======= Date Modified 21 Aug 2008 09:37:17 =======
Yesterday's report: Did about 4 and half hours of productive time. i haven't finished chapter 5. i have set a new deadline to finish it by tonight. because today i am meant to be working on chapter 3. so i am already behind schedule:$ although chapter 5 -my 2nd sup critisised the most and said it was the least polished and required the most work. so perhaps its justified to spend abit more time on this chapter.

i'm going to split the day up. and set myself deadlines throughout the day.

1. results section : deadline 2pm
2. discussion section: deadline 6pm
3. introduction section: deadline 10pm

i will pretend that by midnight - i have to give my chapter 5 to an examiner. and so pull it up to a level, i would be comfortable showing to a person.

but will take a small break every hour...

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the forum freelouise1, mira, and krashty!! It's great to know there are more of us out there!! All with similar deadlines it seems!
Well yesterday i had a day off which was nice. Went to London for the day, went to Hamley's and got some toys for mt little nephews, then dinner with friends, then went to the footie match. Got home at 2 am hence the later start today!!
Anyway aims for today, start re-drafting chapter 7!
I have done the easy bits but now have the thinking bits to do which are a lot harder for me! I am aiming to get it finished by Sunday and i need to hand it in Tuesday next week. Fingers crossed!!!!!
Hope you all have a great day

PS: Lara, brilliant about yesterday, well done!!!! 5 and a half hours is fantastic!! Also don't worry about spending a little longer on your chapter 5, you will get this one done and it is good you have picked the one that needs the most work. It will be brilliant when this one is finished and the ones with less to do with then get done quicker so try not too worry. Keep building on the great work you did yesterday and it will be fine. Well done again, really brilliant x

Hello ,Thanks for the lovely wecome!!

Tractorgirl , good you had a day off, it can be rejuvenating to be out and about in London (as i sometimes realize, there is life outside PhD) ..

Lara good luck with the chapter 5, hope its coming along ok..

As for me, I am off to a late start, must be my excessive zeal in the gym last nite, every bone in my body hurts :-s

I am starting now, at 3.30 Pm

need to finish my report today, 5 sections to write, not so motivated owing to the late start but will try the following...

1st section - by 5.00 pm
2nd- by 8.00 pm
3rd- by 11.00
4th and 5th - 2.00 am

looks like its going to be one long nite but cannot afford to give up ...will atleast try

will report back tomorrow,


good luck everyone else !!!

======= Date Modified 22 Aug 2008 11:37:51 =======
======= Date Modified 21 Aug 2008 23:30:39 =======
okay peeps i am clocking out for today. i am really sleepy.

my original plan was to complete results section and discussion by 9pm. didn't meet either aims, but am making progress on chapter 5.

total "productive time" today was about 7 and half hours. a personal record for me i think! lol.

i love tracking my time and filling in the bubbles on the online tracker. http://davidseah.com/tools/ett/alpha/
and clocking in my times everytime i come back to my desk to work.

i no longer surf the internet or anything. and just do my work, and during my breaks, i actually leave my desk, and either walk for a minute in the garden or watch 15 minutes of a dvd. or have a quick snack. i found the key is to take a break every hour or at least every 2 hours.

i took regular breaks almost every hour or 2 hours. even if the break was just 15 minutes or so. i didnt have a heavy lunch today, but just had light snacks, like fruits, salads and hummus, or abit of fish. and herbal tea and water.

and found myself more alert. anytime i was feeling bored or didn't want to work, i told myself i *only* have to work for 15 minutes and then can take a break, which led to me still being at my desk for an hour. i love how i manage to trick myself every time haha.

i realised before i used to procrastinate all day and then feel guilty and then work during the night to make up for it. but now i am forcing myself to work during the day even if i hate it, and keep reminding myself, i have to work during the day when i am actually alert and i wont be able to make up for it in the evening because i will be too tired and sleepy, so during the day is all i have. and i can even treat myself in the evening by watching a dvd or something.

and omg i can't believe another week has flown by!!!!!! does anyone have the power to stop time? because t

======= Date Modified 22 Aug 2008 10:07:32 =======
Hi everyone. I hope everyone had a good day yesterday.

How did your report go Mira?
and chapter 7 go TG?

I am clocking in for today. (woke up 8.30am, but takes me awhile to actually wake up, and fight the urge to go back to bed) feeling abit tired, but hoping will perk up soon.

my aims for today:
complete results section of chapter 5.
discussion section of chapter 5
bike ride
backup to external hard drive.

then in the evening relax and watch a dvd film as a treat, but *only* if i've clocked in "enough" productive hours or have completed results section, whichever comes first..

"enough" productive hours - between 5-7 hours

wishing you all a good day!

lol i am already feeling tired and just want to take a nap :$ but i will force myself to work for at least 15 minutes and if i am tired, take a break.

Hi!!

7 and a half hours, Lara that is brilliant!!! As for me, well i reckon i only managed 3 hours! I am a bit annoyed with myself as i find this chapter 7 so hard and by worrying about it, it stops me writing anything creative. I really need to try and be more confident about this. I am going to take your brilliant advice Lara and try to enjoy writing about my ideas, try not too think that they are rubbish, but to enjoy the fact that this is the interesting bit! You are so right, i guess this is the chapter where we can discuss ideas and what the results could mean for the rest of the field. I need to stop being scared of it and just be a bit more confident! Your last post has really motivated me so thanks so much for that. It has also made me feel a bit more positive about things!
Mira: I hope your report writing went well and like Lara says well done on working so late! I really admire that. I am going to try to work late tonight as i really want to achieve a lot today so fingers crossed!

Anyway, hope everyone has a great day,

Aims for today:

Finish section 7.1 Chapter 7
Do the majority of section 7.2 with the aim to have this finished by the end of tomorrow.
Then Sunday finish sections 7.3, 7.4, 7.5
Here goes!!!!!!!!!

Hello everyone,

Well done Lara! Looks like you have mastered the art of procrastinating without losing productivity. Which means that you are not actually procrastinating but taking proper breaks, which make the working hours much better taken advantage of. Good for you (up)

TG, good luck with that chapter 7. You are doing great, just tackle one section at a time and once all the sections are finished, linking them up and editing whatever needs to be edited so the whole chapter makes perfect sense should be much easier.

Mira, I hope your report is finished, and if it's not surely there is very little left to do. Keep us posted.

As for me, haven't had a very productive week since I've been busy at work (yes, besides the PhD I've got a job), and I took Wednesday off to go to a wedding. Anyway I'm planning an intensive writing weekend to catch up and seeing that it works, I might just follow Lara's lead. So, this is what needs to be done this weekend:

Finish structuring chapter 3.
Organise papers that have to be re-read (if any) for each section.
Finish writing section 3.1 tonight.
Start section 3.2 tomorrow at the latest

Good luck 8-)

Hey All,
Lara- hoe did chapter 5 go? did you manage to rest yourself to some fun , i really admire the number of hours you have been able to consistently able to put in, you deserve a treat anyways!!
Tractorgirl- how was the day, did you manage to finish 7.1 and 7.2 ? do you manage to get some breaks on the weekend?
Armendaf- wow.. how do you mange work and PhD, i did that in my 1st year and was set back by 8-9 months so gave up (still got teaching though) , hope your chapter 3 is coming along ok !!

As for me..it has been quite a disaster, yes i was up until 2.00 am but only completed half of section 3 and 4 ..terrible..i was very restless , and for every 15 minutes i worked i toll 45 minutes break ...seems to be going downhill in 1 day..

today was the worst..didn't get to touch my phd...woke up midday (as usual :$) and had to leave to London to meet a friend who was visiting ...just got back ..

tomorrow isn't looking any better as I have 5 people over for dinner , I do hope to do at least something by afternoon

maybe 10-2 if i can get up...:-(

How do you mange a social life with a PhD ????????....i notice that if i focus too much on my PhD and start refusing invites i feel so isolated and when i start socializing it takes so much of my time , and i feel guilty but being single in the UK means i miss out on family support and feel the need to connect with friends at least ...apologies for the rambling ..its 1.2o am and i am tired...

write more tomorrow but thank you all so much for keeping me from slipping into a 'phd coma' , having your support is such a motivator ....

======= Date Modified 24 Aug 2008 00:31:21 =======
Hey TG! hope your chapter 7 is coming along. remember takes time to formulate ideas so i hope you're not stressing yourself out too much!

thanks for your encouragment and positive support :) really appreciate it! :-)
-------------

Armendaf - thanks so much :-)
i hope your day was good today , and i think its really good to take days off once in a while!

-------------

Hi Mira, thanks for your message! :-)
aww you are so sweet! thanks i feel less guilty now that i read your message, because i took the day off today! whoooops didnt mean to, but just kinda happened.

naughty me!!! whooops i did 7 hours and 7 minutes of productive time yesterday. i used the online stop watch clock time to track how long i was "working"
http://www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-stopwatch/
paused it- anytime i wasnt working, or away from my desk. i wanted to see if i could meet my time from thurs lol, its like having a competition with myself lol.

but i felt like taking time off today, even though i dont have time to take off. i made french toast, watched a dvd film and then took a nap! lol


i've been writing on paper this week, and i found it so helpful! i couldnt work on my word document on the computer, as i found it so overwelming, trying to restructure it and cut out things and putting new things. so i just went old skool! and found that it helped alot. and i am at the madman stage, where i just write without worrying about grammer or how scientific it sounds. and then will tidy it up later. that's helped alot.

anyways so yah did NOTHING today. took the whole day off!

will work tommorow.

======= Date Modified 24 Aug 2008 00:30:16 =======
Hey Mira,

first of, its important to socialise, as it can be isolating and depressing. so i am glad to hear that you had time to meet your friends and have some fun!

i cant advice how you should acquire the balance. but i do believe in working hard and playing hard. when you're working you concentrate on working,when you're having fun, then concentrate on being in the moment and dont feel guilty about taking time. because sometimes its good for your brain to have a break, and maybe subconsiously your brain is working on something in the background!

i think for me, what works, is setting aside a time for working, and setting aside a time for relaxing.

like for example on thursday and friday. i told myself that i was going to work during the day and then take the evening off and relax. which i did. i stopped work around 10pm and then took a couple of hours to relax. but because im not used to working long hours, i felt so sleepy and fell asleep watching dvd haha.

but yah the idea is to work but also relax too.

and dont feel guilty about taking 45 minutes break for every 15 minutes of work. when you really get into something those 15 minutes will end up turning into half an hour or 1 hour.
i know for me. yesterday, i took a 30minute break and didnt want to come back to my desk and work! lol so i told myself i only have to work for 15 minutes, and as soon as i sat down, i wanted to bolt again lol but then set my egg timer and forced myself to work on one little thing. 15 minutes elapsed, and i was okay and continued working.

other times, i will want to take a break.

the important thing is to keep at it. so carry on working in 15 minutes, there will be a moment when you get a aha moment or really get into it, and thats the time to just carry on . it will happen. sometimes takes longer. but its great you're trying. thats the important thing!!

i hope you had fun today with your friends! :-)

i think its important to take time off too
=

i have a confession to make, i've done NOTHING today at all! i'm so bad.

i've been procrastinating. and i just can't seem to get started. i just feel i dont want to. i think i am feeling overwelmed again and dont like the things that i have left to do for chapter 5.

i dont know whats wrong with me, i know i do tend to feel like this at weekends. maybe its a psychological thing. that its the weekend. even though there is no such thing as weekends when you have a deadline in september!!

anyways i am going to force myself and do *15 minutes* only even if i just write one word. before i take a bubble bath and have dinner. and then watch a dvd film. and then force myself to work tonight.

anyone else having a non productive weekend/day today?

:$