so busy with your new job... and so on... until one day, aged 65, you finally have some free time but realise that (most of!) life has passed you by.

P.S. I also am in my final year - and I think everybody should be entitled to post their opinions here, whatever stage they are at.

Wow you people are all crazy... Just joking lol That always happens to me too, when I am nearly asleep or about to wake up - I think that I hear a loud voice shout all of a sudden or sometimes the doorbell ringing - weird...

As for dreams - I had an odd one last night about my supervisor... he was telling me he couldn't meet me because he was so stressed - he had just started a degree by night and couldn't get his head around some maths problem and I said 'Umm... aren't you, like, some kind of maths expert?' and he was like 'I know, but that was years ago'. Also he looked really thin, like he was wasting away...

What does it mean?????

Aahhh that is sweet... you should go for it!!! I know plenty of people who got married during their PhDs or even had babies - which probably take up a bit more of your time

Good luck

Hi Sy - it is interesting that you say that there should be a post called 'Happy PhD' - I seem to recall that I started a thread like that a couple of weeks ago and got attacked for being so "insensitive"!!! I think that people on this forum only want to hear the negative all the time because that is their mindset - and that is the problem - if you let everything stress you out, then yes, you will be stressed out for life... simple as that!

Anyway I'm going back to lurking... it's safer

When I said 'backlash against negative posting' I was referring to the other thread (which has now disappeared) in which people criticised Badhaircut for being negative about postdoc work.

I was not trying to belittle anyone who is suffering from health problems, mental or otherwise, PhD-related or otherwise...

I was simply trying to start a positive thread to say "I am trying not to get too stressed out about things".

Oh right, trying to find the positive in things is so insensitive of me... trying to be upbeat about things and not give into depression... you're right, I'm such a cow.

Hi there... Since we have had such a backlash against 'Negative Posting'... Is there anyone out there staying sane (i.e. not going mad because of their PhD)???

There have quite a number of posts over the last week about health problems (mental and otherwise) due to PhD-related stress. I, for one, am extremely fond of my mental health and plan on keeping it!!!

Maybe people will say I don't care enough, and they could be right... But to me, getting a PhD (while very important to me) is just not worth messing my health up!

I think I am trying to see the big picture... that down the line, the things that matter to me are likely to be family rather than whether I got that PhD/job/promotion or whatever else there was to stress about along the way!

Would like to hear other people's thoughts and opinions!!!

@ pamw... No it wasn't my decision to change supervisors - I was told that my funding body require it first of all, and then also that my institute require at least one of the supervisors involved to have a PhD (i.e. I don't think it has to be your main supervisor with a PhD, just someone).

I didn't really want to change at first ('cause I liked my original sup better as a person!) but now I can see why I had to... Whenever I ask her for advice she says "You'll have to ask new sup". I don't know if she can't give me advice or if she just won't!!!

So halfway into my third year I don't have a clue what I'm doing and no-one to tell me what to do either

Anyway to answer your question I probably am working less hours in my third year simply because I have no motivation and no external pressure anymore!!!

I actually found first year pretty busy... I started as an MSc and my supervisor at the time was very involved in making sure that I made progress every week. I actually felt I got loads done that year...

Then in my second year I transferred to PhD - so the first half of the year was super busy! But once I had transferred everything went terribly downhill. Maybe it is because, as Xeno said, I haven't been given a deadline since then - apart from the final submission which still seems a long way off.

Also I had to change my main supervisor (as my original sup didn't have a PhD)... The new sup is much more 'distant' and is often too busy to meet - and the original sup has backed off completely (even though she is still officially involved!)

Well I am only a full year behind according to that calculator! I actually thought it would have been worse - possibly even two years behind... I feel good now

Wow that is crazy eddi!!! Hope you are ok... I think you most certainly need some time off to begin with! I found that my stress levels were hard to handle last year but then I decided to try and relax a bit and not take everything so seriously... there is no point in working yourself into an early grave! Don't know if that helps but I hope you feel better soon!

Wow that must be a record there has been 5/6 already today?!?!? Could it be all the one person doing it as a joke???

Anyway, I wouldn't say it makes me angry - it does make me giggle!

@ Olivia, I meant the guinness not the green beer - we posted at the same time

Ugh won't be long now... Can't believe people drink that The funniest 'green' thing I ever saw on Paddy's Day were green battered sausages - the batter being green of course, not the sausage Sick sick sick!!!