Well if the question is directly asked like that then I suppose the answer would be yes! I wouldn't declare it anywhere other than an equal opportunities form though - I think you are not even supposed to refer to your age or gender on your CV nowadays so I would imagine the same goes for any disabilities...

Aw just saw this for the first time and it has ended! But just out of interest, with my research funding there was 30% of the 'marks' they gave you for Personal Statement so it was very important! 30% for academic record, 30% for letters of recommendation and only 10% for project proposal!!! They are obviously funding the person rather than the project in that case...

I thought that references normally wouldn't be contacted until AFTER the interview stage? I agree with the earlier poster, you could ask why you weren't brought for interview, what have you got to lose? Also you could take the references off your CV until after the interview - I just say 'references available on request' which is fair enough because you don't want them ringing your current boss until you know you have a new job!

Here we have guidelines that state we can't do any individual, one-on-one revision with students because it's not fair to the rest. We are not supposed to give ANY hints on the exam for the same reason - but students will always try to drag something out of you!!! I agree with what your supervisor said, she just needs to study. Sometimes no matter how much help you give them they will want more handed to them, before they attempt to do the work themselves.

Sorry... :$ Bad day! Plus I wish I was 23 again!!!

You have plenty of time to do something in your research career that is media worthy as you put it, so I wouldn't worry if I was you. The facebook and google guys (and any very young, uber-successful people) bother me too but just because someone hasn't achieved world-renown before the age of 20 doesn't mean they never will!!!

By the way, your youth is not fleeing yet, that's for sure :-)

That is a lot, although I once did 2500 words in a day which isn't far off 3000 - don't know if I could do that for eight days straight though! I think if you even had the bones of your chapter done in the 8 days that would be great, is there some reason you have to hit the full count by June 2nd? If not then just focus on getting the chapter done you can try to add more words later!

Well done (up) And thanks for all the great advice :-)

Wow keep_calm, I could have written that post myself!!! I have a very bad habit of procrastination and leaving things until the last minute - like you, it worked fine at undergrad level where you could technically study for an exam or write an essay in 1/2 days if you had to! But unfortunately it doesn't work like that for a PhD...

I was ok for the first year because I had an overbearing supervisor who gave me weekly deadlines - which was kind of annoying - but in hindsight it was probably a good thing. Then when I transferred from MSc to PhD I got a different supervisor who apparently doesn't do deadlines, and doesn't even do regular meetings! From that point (end of 1st year) up until a couple of months ago (second semester of 4th year!!!) I wasn't given one deadline - a disaster for someone like me! It resulted in the least motivated and most frustrating two years of my life, no joke.

I tried to give myself deadlines (kinda worked), I tried giving myself a schedule (couldn't stick to it, even more depressing), making plans (ditto) and pretty much everything suggested by previous posters! Things like Joan Bolker's book are motivating for about a day, then it wears off! For me, anyway...

Ultimately it was last January when I got the mother of all teaching workloads and a fixed, immovable deadline from my supervisor (31st July!) that I managed to get it together - there is nothing like a bit of pressure to get things moving! Funnily enough, I'm way less stressed now than I was when I was procrastinating - probably because now I don't have time to worry!

Anyway, all that said I don't recommend it because I had to finish my research and write an entire thesis in a couple of months (nearly there though). In my experience, no amount of advice about motivation can actually get you motivated... However:

I definitely agree with supergenius and sylvester about getting up and getting started early - thankfully I have always been an early riser (and serious parking shortages at uni are my motivation for getting to work early!)

One thing that REALLY helped me is banning internet until I have done some work. And don't just say 'I won't open up the browser' - actually unplug it, preferably even turn off the modem if you are at home. I don't go on till lunch and then only to check emails, then knock it back off. I suppose that's harder though if you are at the stage of literature searching...

Finally, ask your supervisors to give you deadlines. If there was one thing I could do over it would be to say to my supervisor "what exactly do you want and by when" and then get them to make sure you stick to it!

Sorry for such a long reply! To answer your question, is it possible to change in the long run? I feel different now, way more productive and positive, but is that only because now I have a deadline? Will I go back to the same old me as soon as I'm no longer under pressure? I don't know but if you ever figure out how to change for good let me know!

And good luck :-)

Y'know, I don't know if this will make anyone feel better, but I don't think it's just us! My friend is Head of Marketing at a law firm and works crazy hours but people are always asking her what could she possibly be doing for all those hours in work. "Don't you just have to, like, think up of ads or something?" She is forever having to explain what her job actually entails... So the moral of the story is, don't take it personally, and - unfortunately - get used to it because it may not stop even when you do get a 'real' job ;-)

You know I think I get more comments like this from my college friends than my non-college friends... Like if I work at home for a day and then go back into the library the next day they'll be like "oh did you have a lovely day OFF yesterday?" Yes, working on your thesis for 14 hours a day is just heaven when you're at home... not!!!

Hi there, I'm also not sure exactly what you mean by 'undoable' - do you mean that it is literally undoable - i.e. what you are supposed to do (e.g. experiments) just won't work? Or is that you think the goals of the PhD are too far-reaching?

In my case the latter was true - the things I proposed at the end of my first year (when I transferred) turned out to be sooo undoable!!! When I examined things in more detail I found that there were huge gaps that needed to be addressed before the things I proposed would be possible... but I took that to be a good thing! At least there is a gap there that needs to be addressed... so now I am pointing out what needs to be done and how my PhD is one step on the way there... I have plenty to write about for 'future research' haha :-)

I don't know if that helps at all, but I hope things work out for you!

I didn't know that about Word 2007 that's great!!! I normally use Primo PDF it's free and it doesn't normally mess with my formatting or anything like that!

I know how you feel, I often feel like I almost have to beg to get paid for the work I do - it's ridiculous!!! I was partially paid, to be fair to them, but was left short about €5000 between last Sept and April this year. I literally had to stomp over to HR every day in April to make sure they put it all through by the end of the month as they wouldn't even reply to my emails... grrr... I did get it all back in May but of course the government has stuck 3 different types of extra tax on in the meantime so a massive chunk of it was gone!!! So annoying... but I recommend that you just keep on the case, they have to pay you! Camp outside someone's office until they cough up!

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I haven't experience anything quite as bad as you seem to have pineapple but I definitely know what you mean! I nearly got turned away from a workshop on academic writing (v. important to me this year!) because I was 'only a postgrad'. I have been lecturing part-time for four years now so I am 'staff' too. There are plenty of part-time lecturers here who don't have/aren't doing PhDs and I guarantee they wouldn't be grilled about the fact that they are 'only part-time staff'. Also there are plenty of full-timer lecturers who are still doing their PhDs - are they not technically students? - and of course they wouldn't be grilled about it either. It's a bit weird that you are looked down upon for studying full-time when it's such a massive undertaking... Grrrr... Anyway I threw a strop and got into the workshop no prob :-) Maybe you should do the same ;-)