I have exactly the same advice:

1. set a routine and stick to it
2. work without internet.

I ve been there myself. It's just a matter of getting out of this trap you have fallen in over the few months.

Good luck. Just keep going. Download a PhD from British library ethos and you will see that a submitted PhD doesn't have to be perfect, it has to be finished.

Even for an MPhil you will still have to write a few thousands of words.

Can you please explain WHY exactly you cannot start writing?
Do you get in a panic mode?
You don't have enough data?

Sorry, I am only trying to understand.

I agree. You need someone higher up to back you up(head of the department usually). An e mail should go around to everyone using the office informing them that they should collect everything they need by a given date. After that date everything else should be discarded. We had the same problem, and it was solved when we moved out of the building. It is amazing how much trash accumulates in the offices. It is NOT your job to sort out their mess while risking to be accused of throwing important documents away.

Hi Lemonjuice,

sorry to hear you are feeling low at the moment. When I finished my first year (I am in a science PhD) I had:
-a good literature review (I spent long hours reading and writing)
- ethical approval (was complicated because I was working with children)
- selected all my equipment and my methodology (with help from my supervisor, I was presenting him the options, advantages -disadvantages, and he would take the final decision taking into account financial considerations)
- was ready for my upgrade
-We approached my participants in September probably (that was the last thing we did)

Finding participants is stressful. You never know if your research methods work until you start your analysis.

I would definitely recommend a pilot study before you start your main study.

Good luck

Write everything up (talking doesn't really help when it comes to science) and sent it to both of them. It is possible that you can publish a paper because there is a gap and your results are novel.

Actually, a few months back me and my supervisor were fighting whether a particular effect could be noticed in certain conditions. While we were fighting and being rude to each other (instead of actually doing the work to prove our point) another research team from another university published a paper that covered the topic.

Good luck!

citing an image you took from wiki is fine, right?

Just keep doing your experiments like you do and keep detailed notes. I am disorganised too, but somehow I manage. You can't imagine the look of my supervisor when I let him know of all the things that went wrong on my fieldwork. Somewhere between pitty (how can DrJeckyll possibly be that stupid) and rage (will I get fired if I punch a student in the face?).

Just ignore any kind of criticism that doesn't help improve yourself. I came in terms that some things will go wrong, some data will get lost and the most important of all is to keep in control of the process and keep going. Everyday I try to do my best.

Organisation tips: keep notes of everything (people forget, brain-damaged people forget more)
work on a timer so you don't procrastinate
always make a structure before you start writing

"I have already set up an outlook calender linked with her where I note down what I do in the day"

Did she ask you to do that?

You shouldn't worry too much, good think you already know the supervisor!

I would say that the few months you should:

1. establish a good working routine (eg. wake up early, go tot he gym, start working, go home, cook healthy dinner, sleep well). You will soon find which hours you are the most productive, and which routine fits you better. Start timing the hours you do actual work, break bad habits of procrastinating for an hour in the morning before you actually do anything.

2. Make sure you know exactly what is your niche of research, and start reading the literature. Make sure you keep good notes. Literature will help you develop your writing skills and will help you define your research questions

3. Define your relationship with the supervisor. Since relationships are different for different people, I cannot really advice on that more.it is a balance on how much you want your supervisor involved.

4. There are useful courses offered to postgrad students, it is worth attending a few of them.

I like working with the word navigator, so I can see the whole structure of the report from heading to paragraph.

Glad I helped!
Good Luck with writing up!

I will suggest that you do something really painful - you will have to do it sooner or later... My supervisor made me do it :(
You keep only headings and subheadings of your document, and graphs and tables. Under each graph, you use bullet points to highlight the main findings you will further analyis. Under each subsection you write one bullet point for each paragraph. There are 3 main benefits of doing that:

1. The document will have a clear structure, as you can easily notice parts that don't fit and need to be moved elsewhere. It is also easier to stick to a word limit.
2. Each day you will have a set goal of the paragraphs you need to fill in, so it is much easier to break the work down in smaller parts
3. It will be easy to prepare for your viva, as you will have a paragraph by paragraph summary of your thesis.

This way of writing was also recommended in some writing courses I took last year. In this way the writer could also keep track of his progress on a daily basis and set realistic goals.

If The Fear motivates you, then keep it up! I found that a little bit of sweat running down my neck as I am witing has a positive effect on my progress.

However, a lot of stress makes me feel useless, depressed and eventually I find myself in the state of non-productive panic.

"I have copied some of Introduction part from someone else's thesis (which I did, but it was exactly what I wanted. I guess a lot of people do that)"

This is plagiarism and is extremely serious (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_plagiarism_incidents#Academia).

You can even get in a trouble for self-plagiarism, like repeating an introduction that you have already published in a paper!!!

am not sure about the regulations -if you can withdraw the thesis at this point.
Then you will have to scan the thesis with "TurnItIn" or a similar software that detects plagiarism, replace the parts that you copied and re-submit.

Hi,

I managed to publish a paper out of my literature review. It took me 9 months to complete a first draft, and then I re-wrote it probably 15 times until it reached the press.

The most important advices I can give:
1. Be really focused on your topic and read only specific papers on it. It is fine to read a book to get the overall concept of a field you are not familiar with, but this is enough.
2. Keep detailed notes on every paper in a systematic way. First of all I categorise the papers on the sub-topics of my PhD. Say that my PhD is about penguin and polar bear feeding habits, then I will have two spreadsheets one for penguins and one for bears. On each excel spreadsheet I have columns: Author, Number of participants, Methods used, Statistical Analysis used and main results. In that way I can summarise and compare among studies and explain whether different methodologies might be responsible for observed outcomes, or which study is more accurate based on the population size.

Hope that helps. It takes long, but I think it is worth it. And I also started writing from day 1, even while creating these tables.

Regardless who is wrong or right. it is pretty obvious that you don't trust her or appreciate her or even value her advice, so it would be better if you found some other supervisor you can work better.

Good luck with your PhD