ive planned daily up to august, with a submission sheet on my wall, for when im due to hand things in. Plans are all about being realistic being kind to yourself, maybe with weekend days off which can be utilised if you fall behind during the week. I find it hard sticking to plans but atm at least I know where I should be and if i follow it that I should be finished in time. In that respect plans are piece of mind. With a well thought out daily plan you should be able to not think about x y and z that needs done because they are covered another day. I think it gives you the ability to focus on one thing without stressing about when you will get something else done.
Also if you go off plan, you have a record of what u should have done so its easy to catch up again. In summary, it takes the planning out of your head and on paper so you have room for more important things.

Can I have a star now :-) lol

Thanks alot for the tips. I have found them very useful especially the link by Walminspeas.... where I got the book, How to get a Phd. Keep up with the good work. I hope to be helpful to someone one day once I am into the system.

Just have to recommend a fantastic book: 'Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace' by Joseph M.Williams. It's invaluable for honing your writing skills. As my supervisor advised me: 'buy, beg, steal or borrow this book'! Its not particularly easy-going but it is very thorough.

Hi Donzy,

It's mainly about making your writing clearer and looking closely at your grammar etc. in order to do so x

OK, two currently useful tips:
1. Don't wear track pants if you're studying at home a lot - you can't tell when you're getting fat! You need jeans, so at least you can keep an eye on your waistline as you make all those distracting trips to the fridge, 8-)
2. Obey the 80/20 rule - if making something 20% better will take 80% extra effort, don't do it.

Well, i'm just starting out on my Doctorate so I can't really give advice but I sure am glad to read other peoples tips.
I'm pretty old though(.....sigh), so I thought I would add a couple of bits of (other peoples) wisdom that have stood me in good stead my whole life.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself ", Franklin D. Roosevelt.
I have never yet come across a situation where reality was worse than my imagination.
If you have a problem, talk about it. It's never as bad as you think.


"Keep buggering on", Winston Churchill
He used this on so much he abbreviated it to KBO.
In other words, whatever happens, just keep plodding on and remember "one day this will end".


I have seen some remarkable feats achieved by people who had little talent other than determination and courage.

I found these notes on Williams' Grace and Style: 10 lessons and thought they might be of interest. I found them a useful taster and quick reference:


http://www.writingcenter.uconn.edu/pdf/Style_points_for_psychWriting.pdf

Hi all,

if it's tips you're after, Vitae do a list of tips every month called PGR Tips (PGR- postgraduate researcher) on different topics to do with your PhD:

http://www.vitae.ac.uk/4069/PGR-tips-email-bulletin.html
which cover a few of the requests above.
topic 7. conferences will be up there later this week....
requests for topics will be considered!

Good luck all,
Tennie

I don't mean this as a direct insult to you at all Tennie, so please don't be offended - but has anyone ever found Vitae (or then UKGrad) useful? Whenever I've used them/looked at the website it has all been incredibly basic common sense stuff; very generic; with minimal real content. Anyone experience anything different?

i find Vitae absolutely useless... has told me nothing I didn't know already...

Hi,

not offended at all. Hope this is an opportunity to find out what real content you would find useful....
Let me know, seriously!

Just thought you might like to know I've just started rewriting my ascent of Everest - no sorry, my methodology chapter :$ and amongst the pile of books I got out of the library to help me with this task -( it just seems like Everest by the way, I'm not actually doing that - ever!!!) is a book by Clough and Nutbrown -what a lovely name - called 'A student's guide to methodology' I've found it really helpful in sorting out what should go in that chapter, so much so that I've ordered a copy so I can take it back to our library and tell others here how good it is so they can have a look too.