No offence to Silvia, but at least in the humanities, writing a doctorate is very similar to crafting a work of fiction requiring use of subtle language, metaphor, and a fine use of sources. There's no basement spray can here. It's easy to feel blocked or choked up. I would recommend writing even if it is ugly and ill crafted. At least there is then something to work with.

I have a paper to completely rewrite for a journal by the end of the week, erp! Many nocturnal hours this week. :-s:$

I don't think my supervisors are the type to pass on intelligence from the examiners, because the viva still has the status of a kind of "exam", it would be very nice indeed if one could be apprised of potential problems a few days before so one can prepare!

Good news W.J.Gibson, keep cracking! I hope that post PhD I can maybe get one of two extra publications out, might make all the difference for an interview etc.

I would have a good think about your motivations for doing the PhD and whether, even if you weren't to get an academic or other research job out of it at the end, if it would all still be worth it for you.

I mean, I love my research area, but when I first started I never took seriously the jocular "there aren't any jobs" conversations that I would have with peers and other academics. My supervisor once told me "we're probably training you out of any job really...". I didn't take them seriously, and thought that maybe I could be the exception. Of course now, at the end, I realise that there are precious few jobs (at least in the humanities) and many capable PhD's applying for them. Was it all worth it? Probably, but then, to an extent only because I was able to secure funding for 2.5 years of the 3.5 years it (i hope) will take.

I think doing a PhD for the love of the subject, the challenge, skills that you can perhaps take to other careers, is all well and good - but make sure that you start knowing what you are getting yourself in for.

Not to sound like Mr. Doom and Gloom, there are of course many pleasures to researching and writing a PhD.

======= Date Modified 28 Nov 2009 13:07:49 =======
Thanks for all your comments. I think you are right, I need to try and focus on this thesis, and then re-establish myself the other side.

I will be going back for a bit at Christmas and think I will have a chat with friends about possibly spare bed/sofa surfing for a few weeks when I get back, at least knowing if this is possible will make things feel less up in the air. I'm sure I will find something for a temp job, and I will be able to save up a months expenses or so. When I think about it rationally I know it will be okay. Just the irrational late night gnarling away inside!

I'll make a schedule of things to do leading up to submission that relate to finding somewhere to live and job hunting.Once I have done concrete things, I will tick them off, and feel the relief wash over me (I hope!)

Thanks for your practical advice. Yes, you are right, it would be prudent to "court" the recruitment agencies before I get back so I would have something to start asap. If I finish in late Feb, I could be doing that at the start of Feb. You're right, I can probably get a bit of help from my parents in regards to a months rent. Unfortunately, my younger siblings finished their undergraduate degrees this year and have, understandably, needed a lot of help from my parents in the current economy - so I can only ask for so much. But yes, I shouldn't write that of as an alternative. I should also get that post doc proposal together this weekend and send it to sup for comments in advance of applying. That should be my aim. If I don't apply for it, I wil only waste precious hours and self-flagellate about not having applied for it.

I came on here expecting an off-topic discussion about the Sci-Fi series Stargate or the spin off Stargate Atlantic! :(

I too used endnote for my literature review in the first year but have since strayed from that path. I had problems using it and especially adding historical sources to it. I should have really have learnt how to use it properly then. Anyway, I have been writing them manually in Word and will have a "handmade" bibliography involving manual imput. It has worked okay for my chapters so far with only minor supervisory comments about errors etc. So I figure I will be okay. I guess sorting out my refences by hand will mean that I will be intimately acquainted with my cited material for the viva!

If I get future employment in academia, or undertake similar projects again. I might learn how to use endnote properly!

I am really stuck right now in a "AHHHHH I have 12 weeks to finish", and a "I have no job and nowhere to live in 12 weeks" funk! Concerns about what I am going to do after are really having an effect on my motivation to complete, which is paradoxical because the more I procrastinate to stay in un-PhDed limbo, the more I will suffer in 12 weeks. How have all of you in similar situations, or recently completed being able to switch off and finish the task in hand? i only have to stare out the window for a few seconds before I start thinking about the lack of jobs in the field, my unstable future, and the guilt that there is a job i could potentially apply for but I would have to write a proposal in like 2 weeks and I don't think I can fit it in my work schedule, and in my mind I have built this up to be " my one and only chance of getting a job!!! OMG!!"

I am living overseas (I moved to chase funding) and so gave up my rental place in my old city back in September. Once my funding stops I have to fly back to the UK, submit, defend, and I hope find somewhere to live and a temporary job so that I can eat etc. I just don't know how I am going to do this all as I have a very narrow margin for error! I wish I had the option of going home. But I don't, my parents don't live on Mainland UK, I have never lived in their house there so I have no friends there and would struggle to get a job there, and they have issues with my sexuality which would make living with them untenable for more then a few days visit.

I guess when I go back to my university city to hand-in in 3 months I will have to take whatever I can straight away in a temp agency and try and find somewhere that doesn't want a large deposit. If I can't find either of these I am screwed. I can prob only save enough to sustain myself for a month, and that at a push. I wish I could have saved more of my funding, but I had to pay off the loan I took out for my MA until recently. I had to to do this before when I finished my MA, but I was in a very different situation then with a partner who could cover my rent for a few weeks since I lived with him.

Sorry, for the rant. I just need to get it off my chest. It is late here, and it just feels like a pressure cooker at the moment! :$:-s:-( I know loads of people have to go through this, it just feels incredible stressful and I have problems sleeping now, yet alone with the thesis completion in 12 weeks!

I know there will be loads of people on here who have had to sail close the wind with deadlines, money, and moving - so I guess I want to hear tactics for "switching" off for the task in hand (completion very soon) and soothing "it will be okay" noises. :$

Thanks to my amazingly well funded institute (and rigid to the letter application of EU health and safety laws) I am sitting in ease in a wonderful ergonomic chair. the back tilts when choose to apply weight to it. Arms and legs are adjustable. One can sit forward in it, or lean back to that your spin is properly supported. The back even offers neck support to somebody as tall as me ( I am over 6 foot). Follow this website, select English, and then you will see the chair. Excellent design. The company is set up to send things abroad it would seem. but if you don't fancy having it shipped from Germany, definately see if they are sold anywhere else online. The chair is called "Tango". There are lots of ergonomic catalogues which unless you know German will be useful only for the pictures showing how scientifically ergonomic the chair is! :)

http://www.loeffler-sitzmoebel.de/ergonomic-seating/tango_rueckenfitness_beim_sitzen.php

I second Sue's suggestion for the mytomatoes.com thing. It helps organise and structure the day and then one is left with a list of things that have been achieved :)

I would take this weekend completely off. And then spend the next two weeks before Christmas doing small yet achievable things. Take Christmas off between say the 23rd or 24th and the 2nd or 3rd of Jan, and then you might find you can start the new year in a better frame of mind. 2 weeks off work in the grand scheme of things won't hurt a 7 months deadline.

I moved abroad to take up a fellowship to fund the last part of my PhD. I have been in a relationship for 3.5 years and we lived in the same city. Whilst being apart means that I have been able to do more writing in time that would have previously been "us time", without the support there it has also been isolating and depressing at points. They (significant other) have been very understanding and supportive about the neccesity to search for jobs in geographically diverse places, but i also know that there is a limit to this and one doesn't want one's partner to always be at a distance for an unidentifiable period of time i.e. "just one more postdoc", "one more junior lectureship". I don't want to reach a certain age and feel that I have sacrificed satisfying relationships for a career, that although a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE part of my life ambitions, is not the whole story.

I am really, really hoping that I can find a postdoc or job in academia within the UK again and not have to search for a short term fellowship overseas again.

A relationship can be sustained for a short term that way, but I don't want to be in a LDR for longer than necessary. I wouldn't mind living in a different city in the same region or even a few hours train ride away. it would just work better then living in two different countries, cultures, and time zones!!

Moving back in a few months and handing in should give me time to reconnect and hopefully find something closer to home!