Well, my work has come to a stop over the past weeks, so I may have to join you guys on this thread! I need some accountability, or preferably a bomb up my...

I'll check in later with today's work!

Hi Everyone!
I'm new here and think this is a fantastic idea...very impressed at your motivation! So guilty of procrastinating, have two draft chapters due Wed, and am *so* behind. Even booking a holiday starting on Wed to force me to submit hasn't worked! Mind if i join and leap in with some aims for today? Seeing as I've faffed until nearly 1pm already

1. Chapter 3 - revise intro
2. Chapter 3 - check for legislative updates for section three and turn notes into decent text
3. Chapter 4 - Freewrite section on England
4. Chapter 4 - Freewrite section on Sweden
5. Brainstorm ways of tackling doctrinal element of chapter 4

Good luck with your aims today & hope to check in to share some good news later...

Sillybilly well done on your success on your lit review!!

Tractorgirl, I also enjoyed being outside! i kept saying to my brother, look at the sky, its so blue and beautiful!! lol well i kept saying that to anyone who was standing next to me. hahaha. but yah felt so nice to be outside!!! basically took the day off yesterday aswell. came back home and did some tidying up, and then looked through shed loads of papers and lab books looking for my notes on stats, found them eventually, went to bed at 3am. and made a plan!

then woke up at 12.40pm and read my email from my 2nd sup, telling me they are both away from august 15th till mid sept! so there goes my plan of giving them my final draft to look at. so basically gotta extract all the help and feedback within the next 3 weeks before they go!

so been phaffing around and rethinking my plan and approach. so basically. i have to get all the help from them within the next few weeks before they go. which in a way is good. but now i have to rethink my strategy. so now i am going to concentrate on the *results* chapters for the next 3 weeks.
and complete:

chapter 3, chapter 4 and chapter 5. and also chapter 6, which i can get help from my 3rd sup (i'm hoping!).

and also, i am going to make a list of questions and problems to ask my 2nd sup, as i encounter them , so when i have my meeting with my 2nd sup, i'm all prepared with my list of questions.

so i've started a brand new page in my "paper memory notebook" titled.

"questions, queries, and help" july 14th 2008.
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miss spacey nice to hear from you! and i need a bomb aswell to get my butt into gear!

chantal, WELCOME! nice to have you join us!! i hope you find this thread motivational.

i look forward to hearing your aims and accomplishments

okay so i have about 4 weeks before my sups dissapear.
and i have 4 results chapters. i've just written a pros and cons list to clear my head and i have decided i am sticking with my original rotation plan i made last night.

spend 2 days per chapter. if i feel that i am really getting somewhere with one chapter, and just need a little bit more time, will change plan accordingly. but at this early stage, i really think its best to spend time on each chapter.

and i wont worry about what i have to write tommorow or next week..as Joan Bolker states: p97 "write one day at a time... don't waste your energy on worrying either about next weeks writing or about yesterdays, either done or not done."

i really need to start waking up early aswell! i guess it doesnt help i go to bed at 3am. but tommorow i am going to force myself to get up at 9am. and try to switch my body clock. that way if i get up early, i will go to bed early, and that might help.
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okay my aims for today:

work on chapter 3:
1. finish looking through all my notepads and collect all the notes i ever wrote with the meetings with the statician. print out email correspondence aswell.

2. read through text book photocopies from the stats book. and make notes.

3. do R cluster analysis on all data.

4. do penny analysis on all data.

5. collect all the data and make an appendix for it.

5. find out the difference between the two methods of R cluster and penny analysis.

okay i was just about to add a shedload of more aims, and realised i need to be *realistic*!

and i really need to focus on working on the chapter i'm working on, instead of worrying in the back of my mind about the other chapters! i wish i could clone myself and each one of us be working on the 4 results chapters simultaneously. lol. i think thats my biggest problem. i want to be able to work on all four chapters at the same time, which is ridiculous! and illogical i know.

Hi all,

Well after a slow start, just managed to finish my aims but have loads to do tomorrow so am going to have to start early i think!
Chantal: It's great you have joined the forum, hope you had a good day today.

Lara: Sorry to hear that both your sup are going to be away. What a complete and utter pain. I definitely think you should seek out the 3rd sup. I understand you might not want to do this as you are writing etc but could you mention all this to an HR person or a personal tutor type person? I don't think it is very fair on you that they are both going to be away and maybe HR or somebody else could help with this? You have really impressed me though with how you are going to tackle this issue. Writing your list and arranging to contact both sup soon is great. You should be really proud with how you are sorting this out and fingers crossed with the meeting with both sup.

I also know what you mean about feeling you should be working on lots of chapters at once! I also have this problem. I feel like i should be getting stuff done on all of them!! I definitely think though that focussing on one at a time is better, although i still have problem doing this and then end up not getting much done on any of them!!! Will try to do one at a time in future!!!
Anyway, well done again on how you have dealt with your sup emails and hope you have a really good and better day tomorrow

okay me clocking out for the day.

only managed aim 1.

well done tractorgirl you managed to finish all your aims!!! ..

thanks tractorgirl for your advice and for the support! I really appreciate that.

thanks for saying such nice things about how i am handling it :)

nice to hear that i am not the only one that feels like that about the chapters lol.

i agree with you. you are right, focusing on one at a time *is* a good idea! so i will do that if i get very anxious, i will rotate every 3 days or something. if i feel like i am spending too much time on one chapter.

well it was a very slow day for me. was not very productive. hoping tommorow will be better! and i will start writing and working on the chapters, instead of worrying about how much i have to do and how little time i have left!

goodnight peeps

*actually only managed half of aim 1. as i have bags of little notepads i havent had time to look through. will do one notepad a day or something.

but i have gathered most of the notes i made from the meetings with the statician, the rest i will find from the internet.

basically, need to find out:

what is the difference between: maximum parsimony tree analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis using R.

if anyone can direct me to the right places that would be super!

Hi!

Well, so much for my early start!!! The alarm went off at 7 am, i hit the snooze button and at half 11 i still have not started anything!! Anyway, will try now to start and my aim for today is again work on my dreaded chapter 4!!!
Lara : Well done for even getting a little bit of your aim 1 done yesterday, especially with having to sort out your sup emails and having to re-think your plans. Getting anything done at all is brilliant so well done!

Right, i must find some motivation!! Wish i could buy some!! Anyway hope everyone has a good day!

PS Wish i could help with the stats but i don't know anything about stats at all and am in awe of people who understand such things. To be honest generally i am rubbish at anything maths related at all and think it is great you have the ability to tackle such things. Wish i more mathematically minded!!!