Hi Everyone, Hope you all had a good weekend. I was a bit naughty!!! and watched a lot of the olympics so today i have loads to do if i want to make my deadline of handing most of my thesis in tomorrow! So i will be having a long day today!!!

Aims: Still have to finish Chapter 1! (am getting there slowly!!!)

Re-read chapters 3,4,5

Write my abstract

Sort out the table, figures and contents pages!

Anyway, hope everyone has a good day!!

Lara: Your posts are again so inspirational! You are right i guess we all have to just carry on and try not to worry! Well done on working over the weekend! You too Armendaf!!!!!

Let's hope we all have a brilliant week!!!!

Well I'm aiming to write 10k in rough draft this week. Then that's my final word-count of 100k hit. Unfortunately, I have a number of chapters that are complete rubbish, unoriginal etc. etc. so I may as well only have 50k written. Alas I have no time to re-write due to my deadline looooooming.

TG i've been naughty too! didnt do that much over the weekend, perhaps just a couple of hours yesterday and a couple of hours on saturday! just phaffed around really :$

thanks for saying that you found my post inspirational. i was having abit of a panic and stress attack over the weekend, but i think i have gotten over it. i think i was just feeling very overlwemed and it just hit me all at once.

well i have a new deadline, complete my final thesis in full/final version by september 1st. that's when my first supervisor comes back. so i want to have completed my thesis so i feel confident. so will complete it to the best of my ability and knowledge.

so going to work hard these 2 weeks and get it done once and for all! but theres LOADS to do

i am going to try a new strategy- spend time on each chapter per day. tell myself i *only* have a finite amount of time to get a particular section done. that way i will stop myself from spending a disproportiate time on a section and neglecting other sections/chapters.

i know how you feel miss spacey!! we just gotta try our best. and just focus on meeting the deadline. unfortunately do not have the luxury of time anymore to make it really good. it just has to be "good enough"..

a done thesis is better than a great thesis that only exists in our mind. so i've decided to just get the minimum stuff done!

extra stuff can always be added after being examined, everyone gets corrections to do.

but we cant have the opportunity for having corrections to do and resubmit, if we dont submit *anything* in the first place. thats how i am thinking of it now.

and after we submit, we will have a couple of months to hone our knowledge and can fill in the holes and gaps at the viva ;-)

my supervisors keep telling me to add my own ideas to my thesis and not just stuff from my papers, which irritates me, because the papers were my ideas, which they just made it more pretty and added to it. but seems to be forgotten or disregarded. but I will try to think of new ideas , but unfortunately pressed for time, dont really have that luxury. will just try my best and see what happens.

Lara, even though you are using 'stuff' from the papers, the way you are combining it and using it to make sense of the data is unique. You do not have to reinvent the wheel or come up with a novel prize theory; your own contribution is the way you are putting all that previous knowledge together to explain a phenomenon. Just make that explicit and label it "your own ideas" for the benefit of your supervisor and other readers of your thesis ;-)

Thanks Armendaf!! :-) that's made me feel better. exactly! no need to reinvent the wheel. thanks for your message, it's helped me :-)

Hi Lara,

I used to have some panic attacks as well and spend a day or two not doing anything. Maybe you are trying to do a lot of work each day. Our minds/bodies have limits, try to aim for 6 productive hours a day. It worked well for me the last few months.

Good luck and stay optimistic, you can and will do it (up)

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Thanks K! :-) I appreciate that. i understand what you mean, aiming to do everything and alot can be overwelming.

i can't stop myself from panicking. i dont know whats wrong with me. i just cant figure out how to get 6 chapters done in 2 weeks. i dont know how to set my time and manage deadlines.

im frozen with fear. i dont know if i should work on all 6 chapters each day. like work on each chapter for 1 hour and then swap every hour. or whether i should dedicate one whole day to one chapter. and give myself 2 day deadlines for each chapter:-( i'm seriously panicking now.

i've decided to set myself 2 day deadlines for each chapter. and basically just try to get as much of the chapters completed. that's all i can do with the time that i left. seriously dont know where the month has gone, i've hardly done anything! i'm so bad. :$ but no point looking at the past. the time has gone and can never be retrieved. just gotta make the most of these two weeks now.

i've wasted today panicking and taking naps.
i am going to start afresh tommorow. and keep track of my time throughout the day.

i found this nifty tracking online blog.
talks about emergent tasks. instead of planning ahead of what you're going to do just track what you are doing...
http://davidseah.com/blog/the-printable-ceo-iii-emergent-task-timing - explains the concept

and this is the actual tracking sheet. http://davidseah.com/tools/ett/alpha/

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[quote]Quote From tractorgirl:

Hi Everyone, Hope you all had a good weekend. I was a bit naughty!!! and watched a lot of the olympics so today i have loads to do if i want to make my deadline of handing most of my thesis in tomorrow! So i will be having a long day today!!!

Aims: Still have to finish Chapter 1! (am getting there slowly!!!)

Re-read chapters 3,4,5

Write my abstract

Sort out the table, figures and contents pages!

[quote]

rooting for you TG!!! i hope you get it done you've done so well this past month, you met your goal!!! you should really be proud of yourself
(up)

i've wasted this past month, doing god knows what!! but you've done so well in completing your final draft. am so proud of you!! :-)

Hi Everyone,

Thanks ever so much for the encouragement Lara, you really are a star. However, i have to confess i have not managed to get everything done. Like you, i spent a lot of the day worrying about the thesis in general, about if it will be good enough to submit in the time left etc etc etc.... Anyway, tomorrow i will be handing in chapter 1-6 but have not done the abstract, finished the references, done any of the contents,figure list, table list

You are doing so well and you will get there. Try not to think of it as 6 chapter's to do but just refinements on these chapters. I reckon you are right not too do bits on every chapter each day as it might get a little too much. I wonder if you should pick something easy to do first, maybe alter a figure or figure legend, or tweek a couple of paragraphs and then build from there? You will feel so much better and by starting with a few easier things first will help to build up therest of the day. Then move onto the things that make take longer. Maybe do some easy and also harder things each day. Maybe focussing on one chapter per day or more if you feel like it at the time?
I unserstand it is really hard, and i am also really feeling the pressure too at the moment. I panic, then sit there and don't do anything but bite my nails, panic a bit more and end up getting nothing done!!! I think though if we start with something easy and then build it up maybe this will help with confidence?

Anyway, try not too worry and you will get there, we must try to think about how far we have come and that it will all be worth it in the end. After this though i intent to get a job that does not involve science at all!!!!!!!!
Hang on in there and hope you have a good day tomorrow
xx

Thanks TG!! for your encouraging post! you always make me feel better!!

well i did as you suggested, something *easy* and i just read through my sup's comments again on chapter 5, and made a list of all the corrections and additional stuff to add. so feel abit better now that i have it all written down. the list has 32 check points. so tommorow will tackle it one at a time. and then tick it off. and if something creeps up, will just add it to the bottom of the list.

you've done incredibly well, on getting the 6 chapters. dont worry about the abstract! that can be done later , and is usually done right at the end when your thesis is completed. i am sure your sup wont be fussy. those other things can be done whilst your sup reads the content. ie the contents and references. i wouldnt worry about those things, they are just icing on the cake. you got the bulk of the cake done, and that is fantastic!! you definately deserve to treat yourself off tommorow and take a day off or something (up)

it makes me feel better that i am not the only one that is suffering from panic attacks! i think its the looming deadline thats causing us to feel so anxious!

i am with you, i want a break from science too!! even though my brother was saying how cool it is that i am in research and contributing, which was nice to hear :-)

thanks TG for taking the time to write to me. you made me feel heaps better!

i am going to head to bed now. and start afresh tommorow. and just tackle each bit on my check list one at a time, and tick it off.

i agree with you,about working on one chapter a day. so i've made a 2 day deadline, work on each chapter for 2 days and then move onto another chapter. so i have a deadline every other day.

hope it goes all okay tommorow handing in your completed draft. well done you!!!!(up)

Hi Lara,

There is nothing wrong with you for panicking, it is more common with PhD students than we think. One of my collogues was recently awarded a PhD, she told me one day before the submission, she had a major panic attack and seriously thought about not submitting. Her viva went smooth and got only minor corrections. Some times we judge ourself and our work too hard.

Everyone has a different style for doing productive work, I am a narrow focused person (not sure if it is good or bad), I wrote some of the best sections in my thesis, while sitting in a busy coffee shop. I had my best research ideas while having long walks and looking at trees !!!

Thomas Edison never kept track of time, "I owe my success, to the fact that I never had a clock in my workroom". Sometimes we try hard to become too productive, which is an elusive aim. Average productivity is enough, we need to find a work process that provides good output, aiming for the perfect output, is not realistic.

I agree with tractorgirl, start with easy things every day, like reading/revising a paragraph, it will give you the start you need. I suggest that you focus one a single chapter at a time, a finished chapter is better than 2 not finished. Don't keeping thinking about the 2 weeks deadline, just focus on today and aim for a good working day, tomorrow has not yet come, you will deal with it when it arrives.

Good luck

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Thanks K! that is brilliant advice! :-) I really appreciate your message, it was perfect , just want i needed to hear. you're right, i am going to focus on making each day productive, instead of thinking of the 2 week deadline or whatever... and that makes so much sense about pushing ourselves too much to be productive and working long hours, and that average productivity is good, thank you.... i liked that quote about Thomas Edison :-)

i'd give you a gold star, if i knew how to!! (ooh just realised i cant give gold star, cause i didnt start this thread - talking of which i hope Anthropolago is okay, not heard from her in ages).

thanks again K! you're a star!(up)

you make alot of sense, because that's how i feel every morning, the dread of having to work all day and all hours on a chapter, instead like you and TG adviced, will work on little bits and build from there... and i like that philosophy make each day as productive as possible instead of worrying about tommorow.

todays aim:
chapter 5: work on the results section, restructure, add additional analysis and finalise.
i have about 8 sub-sections. but need to take out a couple of them, and add a few more.

hope everyone has a good day!

Hi Lara,
You are welcome :)