Hi everyone,

I know it's now a new year, but thought I'd bump this thread to see how everyone is doing. I just found out this week that I have enough data now to wrap up another chapter, so I'm really pleased! I still have one final batch of experiments to work on which could take another couple of months, but this still frees up a lot of extra time to focus on writing. Final deadline for me is Sept 2015 and I'm still a long way from having a complete first draft, so between now and 1st June I need to get a complete draft together. I've worked out I need to average about 3,200 words a week to do this - should be doable with experiments, but it still feels like a long slog! But on whole feeling a lot more positive about the prospect of writing up and soon being finished. I hope everyone else is doing well!

Congratulations Dr marasp!! That's fantastic news - as a fourth year finishing up this is really great to hear! :)

If anybody can help me get full access to the following paper I'd be extremely grateful! Thanks in advance :o)


Tulip

Thanks for your replies guys, they made me feel a lot better at the time of posting this. I've had several more ups and downs since posting this thread, including illness and having to go into hospital, so things are a bit all over the place still.

Caro - I think I will definitely give your suggestion of yoga a try. It's something I've been meaning to try for a while and I've been told it's amazing for clearing the mind. I hope your fourth year is going well and you're feeling a bit calmer about the career plans after the PhD (this is something that worries me a lot too!).

Zutterfly - your post pretty much hit the nail on the head, about the frustration of not really feeling myself despite trying all these things to stay healthy and relaxed. Along with trying yoga I'll also be trying meditation as you suggested, and I'm hoping the two together will help me relax and switch off from work during my down time.

Awsoci - Thanks for your reply. I've been trying to work out lately what it is exactly that has been making me feel stressed, and I think it's a combination of having to figure out a career path and finding a job, and it's also the worry of not really fitting in in a new workplace with new people. I never really clicked with or socialised much with my PhD colleagues and always felt a little sidelined because my circumstances were different (I lived with my boyfriend instead of with other students, and I have some health issues that they never really understood and so treated me a bit differently, etc.). There's also the obvious worry of what if I don't finish on time/end up with a resubmission verdict, etc. Like you said, I guess it's a case of getting through it and hoping that things after the PhD will be better.

Thanks again for the support, it's much appreciated!

Tulip

Hi there,

I have to agree with Barramack, in that it's really hard to finish a PhD if you haven't got that passion for your topic. I felt like you in my first year and contemplated leaving to try another career path. Instead I stuck with it and am now starting my fourth year, and it's been a huge struggle. Every day is difficult trying to find the motivation to keep going but I feel that with a year to go I need to try and finish this thing.

You need to live your life for yourself and do what makes you happy. In terms of disappointing family/friends etc., if they're disappointed that's their problem and they'll get over it. I know from my own personal experience that family can have a way of making you feel guilty about these things, but it's your life and you have to be selfish. If you decide to leave and they are disappointed, they'll get over it when they realise how much happier you are. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

Tulip

I had a quick search and couldn't find much on this so thought I'd ask others' opinions about this... It might sound strange but I'm having really strange mood swings lately. One minute I think I'm coping or doing fine and then the slightest little thing will make me really angry or tearful, or just put me in a terrible mood for the rest of the day. This is without me even talking about my PhD to anyone - when I talk about it I just get myself all wound up and get really annoyed and upset - my poor boyfriend calls it the 'downward spiral.' I know it must be stress related, I'm about to go into my fourth and final (unfunded) year of my PhD and I'm nowhere close to even having my experiments finished let alone have a draft of the thesis.

I'm doing my best in terms of eating healthy, exercising, making time to relax, having at least one day off a week to recharge etc. but I still feel like crap! I've stopped talking to people about how I'm feeling because it gets them down, my own mother told me I should 'cut this out' incase I drive my boyfriend away! He's also told me it does get him down, so I've stopped talking to him about it too, but it gets pretty lonely at times not being able to have the odd vent. I'm just wondering if anyone is in the same boat or has experienced this previously and I guess any tips for how to manage this would be great. I don't want to wind everyone around me up but equally a bit of support from them would be nice - maybe I need to become a proper exercise freak just to get through the day!

Thanks for reading,
Tulip

Hi satchi,

I can access that paper. If you PM me an email address I'll send the PDF over to you.

Cheers,
Tulip

Thanks for all the advice guys. As usual with any PhD, I've had a few more ups and downs since posting this, but at the moment things seem to be going well. In this case it was definitely a case of needing to just work through the rut and get back into the feeling of making progress. Fingers crossed it stays this way for a while!

Thanks again,
Tulip

Hi guys,

I've been awful at using this forum lately so I thought I'd already replied to say thank you! Thank you for the very helpful replies, they're much appreciated. I'd never come across G*Power, it's definitely very useful to know about.

Cheers,
Tulip

Hi Vickye,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I can empathise on the blood sugar front - I too am a type 1 diabetic and had problems during the first couple of years of my PhD (I was misdiagnosed and put on tablets), so I understand the problems that come with having blood sugars all up the creek! This probably hasn't helped with the depression either, as I've found that this can impact my mood a lot! Can you speak to your doctor/diabetic nurse if you have one to try and get your new regime sorted soon? Once you feel better that will probably help with getting back on track with the work.

As for your supervisor, my advice would be to draft an email to them explaining the problems you've had with family and the new regime for your diabetes. Explain what's happened and that you're trying to get back on track and that you can discuss this further with them in more detail next Wednesday. That way they can try to come up with a solution that isn't so close to the first deadline in September, and it might be easier to explain in an email than in person. I know it's easier said than done but please try not to stress, some supervisors aren't very sympathetic about these things (I know mine certainly isn't!) but at least once they're in the loop you'll feel better and most likely you can get an extension on medical grounds.

Also you say you're worried about telling the new job about needing an extension - is the job offer conditional on you submitting your dissertation? Feel free to PM if you want to chat more, and hope you start to feel better soon!

Tulip

Does anyone know of any good software for identifying a minimum number of samples needed to obtain, say for example, 80% power at a significance level of 0.05 for a study? Or would you use power tables found online?

Also, if a piece of software/power table says the minimum number of samples is e.g. n=72? Does that mean you only need to test 72 samples? Or does it mean you need to test more than 72 and need to find the effect you're looking for in a minimum of 72 of those samples? Sorry if this sounds waffly - I'm new to this and although I've read around and asked people in my department, no one seems able to point me in the right direction. If anyone has any pointers or ideas for where to look I'd be very grateful!!

Thanks,
Tulip

Hi TreeofLife,

I completely emphathise with you here! I can't even count the amount of time I must have wasted trying to get bits of equipment to work and searching for equipment that I need but isn't available in the lab, only for my supervisor to then change his mind and say to move onto another assay. What with that and having to optimise two new techniques in the last few months of funding, I am well and truly fed up of my lab! Hope you've had some better luck with this machine - how's it going now?

Tulip

Congratulations Juniper! It's so nice to hear about people that have made it out the other side. Have a great celebration and good luck in your industry job!

Congratulations sundogs! That's awesome news, best of luck for when you start!

Tulip :)

I don't really know where to start - I've spent the majority of this week avoiding the lab and kidding myself that I'm 'working from home' when really I'm watching rubbish on youtube, making lists of things to do and then getting stressed out by how much there is to do. I have four months of funding left and loads of experiments to do still, and not a single complete draft of any of my chapters. The four month funding isn't the end of the world (I have another write up year after that, albeit without funding) but it's knowing there's less than 18 months now until the final submission deadline and I just feel completely overwhelmed. I've tried making lists, taking breaks, talking about it etc. but nothing is making me get back into the swing of working. I feel like I've reached the stage of wanting the stupid thing done and dusted but I'm not at a point where I can grit my teeth and write up properly, because I still need more data sets. Feeling pretty fed up and frustrated!

Sorry for a depressing rant... Anybody else feeling/felt this way and figured out how to get back into working? It's probably just a bad week, I hope everyone else's week is going better!

Cheers,
Tulip