Ah well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. She's just probably in some rural area with no internet access doing field work. I'm sure she'll get back to us soon enough. In the meanwhile, you know what to do... Don't you? Just keep writing :-)

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Hi Lara,

I got some words squeezed out to my brain and into the document, unfortunately not enough to even make it a section. I couldn't stay at the office any later than 7.30pm because I was wrecked, so I came home to have dinner. I'll do a little bit more tomorrow, although I have to work; but I'm organising so I don't have to go to work on Wednesday. That should make it a much productive day than today... fingers crossed.

How are you doing?

hey All, hope everyone had a reasonably good day ..Lara and Armendafd, went through your plans ..you both have such a clearly well structured plan ...thats great!!!!

arghhhhh..im not able to get back on to full speed..just clocked in an hour and a half....thanks Lara..the stopclock was a great idea..

but my time is running out and i have to get this section on methodology by tomorrow as 27th is the deadline ..im quite nervous ...what ever happened to all my zeal and drive that i had in the 1st year???

well..im going to try again tomorrow.. will report back soon ...

girls, have a nice day ahead!!!


:-)

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Hi Mira,
thanks for the compliment regarding plans, but i must confess i like making them, but rarely stick to them! and just end up getting the sections done, when they get done. sometimes you just cant predict how long something is going to take. but i am being more strict with myself and working against egg timer, so i dont get carried away on one section -going over the top with detail..

and hour and half is great Mira, so dont be so hard on yourself.

i can understand you being nervous with the deadline tommorow. you have the whole day today. you can get alot acomplished in one day!! and don't feel you have to get all the sections completed to 100%, you can have some sections that are 80% 60% completed. and if your sup says anything, just say, i need to clarify some of the details, i am working on filling in those missing gaps. just do as much as you can.

if you start to panic, just work for 15 minutes and take 15 minutes break. but if you do that. make sure the breaks *only* last for 15 minutes and not more than that. and than get back to your desk again. and then work for another 15 minutes - and keep doing that, until you get a momentum going and your 15 minutes of "productive" time, start getting longer.

i am glad the stop clock thingy worked for you :-)

I will be working right alongside you today! so we can keep each other company in spirit! :-)
-----
My aims:
1. clock in 7 hours of 'productive time' then reward myself with a dvd film in the evening at 10pm.

2. complete results section of chapter 5 (5 mini sections remaining)

3. read papers and make notes for discussion section of chapter 5

4.write a zero draft of discussion section of chapter 5.

--

Hi Armendaf, that's great you got some words out onto paper, every little bit counts!! and moves you closer to finishing. :-)
i hope you manage to get wednesday off, that would be good for you.
and don't worry about completing a section, as long as you're working towards a section that's all that matters. it will finish when its ready to finish ;-)
and just think the work you did yesterday , the words you wrote, you dont have to do that today! its done, dusted and you can move onto the next bunch of words
--
I am okay, i woke up at 9.30am. no more sleeping in till 11am or midday!
i worked for 2 hours and 14 minutes (productive time) yesterday, did 1 and 1/4 section out of the 6 sections i had planned.

Hey Tractorgirl, how was your day yesterday?

Hi Everyone,

Hope everyone had a good day yesterday. Armendaf: What a great idea about writing the chapters in tandem!!!! Hope you are progressing well with Chapter 3. You are right, and will definitely be able to finishe Chapter 3 by Friday, you are doing so well. I am also aiming to get my Chapter 7 done by then so fingers crossed!! We can definitely help each other along!
Lara: Thanks for your message. My day yesterday wasn't too bad but only managed 2 hours of productive work. To be fair though my boyfriend was feeling poorly so i wanted to check/look after him. He is ok now though so that is good.
Today i have a couple of job interviews eek!!! I wish i could be more confident in general but am always so nervous. Oh well will just have to do my best.
Anyway, later i still want to get at least 3 hours productive work done. Then i am planning to work very hard tomorrow to really make in-roads into chapter 7.
How is you Chapter 5 going? Good luck today and you are really doing well. I reckon we can all acheive our plans this week!!!!!
Anyway, hope everybody has a good day!!!
See you later on x

PS Good luck Mira with your deadline x

Tractorgirl thanks for your message and good luck with your job interview!!!

i once read that the way to excude confidence, is to "act" literally act like an actor that you have confidence, fake it ;-) and then real confidence will flow through... i am sure you will do great at the job interview, as you show such enthusiasm, which is what most employers are really seeking, as job skills can be learnt on the job. so positive aura and confidence is the way to go.

let us know how the job interviews go when you come back

and that is great about aiming 3 hours of productive time when you get back(up)

chat to you later !

Hi Lara,

Hope Chapter 5 is going well. Thanks ever so much for your message. I am really annoyed with myself though at i'm not sure how either interview went and i didn't answer a couple of basic questions very well at all! In the second interview they had 6 candidates including me sitting there waiting to be interviewed! I panicked a bit when i saw the other candidates and i am sure i came across as far too nervous! Oh well, i must really sort this out as i have another interview on Monday and i really do want that job! How on earth do you stand out as the best candidate, what a nightmare! That on top of trying to finish my thesis!!! Oh well, am going to have a cup of tea, go to the gym for an hour and then start some work!!
Hope your day and that everyone else's is going really well.
PS I must send my Chapter 7 to sup by Friday at the latest as she is at a meeting next week but is going to read it then!

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Hey Tractorgirl, thanks for the message. I am sure the interviews went better than you think, as we can be our own worst critics, and its good practice aswell. And good luck for the next interview!!
Not sure what to advise about interviews, but what i've heard is to act confident and enthusiastic, and then highlight what you've done and how that can be applicable to the job you are going for.. like use examples from your real life phd life ...
Good luck!!

And that is a great idea, about unwinding before you start work on chapter 7! i am about to take a break now and then start working on the discussion section.

I finally finished my 1st draft of the results section of chapter 5. lol i spent a whole week on it!! but its done. thank God. it's mad scribblings on paper though! so i need to tidy it up and bring in the grammer experts, and convert the text to a more scientific way, instead of the babyish stuff i have written! but as JB says, write messy! because the content is there, and its easier to convert the sentences, once you have written what you are really wanting to say.
but i am happy that its done. as it was a real pain. and i was very strict today and just kept it to "good enough" level. as i didnt want to spend another day on this. as its time to move onto the next section! so deadlines and time constraints are good.

now i will be joining you and doing the discussion section of chapter 5 -which is harder, but the more interesting bit.

see you for the evening shift :-)

And don't worry you got plenty of time to get it done by friday - you can do it! - 2 whole days and a half. you can do it!! i have faith in you.

i am going to try the zero draft format for my discussion section. write very messily and write in no particular coherent order.

but first will read papers and +notes to get ideas on what i want to say about data

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faced with a blank page on writing the discussion section, i am feeling intimidated.

so i am going to declare my aims for the rest of the evening:

1. write out notes from various emails -on discussion points i can discuss.

2. read papers and make notes that i can use for my discussion

3. scan through the results section of chapter 5 and make brief notes what the results are showing.

4. scan through the discussion section of chapter 3 and 4 and make brief notes, to see if i can make connections between the chapters.


wow i really am feeling overwelmed as to what to write for the discussion section. but the only way i can do this, is if i first write like a madman and produce a zero draft.

i've already forgotten what my results have shown... so better make notes on what the results have shown. i feel like at best i will only be able to produce a page for the discussion :$
i will just try my best and see what i come up with.

i am putting a limit on how long i spend on the discussion, so my deadline is: thursday:

so i have 1 and half days to get cracking on it.

okay first thing, will start with something easy to get over my 'fear' - which is to read through all the emails and copy out interesting points (notes) that i might be able to use for discussion.

Lara:

My supervisor told me that the best way to start writing the discussion chapter is to scan through the result sections of previous chapters. I found it quite useful to write a zero draft.

Together with what you have from emails, I think you can produce a zero chapter on time.

Glad to see that you are doing a good job. I have one question for you. I have not seen you mentioning any proofreaders. Did you send your chapters to anybody? If you have someone going through sentences and spell checking your draft, you will be more confidence to hand in for you first supervisor. I am sure it will help a lot toward the end. Remember to give your reader enough time, no one wants to read more than 100 pages at one go :).

All the best, (up)