Morning everyone.

I have to get my paper finished today, and I'd like to get it done before the end of the afternoon if I can. By lunchtime would be great but possibly unrealistic, we'll see how it goes. And whatever time is left over at the end of the day will all be mine, with no more work, so that should be an incentive!

Made some reasonable progress today, so I should be able to get my paper finished and sent off tomorrow. The discussion is a bit rubbish, but hey, that just gives my co-author something to do to earn her name being on the paper! I'm going to make a few notes on the remaining discussion bits then go to bed and get an early start tomorrow.

Absolutely, join one of the existing threads - they really help! I use the One Goal thread and it really keeps me focused on what I want to achieve that day (and if you're working evenings/nights/weekends it really helps to know other people are working too, otherwise it can feel like the rest of the world is off enjoying themselves...) There may already be one for people with the same deadline as you, which might suit your circumstances better, or start your own if you'd like to, of course! Have a look around and see what might suit.

And yes, many many people feel the way you're feeling. The best advice I've got from being on these boards is to try to break things down into small, manageable tasks - looking at the whole PhD or the whole thesis is just too hard to take in, but breaking it down into tasks and steps that can be more easily accomplished makes the whole thing much more digestible. It's so easy to feel overwhelmed or paralysed by the sheer size of the task.

Another thing to consider is the tomatoes/pomodoro technique - again, look for a thread on the topic - it can be really helpful when it's difficult to concentrate/ when it's a struggle to knuckle down to it.

Hope that helps, and good luck with it all!

Good luck with it Sneaks, hope it's all manageable stuff!

I completely slept in this morning so am arriving late to my desk to start work. Not good really, but I've been feeling stressed for the last few days so part of me doesn't care. Anyway, the plan is to keep writing my journal article today. I'm about a third of the way through writing up detailed notes, so if I can get beyond two-thirds through today I'll be very happy.

Hello GSM, welcome to the forum! There are lots of really useful threads on here that gave me a huge amount of help when I started my PhD - have a look around. And good luck with starting the PhD!

Phew, it's not been going too badly today, after so much stress over the last few days. I've written 2500 words today, quite a lot from notes rather than brand new but all the same, I'm pleased. It's been such a slog before today. MrBatfink should be arriving to whisk me away for food and beer in an hour or so, so just enough time to do a little more. If I can get to 3000 words I'll be delighted.

Hope everyone else is going well!

Morning! Good luck with it all, Sneaks and Star-shaped.

Today, I'm determined to crack a good portion of my journal article. I don't want to have to work all day tomorrow on it as well. Also, MrBatfink is going to bring me nice food and take me for a beer once he's watched the rugby this afternoon, and I want to be in a position to enjoy that!

I'm going to start at the beginning of my notes and just keep writing....

It'd be really mean to be pleased someone else is working this weekend :p

We're going to a fairly early film showing so I have to leave in half an hour to get there on time. So I may as well not do any more work today. Oh dear, a bad day. But hopefully I can steam through a load of it tomorrow!

I'm not making much progress, and getting really frustrated. So frustrated that I ended up punching the desk and hurt my hand :$ I think I must be hormonal or something! But I just got invited to the cinema this evening to watch Harry Potter, so I'm going to do what I can before then and just accept that I'll be working this weekend. Getting away this evening seems important for my sanity!

Morning all!

Today, I need to make serious progress on the journal article I have to email to co-author on Monday. I really don't want to spend the whole weekend working on it. I'm finding it really difficult to focus though, it's just so much easier to surf the web instead.

Time to knuckle down to it!

Heh, I've been mostly eating healthy salads, but I did cave in and buy some choc ices, and now they're all I want :$

Making progress on my paper, but it's painfully slow. I may be working through the weekend. Good luck everyone else with theirs!

That's crazy! I'd insist on the smoke alarm - who cares whether they think it's needed, you're the one living there!

Goal one achieved, and I've been to the supermarket for enough food to get me through the next few days! Time to focus on writing my journal article, once I've had something to eat.

Hi BUtton

I had my upgrade viva last year (at my uni we do it in month ten of our studies, submit a 20,000 word report and have a viva with an internal examiner, who then recommends whether we are upgraded at that point or need longer to develop our research. We then also have to have another viva at the end of year 2 to be allowed to continue into the final year) - a bit different to your process maybe, but I hope this will be useful anyway.

The biggest problem I had in my viva was being able to talk about how the different bits of my report related to each other. The internal quizzed me about how the gaps I'd found in the current literature tied into my aims and objectives, and how those both tied into the design of my overall study and the theoretical approach I'd chosen. I realised that I'd been prepared to answer questions about each of those individually, but when she asked me to talk about how they related, my brain just froze up. I managed to stumble through it but at one point my supervisor stepped in and helped me out, and I found that quite a difficult thing - I really felt like I'd allowed myself to be tripped up. My preparation for my second year viva is going to include quite a lot of thinking about how the elements fit together as a result.

Hello everyone.

Today, I have two goals:
1.) Write up notes from yesterday's supervision meeting on how to rework second year report
2.) Make serious progress on journal article I need to have finished writing by Monday

I also need to go and buy some food! The cupboard is looking decidedly bare.