I am also doing a psychology PhD and felt exactly the same as you for the first year, I felt constantly behind because I didn't know anyone doing a similar thing who had started at the same time and it is hard to judge your progress. However as long as you are reading, getting to know the literature in your area and are keeping up to your university deadlines, such as, project proposals, progress reports etc then you are doing fine.

But how do you do a full time PhD and full time working in parallel? That is not only hard but rather impossible if you consider sleep or food as necessities.


It is hard but I need to do it. The only way I could afford to do a PhD is to work at the same time and support myself. My partner does his best but we need two incomes. I try to work a few long days a week and get my hours in and then can finish early or start later some of the other days, that gives me a few extra hours here and there. Other than that, it's 12 hour days on the PhD at weekends when we've nothing planned, I'm not in the writing up stage yet so I do have some leeway with the amount I have to do. I take journals to read on my lunch break and stuff like that.

I haven't been funded for any of my studies since my undergrad, I've paid all the fees and worked full time to keep the house ticking over. It's hard work but it's do-able, you should be able to work the submission pending year as long as you manage your time effectively.

Hi Adam

I second what everyone else is saying, you need to organise your time and get this done. It sounds to me like your biggest issue is self-confidence, you clearly don't have any and it's possible that your putting off starting this so that if you fail its because you haven't done it and not because you're not good enough.

As hard as it is you need to push them thoughts to the back of your mind and crack on, start off small, do the easy bits, but make sure you find time to do something on your dissertation every day, the more you do on it the easier it will get.

Is your husband asking you to quit your PhD? Could you maybe get a part time job while he finds something else?

Speak to your supervisor about your situation but think about what taking time off will achieve, it won't help your husband find a new job quicker.

It makes it so much harder putting so much work into a topic that just doesn't do it for you. I keep thinking about my end point, not in terms of finishing the thesis/PhD but in terms of how I want my research to be used to help children suffering abuse. I know it's highly unlikely to actually get used in the field but that's what I think about when I have those days where I just want to jack it all in, so it does help to be working on a topic that is important to you.

I used to be the same with keeping to a schedule, I don't know where the time goes between getting up and the afternoon arriving. You could use that time to have to yourself if that's what works for you and just work on your research from noon until 8pm, that gets in your typical 9-5 hours, just a bit later in the day. Having a few hours to yourself or with friends is definitely important though, otherwise by the end of the PhD you may have forgot how to interact with people and you will become a social recluse.

I haven't been in your situation but I really do sympathise. The only advice I can give you is to speak to your supervisor and ask for support, tell her that you want to understand why your research questions aren't right so you can learn from it. If you dont understand what you have done wrong then how can you correct it. Hopefully if you show that you want to learn from your mistakes and see her point of view she will take the time to explain to you why she wants you to change your questions and you might be able to see that she has a point and is trying to help.

As awful as some supervisors are (for whatever reason), in my opinion, they should want you to do well because it reflects on them so hopefully she will have a point to her criticisms.

Good luck.

I'm still figuring out how to avoid procrastination. As daft as it sounds I have started going early morning swimming on my days off which forces me to get up early and be there for 7.30 then by the time I get home and have breakfast it's 9.30am and I'm ready to crack on. It's the only thing that works for me, if I don't get up and go I will usually put the tv on while I have breakfast and then end up watching crap tv until noon. I do still have days where I have no notion whatsoever but it does make it easier for me. You just need to find what works for you, if your job is 9-5 ish then I would suggest that you try and have at least one evening a week where you relax and do anything you want, go out with friends or chill in front of the tv with a bottle of wine, just have a PhD free evening.

My PhD is looking at the long-term psychological effects of emotional abuse experienced in childhood. I try to avoid studying too late at night because I have a lot of case studies and things to read on different experiences of abuse and I hate going to bed with all that on my mind but others find studying until late works better for them.

You're definitely not alone.

I'm doing a full time PhD with a full time job and really struggle to get motivated on my days off. I've had a few extra days off this week so have got some done but it is a struggle to keep going. What is your PhD in?

Maybe you are just having your "second year blues" slightly early lol.

What's your relationship with your supervisor like? My advice would be to discuss with your supervisor how you are feeling and possible reasons for it. You could maybe look at altering your project if need be. Don't struggle on alone.

Each PhD is different so there's no set amount t if results that you should have by now. I'm 18 months in and still havent disseminated my survey to participants yet so technically have no collected data at this stage. As long as you can show progression you should be fine.

I'm not sure about the rules of doing them both, different universities will have different rules but you wouldn't get away with keeping it from your supervisors. I would speak to them and see what they say. Also, a master's is a lot of money and effort to just scrape by with a pass.

Hi,

Are you a full time or part time PhD student? Do you also work or have other commitments?

Personally I think this is a really bad idea. I'm in the process of doing a PhD and I have done a master's and I think if you were to overlap the two you would run the risk of failing them both, purely based on the amount of work involved in each.

I don't know about the funding issues, I wouldn't imagine you would lose your funding but I'm positive your supervisors would not recommend this. You would also be putting a whole lot of pressure on yourself which could damage your health.

Congratulations, you're nearly there!

I still have a long way to go before I'm ready to submit but I know how hard it is to fit the PhD around your job. I am currently working a full time job and doing a full time PhD which is really difficult. I find the most frustrating thing about it is I'm still doing the same job I was doing before I started uni 7 years ago because I just can't get any academic or psychology related position which is what all my degrees have been in. It's soul destroying so while I am working full time to pay bills, I'd much rather be working full time in a relevant job to feel like I'm getting somewhere at least.

I have to say I applaud you for getting back into your research with a newborn in the house. I find it hard enough juggling a full time job with a full time PhD but at least I only have to work on one thing at a time.

It sounds like you are determined enough to continue with your studies so that will help you to some degree. My advice would be to just stick at it, ask for as much help as possible and when your having a really bad day just eat chocolate and feel sorry for yourself but then pick yourself up the next day and start again.

Good Luck x