Absolutely, I agree, it's just a bonus if there's nothing to actually glean from the papers! Well, not a bonus in terms of progressing the research, but you know what I mean - anything that helps reduce the amount of reading is a good thing!

I'm making slow progress on my paper, but I am making progress. It's on an area I know nothing about and my supervisors have also told me they know nothing about, so I can't help but wonder if I'm heading way off track. I've read two books and one journal paper on it and haven't found anything else (apart from source documents in a discipline that would take about three years to get my head around!) so it's going to be a really poorly supported paper. Oh well, it'll probably only end up being a couple of pages in the final thesis - that's okay, right?

I have a similar feeling, Button! But today I will achieve more than I have in the last few days. I'd like to get a good chunk of the paper I'm working on drafted out today.

Yay, I have a decent essay plan and have somehow managed to squeeze 400 words out of my tired brain. Maybe this won't be too bad! (Famous last words...) Goal of the rest of today: get as much written as I can.

Went to a doctoral seminar this morning - end-of-first-year upgrade presentations by people who started their PhDs three month before me. Terrifying! They all got asked loads of really difficult or awkward questions. I'm dreading it being my turn to do that. And now I'm scared I'll never have done enough and they'll just tear my Methodology to shreds.

Oh well, that's some motivation to get some work done! Task for this afternoon - to plan out the paper I need to write and make a decent start on it.

I do the batch cooking thing - works really well for me. I usually make something chock full of vegetables, like ratatouille or veggie chili, and add lots of beans, lentils etc for protein (loads cheaper than meat). Usually I make enough for about five or six meals at a time, keep two to eat that day and the following day and freeze the others for use over the next two or three weeks. It's great to just be able to bung something in the microwave on days when I come home late and tired.

I've also made myself get into a routine with exercise. Not a great routine, but better than it used to be! I go swimming twice a week, I get the early train in to university (the 7.15 am train means I can be in the pool for 8.30) and do a really good swim before spending a long day in the office. I also do a lot of walking and try to get out for an hour's walk if I'm working from home for the day (not so successful at that, the weather keeps putting me off!) - I find the exericse helps clear my head. And swimming before starting the day is great for giving me time to think through what I need to do.

Having said all that, I still feel I spend too much time sitting at a desk, and snacking on bad food.

Goal one (mindmapping) done, and am now part way through goal 2 - some reading. It's hard going though - more theoretical than really suits me. Ah well.

I feel like I've been away from work for too long too. Time to get serious. I have a deadline of next Thursday for two pieces of writing, and I'm at a seminar tomorrow and Wednesday and meeting Masters students whose dissertations I'm supervising on Thursday, so that knocks out a lot of time. And I'm wearing my last clean clothes so have to find time for the trek to the launderette some time today!

Goal one: bit of a mind-mapping session on both of the papers I have to write.

Yes, that was horrible horrible news yesterday.

Today's main goal: reading for one of the papers I'm writing. I have 3 books to read, so as much as I can get through in one day. But if I start losing concentration I may move onto something else later on.

Hi Matt

I totally recognise your feelings here! My supervisors are very keen on deadlines and on getting me to write lots for them - I know in the long run I'll be really pleased about this, it will really help me in the later stages, but I'm getting worn down by it and really need a break. I'm lucky in that I do have ten days' holiday coming up in July, and the thought of that is really keeping me going. Is there any way you can get some time off, even it it's just a long weekend completely away from the work? Or would more of a social break help? With your family so far away does this mean you're feeling isolated overall? I think that can make stress feel worse and make workloads look even more daunting.

The advice to set small goals is really helpful - the small goals are manageable and nowhere near as overwhelming as trying to look at the massive big picture all of the time.

Also, if you really do feel like it's an unmanageable amount - it is actually okay to let one plate fall occasionally, if that helps to keep the others spinning!

Good luck with it all!

I'm struggling to concentrate today as well. Gah. Sometimes I just can't motivate myself at all! I have a huge book to read that I just realised is due back to the library tomorrow, and I'm messing around on Facebook playing stupid games instead of focusing :$

Had a supervision meeting yesterday, at which I raised that I thought I hadn't yet focused enough on the theoretical perspective behind my choice of Methodology. So now I have to write two pieces to hand in in a fortnight instead of the one we'd previously agreed on. Gah! That didn't quite go according to plan!

Today's goals:

1.) To outline what needs to be done for both pieces of writing
2.) To sort out the notes I already have on each
3.) To come up with a realistic reading list / plan of action for each

My main problem with my upgrade report is that it needs to be about 10,000 words, but my draft Background, Lit Review and Methodology together come to closer to 30,000, and I'm writing another section at the moment that may be about 10,000, so I'll have a whole heap of cutting down to do! There are worse problems to have, though!

I started at the same time as you, Maxipat. I started out like you, writing about particular topics - it seemed to make more sense than writing about individual papers as I think it's by putting together different ideas and different examples of studies that I develop my own ideas and start to spot the gaps in the literature. But now I'm writing chapters, because my writing seemed to be naturally heading that way so my supervisors said I should just go with that. I've got draft Background, Literature Review and Methodology chapters, which I will then continue to rewrite and add to as I cover more in my reasearch (more because I'm used to working on very long documents from my life prior to the PhD than because that's necessarily a good method that would work for other people). I kind of wish I had done it more like Sneaks, though - I think having lots of short pieces might be easier to deal with if it comes to restructuring the writing I've done later, or if I end up shifting my focus.

I have to submit an upgrade report in month ten in order to upgrade within 12 months, so that's coming up frighteningly soon! Once I've got my current deadline out of the way it'll be upgrade report writing time. Yikes! I don't feel like I've covered enough yet!

Today, I am going to keep reading the book I started yesterday. It woud be great to finish it, but that might be too ambitious. Getting through enough of it so I can finish reading it over the weekend while still having time to enjoy myself and relax would be enough, I think!

Hope you sorted the problem, Sneaks. (Can you use non-parametric tests, or does that just show how little I really know about stats?)

Got a quarter of the way through the book I've been reading, so only half my target. But I think I can skip some of the later chapters. And it's been useful. But my head hurts now, so I think it's time to call it a day.