Hi Everyone,

Lara, i fully appreciate what you are saying!! My weekend has been terrible! I have had a stress headache for most of the weekend and in total have done about 4 hours productive work all weekend!!!!! I have a couple of job interviews coming up over the next 2 weeks and that combined with all the work i have left on my thesis is really getting me down. How am i going to get it all done?? I had set a target for tomorrow to finish Chapter 7 and i am no where near done. I have panicked about it, and everything else and am behind as a result. I'm worried i am not going to get everything done by the end of September deadline!! In fact i want to hand in my thesis a week early so that gives me even less time.
I think i need to email my supervisor, write a new plan for this week, and just tackle one bit at a time. The deadline for tomorrow for Chapter 7 was set by me and maybe it was a bit unrealistic. However, i need to get it done as soon as possible as i also have other stuff to work on to get the thesis finished. I think we both need to try to forget about this weekend, move forward tomorrow and try not too worry. We have worked so hard to not finidh it now!
We have to believe we can get there!
Hope you have a good dinner, enjoy the DVD and see you tomorrow.
Good luck with your work today too, i will join you and at least try to get something done today. Will aim to finish the contents pages, at least that is something x

PS Mira: Thanks so much for your support, have quite a lot left on Chapter 7 but must get it done this week so fingers crossed! Hope you had a lovely weekend, and that you had fun with your friends.

Hi Lara and TG,

I am exactly in the same situation you two are. Had to work intensively through the weekend to just get closer to what could be considered a decent progress. I even thought about pulling out a 3-day long all-nighter which I started on Friday. The result is that I chained my self to the desk Friday and Saturday, got very little done, and haven't been able to do anything at all today. I did do some cleaning at home, which was well overdue, and still need to go do the shopping; nothing that will get me any nearer to finishing the thesis, I know :-(

Anyway, the only thing that we can do now, is get something done tonight, even if it's a little thing and then start afresh tomorrow. I know it will help me if I can get up really early (6.30 or so), go to work, clear my to do list as much as possible and get back to working on the thesis by lunch time; so, I'll try to do that.

Good luck girls, just keep it up ;-)

Hi TG and Armendaf, so nice to see messages from you both ! :-)

you are both right and it makes me feel better that i am not the only one that has felt like that...

well i did force myself to work just for 15 minutes, on one section, and set my egg timer. and would you believe it, the 15 minutes actually turned into about 45 minutes of productive work. how that happened, i have no idea ! lol

so now i am going to take that bubble bath and relax for a few hours and then start the night shift. and finish this darn results section of chapter 5 once and for all!!

---

TG i think it's a good idea to rethink your plan regarding chapter 7, so give yourself abit more time to get it completed. i think when you have too much of a tight deadline, it can stress the mind out, cause you end up worrying about the deadline. so cut yourself some slack. and give yourself a more generous time line. your sup is probably not even finished with the other chapters, so even if you spend a week on chapter 7, that is okay. as it is the most difficult chapter.

and yes i agree, just do 15 minutes of work tonight. and then tommorow morning, we will start afresh and work hard for the rest of the week

i too worry that i wont get my thesis completed in time, and 1 week before the deadline, i will still have big gaping holes! but we're not at that stage yet, we can still pull it together and just get by with "yah that's good enough" next section. lol

Armendaf, it cant be easy working and doing a phd, i admire that. i find it hard to just work on my thesis alone so good on ya!

see you guys tonight for the night shift, if you're around :-)

Hey Lara, TG and Armendaf,
Good to hear from everyone, i didn't want to write earlier as i was so guilty....i have just done absolutely nothing this weekend (except for fun with friends and the gym) , its terrible but knowing that we are all in the same boat makes me feel like i'm not the only one...
I hope to get up early tomorrow (for once) and have a productive day

Lara- thanks so much for your lovely messages , I am amazed at your resolve, hope you got that section completed.. and had fun with the DVDs not to mention the bubble bath!!! ;-)
TG- I am sure you will get it done but I can completely relate with the stress but we can do this...lets just set new deadlines for the week..
Armendaf- I am sure the week will be much better and im certain you deserved the break on the weekend...

look forward to hearing from all tomorrow and a wishing everyone a productive week ..

cheers
mira:-)

======= Date Modified 25 Aug 2008 07:04:55 =======
hey guys
well my weekend actually went well in terms of writing, its weird that one of the best things about getting work done now, besides the obvious, is that it means less worry which makes me even more productive.I'm calmer after the weekend and so I think I should get some good work done today, I'm hoping for about three/four decent hours.
Armendaf, I'm, like you, working as well as writing up, it gets quite stressful doesn't it, difficult to switch mind-sets quickly during the day to accomodate two different things. I get sooooo tired....
hopefully it will be worth it
Fingers crossed for today, good luck everyone:)

Hello, I just wanted to pop over and say thanks for that 'work for 15 mins and prise yourself out of an unproductive rut' tip - I think Lara mentioned it on another thread. I was a bit sceptical actually, but gave it a try last night after frittering most of yesterday away on goodness knows what, and was amazed to find I did an hour and a half's work without realising it!

So thanks again - anything that helps see a thesis through to the end is absolutely invaluable! Hope you all have a better day today and get a decent amount of work done.
(up)

Hi!

First i must say that i think everybody on this forum is amazing! I have read everyone's posts and everybody is brilliant, helping us all to carry on and to think in a positive manner. Thanks so much everyone, it's great to know we are all here to support each other! Well done freelouise1 for working so well at the weekend. Also well done Rubyw, it's brilliant when you get so much done without realising so much time has gone by!! Definitely a nice feeling!
Armendaf, Lara and Mira, thanks so much for your encouraging words, it has really helped. I have written another plan, emailed by sup and explained that Chapter 7 requires a bit more work!! My new deadline is to get this sent to her by Friday. Then i know i will not have rushed it! I looked at the calander and we have 5 weeks till the end of September! Before i was panicking thinking this isn't much time, but this is loads of time!! % whole weeks, and we can get loads done in this time. This is my new thinking anyway!!!!!!!!!!! By handing Chapter 7 in this friday my sup said she would get this back to me within a week which would mean i still have 4 weeks left so i mustn't panic!!! Also i can work on the other bits while she is reading Chapter 7 !! Everyone is right, we mustn't panic and we will get there!!!
Anyway, thanks again so much and hope everyone has a great day!
My aims for today : Continue working on Chapter 7!!!!!!!!
See everyone tomorrow!!!!!

Hi girls,

I'm starting quite late today, but I think I went over a few critical things in my to-do list at work, so I could probably claim that I'm "on top" of things in that front. Anyway, since TG is having with chapter 7 the same issues I'm having with chapter 3, I think we could go about writing them in tandem, so I'll work on that chapter and report the progress here and hopefully by the end of the week we'll both have finished it and moved on to other bits of the thesis.

So, progress so far on Ch3:

It's structured
Papers to go in are organised
9 sections partially written
word count 8158

Aim for today: to edit and complete all sections in first half of the chapter (one out of two main topics that need to be discussed).

Good luck to you all (up)

hey everyone! it's lovely to read everyones messages :)
it's a late start for me ! so i'm trying the ol work work for 15 minutes, break for 15 minutes cycle, until i get some momentum going.
my aim today is to finish results section of chapter 5.
and write a zero draft of the discussion section of chapter 5.
TG you are absolutely right, we got plenty of time, ALOT can be accomplished in a month! we definately have 4 whole weeks to get our thesis completed and then leave the last week for printing and binding and sorting out stuff like that. that is such a good idea emailing your sup telling them you needed more time, and so good of your sup to return feedback so quickly. just think corrections will be easier, because you have the foundation done. you can do it! and i totally agree, we have plenty of time, so no need to stress or panic :) we have a whole month!!

4 weeks. that's actually alot and if we use everyday and work as many productive hours as we can, i really believe we can accomplish alot. and just keep reminding ourselves to just make it 'good enough' now is not the time to go off on tangents or add extra bits or search for that one elusive article that *might* be helpful, we can gather and learn all that information for the viva when we will have more time.
Mira - so glad you had the weekend off to relax, that's so important and i am happy to hear such a positive outlook from you. you are doing great!
Freelouise, WELL DONE on working this weekend, that's really great!! and i cant imagine how hard it must be juggling phd with work. so good on ya.
Rubyw, you are so welcome with the advice about the 15minutes, i know it sounds crazy, but it's amazing that it actually always works!! i am just about to do it myself to get myself going.
so glad it helped you!

======= Date Modified 25 Aug 2008 16:55:06 =======
Armendaf, nice to know i am not the only one that is starting late today!
sounds like you've done alot of work for chapter 3 already! that's great. good luck with it

my aim today is to clock in at least 4 hours of productive time. and then treat myself with a dvd film when i have finished the results section. i have 6 sections left to do.
i just need to get all the sections done at least in 1st draft format, and then i can quickly tidy it up and worry about the wording and grammer later on. the hard part is getting the stuff written and organised in the first place.


thanks everyone for your messages, they really motivate me to get working on my thesis :)
--

that is such a good idea TG about redoing your plan, you've inspired me to do the same. because everytime i look at my plan that i made last week, i feel dishearted that i am 5 days behind schedule, which isnt good for morale

so i am going to make a new plan for this week. and i am not going to think too far ahead, as it's so hard to project what i will have achieved this week. so i am just going to concentrate on this week and get as much done as possible. and my deadline is next monday 1st of september to get all sections done to 1st draft level.

today i will cut myself some slack and make the plan from tommorow onwards. my deadline is next monday september 1st, to get a 1st draft of all my chapters and sections completed and fill in the missing gaps etc.. and then next week worry about tidying them up etc. or adding more information.

so that's
chapter 5,
chapter 6,
chapter 4
chapter 3
chapter 2 : methods
chapter 1: introduction.

(leaving chapter 7 - 'conclusions' to worry about next week. as most of my discussion sections are within my chapters 3-6 anyhow). so chapter 7 will be short anyhow.

okay i feel much better about this
so from tommorow onwards, the goal will be to clock in 7 hours of productive time each day and work on each chapter per day.

On a completely unrelated matter: since you mentioned the other day Lara, we haven't heard from Antropologa in quite a while. I hope she's OK and just indulging in some churrascos and chimichurri (some very tasty Argentinian food that just came to my mind). And, when we are all through this ordeal, you are going to have to show us your DVD collection; sounds like you have a film for every occasion.

;-)