My university has annual thesis monitoring committes, where if there are problems with supervision a student has the opportunity to discuss these with other academics, and aim to have them resolved. Of course this depends on students being frank about any issues. Many wouldn't.

I got very good at saying no in my PhD. Yes my situation is different, because I'm long-term ill (can't even work part-time), so working in academia in future isn't an option. But if I felt something was too much I'd say "No!" very very firmly. I got the impression my supervisor wasn't used to hearing that! But we have a good relationship, and I submitted in a pretty good time scale.

I've had periods of many months where I've done nothing at all. In my case it's due to serious ill health. Even in better patches I only have at most 5 hours total a week for the PhD, in 1 hour bursts. That would typically mean snatching odd hours at weekends, or odd hours in the evening. Nothing more substantial than that.

I found the only motivation that worked for me came from myself, combined with the terror of not completing before my absolute submission deadline. That was the end of March 2010. Every time I had to pick myself up again I'd make a list of things to be getting on with - a huge list, ranging from the big things down to the smaller more trivial things. Then I'd start picking things of the list, starting with the easiest things first. And that would get me in the swing, and build momentum.

And completing my PhD was still really important to me, and that's what got me through to submitting last month. My viva is next week. Wibble.

The others' advice about keeping slides simple is very good. I should perhaps clarify that I do that too (I don't cram my slides full of content), but my slides have lots of jumping off points, so I use them as springboards to talk about stuff, rather than just simply reading what's on screen. I find this form of presentation easier, more lively, and it makes the audience pay a bit more attention.

I did this when I was a science PhD student well over a decade ago, and a humanities PhD student more recently. Same principles apply, whatever the discipline. Crumbs I've been using Powerpoint for a long time :p

It's not on the same scale of course, but I once had to withdraw from a postgraduate conference I was involved in organising. I had an unavoidable hospital appointment come up on the same day. Luckily I wasn't out of pocket at all - as a local PG event (albeit involving 2 unis) there wasn't a registration fee we had to stump up for, and our accommodation (at a venue away) was paid for by the university. But it was still a big shame to let the other attendees down like that.

But don't worry unduly. You withdrew for good reasons. Focus on your PhD and what happens after that. I'm sure this won't have a negative impact on things for you, and your friend should understand.

I've never seen references included in slides, and I've been to conferences, and presented at them.

I think 2 slides a minute is a bit of a rush myself, and would be a break-neck pace for the audience to keep up with. I always tend to allow a couple of minutes per slide. For just a 10 minute presentation I could see at a push myself using 7 slides, but even that would be rushing things a bit much for my liking. Then again I do put rather a lot on my slides 8-)

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So you've submitted? And your thesis is in? Well in that case, you've done the best you can do, and that's the best any of us can ask of ourselves. I have concerns about my thesis too, not least due to my neurological disease and how much that impacted on the quality of my writing. But I'm happy I did the best I could, and you should be too. Have some faith, and good luck in your viva.

I've found mistakes in mine too, but have been advised simply to take a list of them, pre-prepared, into the viva on the day.

My thesis is short too, but I've been reassured that it's ok, and quality is more important than quantity.

When is your viva? Mine is next week!

Congratulations Poppy! It's a great feeling isn't it.

Teek: I completed my first draft last summer, and finally submitted this February. But I was working very minimal hours: 5 hours a week, typically. But that gives you an indication of the possible time-scale involved between. I had quite a bit of rewriting to do, adding another layer of analysis etc. Plus I always seemed to be waiting ages for my supervisors to finish reading drafts.

Your research council's website should have information to tell you whether they will approve this or not, and failing that contact details for you to contact them to ask your precise question. My funding council has detailed downloadable guidelines for current award holders, covering everything, including this. They (AHRC) would only generally sanction breaks for extreme medical reasons. Taking a break isn't a problem for the university authorities, and if the funding council approves it your funding will be put on hold for the relevant number of months, as will your PhD.

Most of my tips have been mentioned by others e.g. the importance of managing reading/references properly (I used EndNote from early on, even though I don't use it to generate my in-thesis references automatically - I used it instead to remember what I'd read), the need to prioritise and the need to learn to say "No!" firmly if you start to get overwhelmed.

My other tip is to keep a record of what you're doing, whether it be in a diary/journal (paper or electronic), or a simple month-by-month spreadsheet summarising what you're up to. I found this invaluable for keeping track of what I'd done, especially because I was studying over a very long period as a part-timer.

Good luck!

Actually I would have preferred to answer "After changes more interesting", but that's not an option in the questionnaire. My supervisor gave me very good advice for how to add a layer of analysis which has improved my thesis tremendously.