Gah, still working away and nowhere near done. I've achieved a lot - done about 2,200 words today, which feel like a lot even if it doesn't sound that much - the problem is just that there's too much to do by Tuesday, which is when my supervisors want me to send this to them, and I'm at a three-day conference from Wednesday so can't even really overrun the deadline without ending up a whole week late. My other half promised me that if I went to bed the PhD fairies would do it for me while I slept, but I think he may have been winding me up.... :-)

Pink_Numbers - yikes, going from a year and a half to eight months must have been a shock! Good luck with it anyway. I'm sort of dreading getting to that stage, the slog of it isn't appealing, though maybe the thought that it's nearly over will help....

Today, I am going to get as much of my paper written as possible. If I could get a complete rough draft done that would be brilliant, but I doubt I'll get quite that far. Something to aim for though! Right, to work I go...

Hmm, I'm running out of steam now. Stil not really finished goal 2 although I amalgamated all my notes with the stuff I've started for goal 3 so it's hard to tell them apart any more. Maybe I'll count that as having reached goal 2, even though that's probably cheating. Gah. My head's spinning from all this, so I'm going to do a different piece of work for a couple of hours, then go and meet my boyfriend in the pub. I feel like I've earned a drink!

Hey Ev, I'm sure you won't be in trouble, hopefully the things you've been doing will just have put you in a good position to work out what it is you really want to look at! Fingers crossed anyway.

I have achieved goal one and am part way through my second goal of the day, in a very inefficient and disorganised way. There's something about Saturdays that always means I'm slower, even if I'm trying to treat it like a normal working day. Oh well!

Today's goals:

1.) Go through the notes I made months ago and decide what's still relevant to the study.

2.) Write up those notes into something sensible!

3.) Keep writing! I need to make substantial progress today...

Hi Missscully

I just want to echo what Sneaks said really. It sounds like you've hit a difficult patch and I can see why it would be a hard position to find yourself in, but I think it's worth hanging in there, at least for a little while so you can see how things pan out when you shift over to this other supevisor. It may be that the new supervisor will give you a new start and a bit of input from fresh eyes will help.

The feeling of not knowing enough seems to affect everyone - I know I feel it, I'm only eight months in myself and I'm constantly worried that there's a whole load of literature out there that I haven't found, or a whole field of research, or some really obvious point that I'm just completely missing. I'm lucky with my supervisors, they're very hands-on and interested and meet me regularly, so I can only imagine that these feelings of self-doubt must be even worse if you don't have so much input from your supervisor.

I also think you shouldn't worry about letting people down. If starting this PhD genuinely was a mistake then people will undertsand if you decide to quit. But it does sound like you have the interest and motivation to do a PhD so even if you do eventually decide that this project was wrong for you, I hope you don't give up on the idea of a PhD altogether. But overall, I do think you should persevere for a while, try to get a little more guidance about what they'd like you to produce, have a chat with this new supervisor and see if that helps to clarify where you need to go with your research. But you're still at a really early stage, there's loads of time, and everyone feels the doubts you're feeling to some extent at some time or another, so really don't be too hard on yourself!

Good luck!

Haha, me too, Sneaks!

When I'm working from home I sometimes play something bluesy or jazzy (Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis etc) - for some reason that works much better at putting me in the modd to work than rock or pop does. But when I'm working at university I listen to my MP3 player on the train, and blues/jazz doesn't work at all then because of train noise, so that's usually something really poppy and upbeat like the Fratellis or silly pop hits I'd be embarrassed to admit to (errr, like Katy Perry or Britney Spears or Kylie, anything that works over the sound of the train!) One extreme to the other really!

I also spend way too much time playing games on Facebook - my morning getting-in-the-mood time seems to stretch out as I think 'oh just one more go then....'

Goal one: work out the structure of what I need to write for the rest of my Methodology paper. I feel pumped and ready for action! Just hope that feeling lasts!

Phew, almost hit today's goal. Have a sizeable list of things to include when I start writing the next section tomorrow. I was going to starts putting them into a sensible structure tonight but I'm tired now so maybe that can wait until I'm more alert!

Hope there's something decent-but-rubbish on TV, I need to just stare at something that doesn't involve brain power for an hour or so!

Oh no Sneaks, that sounds like just what you didn't need! I always find anything like that is ten times worse if I'm tired. Hope the day improves anyway!

Like Algaequeen and Satchi, I'm still on yesterday's goal. Well, I just finished a rough version of yesterday's goal after finally breaking through the writing block that plagued me the whole of yesterday.

Today's goals - go food shopping and eat something healthy for lunch! Then pull together all my notes on the four different models I need to write about next, and plan out how to write this section. Fun fun fun. Maybe I'll buy some chocolate as well as the healthy food!

My boyfriend's doing his Masters degree at the moment so he's got his dissertation to do over the summer. Which is perfect, as that's what I had last year and I really desperately need a holiday! I'm hoping we'll get a week or maybe two up in Scotland, staying in youth hostels and travelling round a bit. And we're going to a festival in Wales for a long weekend, which should be fun! Otherwise, it's work work work....

It sounds like we're all working away, even if some of us are finding it a bit stressful. Hang in there, guys, we're all perfectly capable of getting things done!

First goal for today, to draft out some writing about the stuff I read yesterday.

Hello all

I've had a terrible few days of achieving nothing (I was at a wedding in Norfolk from Fri pm to Sun pm, and then my parents visited yesterday so I had to spend all my spare time cleaning the flat before they arrived!). And now I have one week before my supervisors want to see a draft of my Methodology, and that's currently looking like an impossible deadline.

So, lots to do! First goal for today: read three articles about self-reported behaviour and social desirability, and outline what I need to say about this topic.

Heh, I don't normally go that long without eating! It was just that I was feeling rubbish yesterday so went to bed late in the afternoon, and then had to run for the early train this morning so didn't have a chance to think about food then either. Oh well, all sorted out now with a lovely BLT sandwich!

I think I've finally finished my poster, and it's loads better than the embarrassingly bad effort I showed to my supervisors this morning. Still lacking any actual research content. Oh well!

I really should set myself a target of reading a couple of journal papers before going home, but my head aches, so maybe I'll just faff around for a bit. Hmm, maybe I'm coming down with something.

Yeah, I can relate to this feeling! I blame the recent bank holidays - friends going off having a good time have led me into bad ways.

Slaps all round! Back to work we must go!