======= Date Modified 01 Sep 2008 23:10:54 =======
Thanks Armendaf, you're so very kind :-) i really appreciate the supportive message you wrote to me.

i am feeling scared and anxious all of a sudden. i am so scared that i wont finish my thesis by the deadline. i was feeling fine before, but now i am feeling all scared. i think what triggered it might have been my dad telling me that one of his friends wife had to submit by end of august, and she managed to submit it in time, and worked really hard to get it done.

i know i should just push those thoughts out, and just concentrate on getting my chapters completed.

i know i am being *silly* and should just try my best to get it done and finished instead of wasting energy *worrying*

---

some anon uplifting quotes i just came across..

"You have the right to be wrong

Let your ideas fail, let your skills prove their inadequacy, and let your knowledge reveal its limits. None of that is the real you anyway.

When you fail you discover your boundaries. You map out the edges of your capabilities. And this allows you to eventually move beyond them."

“One of these day is none of these days”

"I'm so scared of failing.

But if I choose not to move on just because I'm scared, I fail regardless of my attempt.

I need to move on.

Time is ticking away.."

nice article about fear of failure

http://www.goal-setting-guide.com/overcoming-fear-of-failure.html

i've printed it out, and stuck it next to my monitor to remind me..

======= Date Modified 01 Sep 2008 23:18:27 =======
======= Date Modified 01 Sep 2008 22:50:33 =======
Hi all,

Lara - you've done so much since the last time I clocked in, it sounds excellent progress - you'd have to be bionic to do any more!! I know what you mean about reading loads until you want to start writing, it's like by then you feel confident you know enough about the area to actually get going on it to write what you want to say. Or something. Working on paper does it for me too, nice and scribbly and nowhere near the pc! Yep, wait for the inspiration thing to get going, you absolutely can't force it - better to wait for a bit and write a good coherent chunk that flows, rather than agonise for ages over squeezing out a clunky little paragraph. I think what seems like procrastination sometimes is actually really important thinking time.
Impressive to be cited by others, no harm in reminding yourself at this stage what you'v already achieved.

Armendaf- sounds like you've done loads, but there's a limit on what you can do when you've been at work all day. I don't envy you to be preparing for the new term's teaching though. I withdrew from my teaching this autumn as it just looked too much for a new year submission date.

Swantje - hope your stress levels are a bit less than when you posted last and you've managed to do something productive.

Celesmai, good luck with the baby, forget the PhD for now!

I've done absolutely nothing PhD-related today, as was tired after last night's deadline and wanted an easy day. Have just pottered about, caught up with domestic things and various friends. Should have done some writing for an research exhibition next month as the deadline is today, but I couldn't get down to it, probably because I'm rather underwhelmed by the whole event at the moment, but felt under pressure to take part as I'm staff. I'll do an hour tonight and edit it in the morning I think, so all is not lost yet!

See you later.

urgh sorry about that post, all my paragraphs have got squashed together - looked fine while I was writing it!

======= Date Modified 01 Sep 2008 23:28:18 =======
I've finished a draft of that blurb for the exhibition - can't believe I've dragged it out until this time of night...! I'm off to bed in that case, but hope you all get a good night's work in, if you're still at it.

PS Geeky troubleshooting thing - I've noticed that my post text only got squashed up and lost it's paragraphs in Firefox 3, which I only downloaded yesterday, but it's fine in old IE 6. I'll see if does the same thing tomorrow.

You did a fantastic job today girls. Go on, go to bed and have some rest. I'm going to bed myself. See ya in the morrow 8-)

======= Date Modified 01 Sep 2008 23:59:56 =======
Ruby well done!

and Thanks so much Armendaf! you are a star!! :-)

--

well i felt abit guilty not doing any writing after dinner. so i set my egg timer for 15 minutes, and i wrote 1 page and 1/4 :-)
and have parked on a downhill slope, as i know exactly what to write next... so will be easier to get started tommorow.

yep,. i'm taking your advice Armendaf, and calling it a night, as i am really tired and sleepy now.

feeling much better now :-)

goodnight you all , you guys are so amazing. i dont know what i would do without ya'll

Hi Everyone!

Well done with all the work you have done! Everyone is doing so well and we are all slowly getting there so should be really proud!!! As for me well my day yesterday was a nightmare!!!!!!!!! Basically, i went into work to make sure my Endnote library was up to date to hear some shocking news!! One of the IT department girls (who i thought was a friend of mine) had decided to wipe Endnote from the system!! Not sure how or why she did this (apparantly she has been suffering from stress) but the upshot of it is that my Endnote library is gone!!! Do you have back ups i hear you cry!!! Unfortuntely i do but these was all on disks in my draw at work. Basically we don't have a licence to enable me to use Endnote at home hence i left all my back ups at work. I think the person in question has taken my backup disks as they were not in the usual place yesterday and she did know where they were. Another friend at work (who knew this girl) has also lost her back ups too!! This whole sorry saga as unbelievable as it sounds (still trying to get my head round it) means that i now have to re-write in all my references. I am soooo stressed!!!!

The only good thing is that everything else with the thesis is nearly done. I will have to correct Chapter 7 again and although one supervisor said she had loads more suggestions to change the rest, the other supervisor is happy with it. Because of the reference mess i really need to now get these references sorted out. Therefore aims:
This week and some of next: Get references re-written (after Endnote has been re-applied to the computers, today i am told). Also next week: tweek 2 figures i want to alter.
The week after (15th-19th: Final changes to Chapter 7 and proof reading)
The week after that (22nd-26th: Final read, print and bind and take to university to submit!!!!!!!)

Talk about stress though!!!! Hope everyone else is well, and good luck with the writing today!!!

Tractorgirl, that's really awful - not a situation that you need at this stage!

2 suggestions, but not sure useful they might be...if the computers are networked, is there a backup of the whole server that IT do regularly (nightly, weekly) that they could retrieve your work from? Our lot do, though you have to get them to do it before the backup tapes are overwritten.

Also could you scan in a hard copy of your text using OCR (optical character recognition) software, to stop you having to re-type the whole thing again? It would only be basic Word text, but might be better than nothing.

I hope whoever took your backup disks finds them asap!

======= Date Modified 02 Sep 2008 10:09:45 =======
Why do you have to re-write your references TG? Can't you download them straight from the databases? I've never typed in a reference.

I don't believe it, in at work to day and disks returned!!!!!!!!!!!! Going to take them home and hide them!! Still also going to check the references are all there and correct! Therefore new aims: Check references are ok, then crack on with some suggestions from supervisor 1 about chapter 1!
Have a great day everyone and thanks ever so much for the suggestions Ruby and armedaf!

Sorry that should be rubyw and armendaf my spelling is terrible today!!!!

I'm so glad that you got that back. You must feel relieved, don't you?

Thank goodness for that - I'm relieved on your behalf too!! I think I'll be more diligent about doing several back ups and distributing them in various locations after your fright!