Hey Pink Numbers, great timetable! You have a few weeks in April where you can finish bits off so this will allow things to slide a little. Just keep track of it by ticking off the weeks and what you accomplished during them. Keep us posted on here too! A plan is a start to progress (up)

Well I have conceeded to having a few nights off from my thesis. All three babies have had D and V all week (since last weekend) so I am feeling rather tired out myself. Had a lovely (guilt ridden) soak in the bath then watched some TV with hubby last night and slept so much better too. Hopefully will recharge my batteries before proof-reading starts next week. Sometimes I guess you need someone to tell you it is ok to take some time out :$

Hi Pink Numbers, my draft chapters were written from scratch and I spent about 2-4 weeks on each. I had allowed about 2-3 months in my plan as I am working part-time so was surprised about how quickly I got them drafted! The lit review took the longest and some of that was cut and pasted from previously written docs. The methodology chapters took less time as they were similar in structure, although the stats/graphs were the slowing point on these. After drafting the chapters I spent about 6-8 weeks putting it all together as a thesis, ie title pages, declarations, contents pages, inserting appendices and figures etc. The editing was also done at the same time which was a massive 20% overworded lol. I think you need to plan some extra time for formatting the draft chapters into a thesis and possible editing if overworded. This was not in my original plan but as I was ahead this could be added into the timeframe.

Patience - I hope the stats is going ok. I remember sitting down with the SPSS programme for what seemed like hours of tedious stats. This is software that I love to hate! I found it very user unfriendly and alien, but later I had it all sussed out with regards the tests I was using. The only good thing was being able to import my excel data into SPSS so saving me time inputting lots of numbers.

Thank you Bilbo and Pink Numbers. It is hard to just take a break as I have been slogging over this for months. I guess I worry that I should be doing something but just as you state Bilbo, I feel in limbo. It is nice to get an idea of how long the sups take to read the beast, I don't envy them that lol.

So I guess I shall take a few evenings off and then start proof-reading next week. I am sure I won't have both sups comments to address by then! It all seems so near, but so far still to go.

Hi all,

I know many will be envious of this situation! End of last week I sent my three sups the final draft of my thesis. Sup1 commented over the weekend (an A4 sheet of minor bits) so I addressed these on Monday evening. Sup1 is happy for submission, yeah! Sup2 has yet to read it as he lost the link to access it, I have hopefully dealt with this today. Sup3 asked 'what my deadline was' when he was invited to look at it, so I am not sure that he is being proactive. I am desperate to get this submitted as I have procrastinated too long now. How long do sups usually take?

In the meantime I have addressed some other menial formatting issues myself and some typo/grammatical corrections that are coming from my proof-reading parents (fresh eyes lol). I need to read it myself but to be honest my motivation has got up and left me. I was plodding on so well up until I handed my sups the final draft. I feel really disorientated on what I should be doing next. I know there are plenty of papers/refs to re-read for the viva prep as I feel my broader knowledge needs revisiting but that seems too premature (haha will probably eat my words when I am prepping for viva). So until I get sup2 and sup3 comments to deal with I feel lost. Part of me is also scared of what 'big' issues they may come up with too.

Is this normal when you are so close to submitting?

I would have thought that is you activated the track changes and then typed you are essentially adding a 'change' via track changes. By switching off the track changes the text inputted will disappear. Therefore logically I would think that you need to go over and 'accept' your changes ie the text you have added, in order to keep the work you have done. Once you have accepted all of the 'changes' then switch off the track changes.

Of course I may be talking rubbish...........and computers do not use logic!

Hi everyone, I am hoping to catch the productive bug that guys all seem to have today :p My goals are
1. to check through the web refs for correct presentation
2. address a page of grammatical comments from proof-readers (parents lol)
3. start to proof-read the thesis myself!

If the word count is over they may cut it off at 200 so would be best to edit down to the word-limit.

Goals 1 and 2 done, an early night for me then!

Evening all, my goals for this evening are:
1. to complete the page numbers on the contents pages.
2. to check the Harvard ref system for web refs and amend thesis as appropriate.

======= Date Modified 09 Feb 2011 17:26:36 =======
Sorry, posted twice!!

My PhD is part-time (was working full time) and at 4 years (of 6) with all experimental data collected I had my first baby. I took four months off studying just because the sleep deprivation meant my brain was not functioning at a suitable level. I returned to my studies and spent most of the day looking after my baby and the naptimes plus my evenings studying. If you can afford full-time childcare or have an alternative option then you could go back full-time afterwards which would make studying easier. If not then studying will have to fit in around the baby. My hubby is very accomodating for me to study in the evening rather than spending time with him, but this is only for a short time before I complete, is your boyfriend willing to do this too? I would also say that there is considerable expense for bringing up babies and the associated childcare which needs to be thought about. I am not sure what maternity pay you would get as this depends on your funding etc. There is not that much financial support in the UK for having a baby. Also bear in mind that I also had a natural twin pregnancy so not all pregnancies will equate to one baby!

I think you need to seriously think about this before rushing to have a baby. You are young and have time to wait. It is extremely hard work to juggle the PhD and a family. I am lucky to have all of my data and analysis before babies arrived, if it had been before this I would probably not have continued.

Well sup1 comments done and minor corrections complete. Off to bed as it is almost 2300hr!!

Hi Sneaks and Natassia, I also work evenings as I have little bambinos to look after during the day! Tonight, I am hoping to finish addressing sup1 comments on my final draft thesis and work through some minor revisions that I have noted. Meanwhile hubby is sorting out the printed final draft for me to proof-read. (still awaiting final comments from two other sups though).

Looks like progress was limited for most of us yesterday! I managed to almost complete Goal 1 with all but one of sup1 comments addressed. Goal 2 was to read examiners paper and I managed half of it (it is a rather lengthy review paper). Todays goals are:
Goal 1 finish sup1 comments.
Goal 2 finish reading externals paper
Goal 3 minor editing of final draft

Sneaks - I hope you got your data dealt with last night, was hubby able to help out?
Ady - Well done on the job applications!