Hi AL, sounds like you've been very busy and productive! Well done you!! Glad to hear you're getting your words down. And good that you've gotten over your writer's block Matilda!

Hmm, things haven't been the best for me - I've lost motivation. I'm still working every day, but am not putting in the long hours I usually do. I just can't be bothered. I feel like it doesn't make any difference if I almost kill myself working, it's just never ending. If I work 6 or 12 hours a day doesn't matter, I'll still be doing this for months and months and months....

Am rewriting my lit review - thought it would take a week, and it will take me over a month, even putting in solid hours. And then there's another chapter where I essentially need to start again, and then I need to rewrite the whole thesis yet again. So - the amount of work is disheartening...and because this just goes on and on, it affects the rest of my life too. For the first time the other day, I seriously wished I'd never started this...

Sue
Don't despair...I felt like that a week or so ago.
I don't put a huge amount of hours in, maybe only 6 or 7, but still that is a full day. ( I compare myself to office workers, and thank my lucky stars that I am not trying to work in an open plan office with all those distractions)
If I work any longer than 6 or 7 hours I just get tired...work inefficiently...then get frustrated...then exhausted...then it seems overwhelming....then i despair.....then I wonder why am I bothering.
But I have found that taking enough time to rest, eating healthily ( step away from the coffee and chocolate muffins Matilda!) and doing a smattering of exercise it doesn't seem so bad.
I treat it as a full time job, with time off at weekends, and the occasional day holiday ( usually as a treat when a chapter is complete)
I think we would all go mad otherwise.
M

Hi guys! Sorry I've not been on this much either, feels like I haven't done enough to warrant a post! Things have been moving at a glacial pace for me as well, I've still not got my lab work finished, although I've finally ordered most of the stuff I need. I have received corrections for my 2nd chapter which I will hopefully get done this week, but I also have to finish the stats analysis for another chapter and start writing another paper and finish my 3rd chapter, to keep up with my schedule that I made! Which give me exactly 4 days to do all that! riiiiight....

But I shall not despair! I hope everyone is feeling better about their writing soon, it's crap when motivation goes, it's just as hard keeping motivated as it is doing the actual work I think...Sue I agree with MatildaL though, you should take decent breaks from your work, especially at this stage when you have got rewrites to do, otherwise it will seem like a never ending hell if you don't leave it aside sometimes and it can take over your sanity!
ok I best shoot off and get started, I've got a lot to do this week apparently! :-) Good luck everyone, keep trucking on!

I think it makes sense to take a break of a few days every now and then when you are working on long drafts or re-workings of the thesis. You need breaks in between to regenerate but also to get some perspective on the word document you have been stuck to for weeks on end. Otherwise it just feels like one is looking at one long draft rather then seperate attempts at redrafting. My sups are looking at my thesis now deciding if it is ready to submit, and they will come back for corrections. But it the meantime I haven't looked at the thesis for a week and have been doing a temp job and doing a bibliogrpahy instead - even that time away has meant I can look over it with fresh eyes and some of it doesn't seem that bad. I hope that when I come to really, really, write the last draft next month it will be a fresh document for me.

PS: I have done so many redrafts and edits it is insane. Some chapters thrice! Perhaps I am unsusually bad or my sups seek perfection!

ok! I had a minor freak out last night! I received an email from my sup saying my examiners were sorted! My 3 years are up in September and he told my external that's when I plan to submit and it seems my viva is gona be in oct/nov now! I was giving myself until the end of October to submit, now I'll HAVE to submit in Sept to get my viva then or I'll have to wait until next year some time! I've just lost my month lee-way that I was clinging onto in my mind! Still feels like I'm not getting anywhere fast, I'm still working on my chapter, now written the 2nd paper yet and not started experiments yet! god!
How's everyone else getting on, it's been quiet on here?!

Hi AQ

Breathe!!! Big deep breaths, work out your new timetable, you'll be fine!! It seems scary, but that's good you have dates, you are so going to be done by the end of the year!! Keep plugging away, you'll get there.

I've been working steadily rewriting my lit review, completely, it's been a major pain. I've done nothing else except work on this solidly, for 4 weeks now. But it's almost finished. Then I have another chapter to completely rewrite, then will start on the third rewrites... by the end my entire thesis will have been rewritten 3 times, some of it 4 times. So, am worse than you, Chrisrolinski!!

Have also not been working as hard as I was earlier this year. This thesis is going to take me god-knows-how-long to finish, I really have no idea of when I might be done. So I've been having a bit of a life, which has helped my mental health no end but also slowed me down just a little. Am still putting in solid days though.

Plodding along....

Thanks Sue!  I'm doing ok today, I'm looking on having a rough date as being a good thing, so I can really aim towards getting submitted on time. I work better with proper deadlines anyway so perhaps the universe is conspiring to help me this time! :p

You sound like you are making good progress with your chapters though Sue so don't feel too down about it.  Doing rewrites is harder than starting from scratch I think as you already have an idea of how you want the chapter to go and it's hard trying to change it around to fit in other stuff. I'm stuck doing the second draft of this methods chapter and my head's turned deciding where to put stuff!  And it's so important to have a life at this stage so you are just right for going out and doing other things. You can't write a good thesis if you're not right mentally so it's all for your phd as well!  We shall just keep on keeping on!

hey! hope you feeling better both, (or all), i'm having stress time!!
got chapter 3 submitted to sup and he's reading at the moment in New Orleans while at a conference - lets hope it puts him in a good mood....i doubt it though!

Trying to get on with chapter 4 but its a horrid mess! I had experiments that didn't work very well, I was creating a new piece of modelling system that no one has done before, it was going well but then had problems with machinery! unfortunately, (as i'm a pretty stupid scientist - one of the reasons i've left the lab), and had no post doc support in lab, i have made some fatal errors in my sample taking, therefore not sure how well i can analyse it :( Making it really difficult to know what to say in chapter, and how to structure it all. i'm just looking at it and wanting to scream! I've written all but one section of intro which i'm going to leave til the end and then see what i've written, but i just don't know what to do iwth methods and results section! don't have time to think as per with this other job and I just want to scream, cry and throw the bl**dy thing out the window!

Ah, that feels better, just needed bit of a rant and my poor partner is in a statistical hell all of his own! Thank you!

I will be back on with progress hopefully at somepoint, but busy week and then weekend i've got my nephews first birthday party! :) (gift)
Can't wait, but again, cuts out the time for writing even more! :( why is life so cruel....................

Hope you're all doing better than me! :) xxxx

Hi AL

Deep breaths! And hope you feel better after a bit of a rant! Keep going! It's great that you've written most of the chapter - that's excellent! The rest will come together, you'll figure out the methods and results section.

I've almost finished my lit review. Yesterday I did 25 tomatoes, was up till 1am (which I never, ever do) and have almost finished it. 2 weeks ago it was a mess of notes, badly written paragraphs, a real shambles, and now it looks like something that's not half bad, and that I'm not ashamed of. So - it can be done!

Am off to visit family interstate tomorrow, and am also having a night in a hotel at the beach by myself, which I'm soooo looking forward to. Will take a novel with me (as well as some work) and have a bit of a relax.

Soldier on, we'll all get there eventually!

Hi Sue,

Wow, that's brill - well done! be proud of yourself, that's fantastic! Enjoy yourself on your trip and be safe - maybe you shouldn't take the work and treat yourself to some proper free Sue time?! :)

I'm ok, i'll get there, its just the frustration of never getting a full day of work, working all week and then weekends I have chores and stuff to do, and I don't seem to have the energy to fit in an odd hour here and there - its pretty unproductive as it takes me an hour or two to properly get stuck into the work! I so wanted to be almost finished by end of june/beg july and I just know with these last two chapters in such a mess its never gonna happen. Problem is, I don't think i care enough about it anymore, i dont seem to have the drive or motivation to do those late hours, etc etc, and I guess if i really did then I could be studying til 1am etc every night?
Just seeing all you folks getting the time to write and me not having even a full day a week at the moment, with the same deadline.....how am i ever going to finish this???

anyway, i'm off to bed, i'm depressed, tired and fed up! :( Sorry, but thank you for letting me rant and get it off my chest.

Take care, enjoy your break, you really deserve it, and savor that time you have to chill, read a novel and listen to the waves crashing - utter bliss!

AL xx

Hi folks

Sue, that's great that you are having a night to yourself, I agree with AL and don't take any work, or at least just take a little bit that you can do in a very short time as you don't want the constant feeling of work pressure and guilt destroying your night, it's just one night off that you bloody well deserve!
And AL, try not to get too overwhelmed with everything. I know it's difficult, and I can't imagine how hard it must be to have to fit in writing around other things like work and actual life, but you are getting there, slowly but surely. Your chapter will take shape somehow, you have to just keep plodding away at it. I'm like you in that I'm not the greatest scientist ever, I have made some pretty silly and some large mistakes in my data collection and analysis that I have to fix somehow! My method development chapter I'm doing now is like a fairy story to me, I'm suddenly starting to understand why I did all those thing 2 years ago, I hadn't a clue at the time and now I'm reading papers and trying to put in references to make it look like I knew what I was doing the whole time! :-) You just have to remember we will get there. Eventually. and then we will be free!! I plan on spending a few days after I submit just chilling out, drinking champagne and having gorgeous dinners in the evenings! That's what's keeping me going!

I have just completed another chapter draft,

and although I am one chapter behind the target I had set myself I am very tempted to have the afternoon off now.

So friends, should I take a break or get on with looking over my notes and plans for the next one?(up):$
Love Matilda

======= Date Modified 08 May 2010 14:47:12 =======
I'm bit of a latecomer but can I join?

I'm aiming to submit sometime in July. Ideally early July would be great but not sure how feasible it is. Definitely aim to submit by the end of the the July though.

Having read part of this thread (it's a looog one!) and seen how many times people have to revise their chapters sent me into a bigger panic than I was already in! At the moment all my empirical chapters are written - 1/3 of it only 1st draft, 1/3 of it at 2nd draft and 1/3 of it at 3rd draft. I'm now going to write my Intro chapter. I only wrote a tiny part of it years ago, so I more or less have the entire 1st draft to write now. I've been avoiding this chapter for ages but can't hide from it anymore seeing as I want to submit in 2 months' time! Really worried if I can get everything done in time. But I really have to submit by the end of July (or within the first 2 weeks of Aug, pushing it) because of various practical, non-PhD related reasons... So pressure is on!

Hope everyone have a good weekend. And I'm going to be brave and tackle this much-dreaded chapter
:-s

Welcome to the thread Montezuma! As my supervisor told me when I asked if it was possible to submit on time, it's only up to you! You have most of your thesis written, all you can do is keep blasting on at it and give it your best shot.
MaltildaL I hope you took your evening off, you deserve a break now and again otherwise it will just feel like one big long slog!!
I'm trying to do a bit of work at home this morning but my neighbour in the flat downstairs is soo noisy!! Also starting to freak out a little about my internal examiner, I found out during the week that he's now a supervisor for a guy I had to work with in the past and who I really don't get on with. He's a total bully, I had so many issues with him and he left me crying so much I ended up having to go to my own supervisor about it. Now I'm a bit worried he might get talking to my external and I'll end up having an awful viva....this guy really is that bad! But I'm trying not to worry about it too much!!