Thanks for that star-shaped.

Still working away :-( But the journal articles are read and a draft of the presentation is now written. Need to check a couple of other papers and add in a tiny bit more detail, then it's just rehearsing it and I'll be done! Phew. Can't quite believe how much work I've got through in the last few days! I may give myself tomorrow afternoon off as a reward!

Thanks Ady, I did. Big relief :-)

That's great, thanks!

Oh, thanks - didn't think of looking there when I couldn't get them through Athens (d'oh!). I've got the one from 2007 and 2010 but not the one from 2003 if anyone has access to that?

Thanks very much, forum to the rescue once again!

I've more or less finished the questionnaire now, but need to leave it a while and go back to it later with slightly (!!!) fresher eyes. So now onto writing the presentation for tomorrow. The academic I'm co-presenting with phoned at 1.30pm, full of apologies. I now have to read up on a whole theory, write the presentation, do the Powerpoint slides and be ready to present it tomorrow at 10 am! Yikes! And I can't even access the right articles to do the reading :-s But hopefully some nice person on this forum will find them for me!

Hi all

I desperately need access to at least one of the following papers, but my university isn't subscribed - could you see if you could get them for me? Thanks very much!

Trope and Liberman (2010) Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psychological Review 117, 2, 440-463

Liberman, Trope and Wakslak (2007) Construal-level theory and consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology 17, 2, 113-117

Trope and Liberman (2003) Temporal construal. Psychological Review 110, 3, 403-421

Star-shaped - I don't actually know. It's a long story - the seminar we're presenting at is at my old uni where I did my Masters. I bumped into some of their PhD students at a seminar elsewhere last month, and the seminar introduced some important new research we all wanted to talk through. Because I was the only person from my current uni at this seminar, the PhD students invited me to an internal seminar at my old uni to discuss the new research. This has somehow morphed into me and my old Masters supervisor also doing a joint presentation about a different seminar that she and I attended last September. Confused? Yeah, me too.... I know it doesn't really matter, it's just that I don't want to come across as a complete numpty to all my old tutors by giving a completely unprepared presentation. If you see what I mean!

Phew. Anyway, after all that, I'm still waiting for her to reply to the email I sent her this morning. When exactly is she expecting me to prepare this presentation?!

Work's going slowly on the questionnaire. I'm supposed to be making it shorter, but all I can see are things that I need to add in. Gah!

That sounds like a very motivating deadline, star-shaped!

I feel like I have lots to do too. All the other PhD students in my office (a big open-plan office with about 90 students!!) are looking pale and drawn and tired - apart from a handful of very cheerful first years... but they'll soon get ground down like the rest of us :p

Only two goals today, but they're both quite a lot of work, and they both absolutely have to be done today:
1.) Finish redrafting questionnaire and send to supervisors
2.) Write presentation for seminar tomorrow morning (difficult to do until academic I'm co-presenting with actually gets in touch!!)

Done some more work on my questionnaire, but still loads to do before sending it to my supervisors tomorrow so it's going to be an early start and working right through tomorrow I think. Still not heard back from academic about joint presentation on Wed - not exactly sure when she thinks I'll be writing it! No sleep at all tomorrow night maybe...

Now I'm preparing for my meeting at 6.30, and after that I'm taking the rest of the evening off! Doesn't feel like we've just had the weekend, I'm worn out already!

Also just heard about my exciting trip to Paris to present my research to some leading industry people. It's exciting but oh my God I'm daunted by the prospect! They want me to do a 45 minute presentation plus a discussion and questions about my research afterwards. Eeek! I don't have that much to say!

Hi Ady - yes, I'd gathered from people's comments on this forum that keeping up with transcription is a good thing to do! Yet another piece of useful advice I've absorbed from here. I'm going to keep on top of it - will be transcribing this first interview this week, before I do any more interviews (can't start it for a couple of days because of a deadline for other things).

Heh, pink_numbers, optimism is (mostly) good!

I conducted my first ever research interview this morning - an initial interview so quite exploratory, but it was all recorded and I had a proper interview schedule that I mostly stuck to (it is supposed to be semi-structured, after all...). Anyway, it seemed to go really well, I have about 50 minutes of recording and it all seemed useful stuff, so I'm very happy! Still got to transcribe it, of course - going to try to do that towards the end of the week.

Yay. That was my first major goal for today. Other goals for the day are:
1.) Work on the two remaining sections on my questionnaire
2.) Chase up academic about joint presentation we're doing on Wednesday
3.) Prepare for meeting with voluntary group this evening

That sounds like a good plan, Pink_Numbers! But remember to relax as well at some point...

We're having a pizza and film night tonight at my boyfriend's place, just a couple of people coming over to watch films with us on his big screen (he has a projector, it's cool). But he's been moaning about having a cold, and says he hasn't managed to clean or tidy the flat, so now I'm going to go over and help him clean. And take my laptop in case there's a bit of time for me to do some more work. But I'll probably just take the rest of today off!

Good luck with the work everyone!

Gah, I was making good progress but it's now ground to a halt. I'd left writing one section of my questionnaire to the end because I wasn't sure I'd have room for it, but it's my main supervisor's specialist area and he really wants me to include it. So now I've sat down to think about it and it's way more complicated than I'd anticipated. May need to ask supervisor for detailed advice :$ Oh well, that's why he's my supervisor I suppose!!

If you're wondering that you probably do need the break! Someone on another thread put it really well the other day - 'it's when you feel like you don't have time to take a break that you most need one' or words to that effect. I have to say I'm really coming around to that way of thinking. There's really no point just sitting at your desk not thninking properly when you could be off somewhere else recharging your batteries so that the next time you sit down your mind is sharper.

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So you're saying after paying fees you would have £3000 a year left, plus whatever you earned from a part-time job?

I don't know about how easy it is to find a part time job. But if they're giving you a stipend the university might not be happy for you to also be working - you may need to check that with them to be sure. The point of the stipend is to enable you to focus on your studies, but maybe they are more flexible about that with overseas students if they have to pay extra fees?

As to costs - I know a little about prices in Nottingham. If you want to live in a shared house (private rented) you can probably get a room for £70 - £90 a week. Rooms in private halls cost between £80 - £100ish a week I think. A one-bed flat to yourself would probably be about £100 a week. I don't know about costs in university halls. Some parts of the city are nicer than others so don't think you've found a bargain if you find something cheaper, there's usually a reason! If you're in a shared house or your own flat you'll probably have to pay bills (gas, electricity, water, phone etc) on top - at least £80 a month for that in a shared place I'd say, and a lot more in your own place.

Then there's all the other costs, like food, travel and so on. I don't know how much to suggest food would cost - it would depend what you usually like to eat! But I usually budget about £30-£40 a week for that. Maybe other people are different?