======= Date Modified 16 Mar 2009 06:14:44 =======
Hi guys...I'm trying to keep away from forums at the moment as it's taking up too much of my time! I'm actually going to unplug my broadband connection from today, and connect it to my very slow laptop, so I can just check emails. (Hmmm, I wonder how long I'll be able to stay away from the internet vortex).

Lara, the email sounds fine. Bear in mind, if they don't choose supervisors within the next couple of months, you won't get a viva until Sept (because they generally won't do vivas over the summer), so it's good you are pushing your supervisor about it now.

My accountability: I have one month to re-write and expand a huge chapter, and I'm planning to do 8-10 hours a day. Do you have the link to that stop watch you used Lara? I need one that I can stop and start, and it adds up the time.

hi everyone, Lara,
today I'm going to read some more papers....and I have some lab work in the afternoon.
I've become depressed these days (its the last thing I need now!!!!) but I will fight fight fight it and I will be ok.
Have a good day

Hello! Eska, Misspacey, Lara, Heifer and Candle, it's ages ago now but thank you very much for your comments!! :-)

I've had a rest and am now starting to think about the viva situation - only thinking at the moment so nothing too drastic. I haven't got a date yet and am hoping I don't get given one at short notice after the Easter hols, so I should probably get on with something before that.... I'll get that book out that Lara mentioned.

Lara, I'm sorry you're having a bad time with it all, it's horrible the way one load of stress (submitting) gets replaced so quickly with another thing. It's weird being in this limbo and thinking over the various possible outcomes. I hope you hear from your sup quickly, a definite date even for a mock viva is better than floundering endlessly and panicking and putting stuff off. I think I'm going to start revising properly after this weekend, so will be around on here more. Look after yourself!

Misspacey good luck with your writing and reduced forum activity. I was on here a lot near my submission date but it kept me sane, I think.

Hey BilboBaggins!! thanks so much for your support ! well i did it, I just sent the email!! i was so nervous and re-read the email quite a few times!! but in the end i was happy with all that i wrote, now i'm just very very nervous as to what he will say! but yes you're right, things need to start moving, i cant just hope time will stand still

Miss spacey - hello!! nice to hear from you, thanks for checking through the email and encouraging that things should get moving. wow i did not know that about how vivas arent usually taken place over the summer, very interesting. well to be perfectly honest i wouldnt mind if i had till sept to revise for my viva lol ;-) i've heard of phd students waiting a year for a viva, there was this one phd student that had a viva exactly one year after he submitted ! but then other phd students can have their viva a month after they submit, but thats usually the phd student pushing for a quick viva so they can start a job or something.
i think its a good idea unplugging yourself from the internet. but like Ruby said, sometimes you need to just vent and share stuff to keep you sane. i know i did. so perhaps you can say to yourself, after you have finished work for the day you can pop in and tell us what you've done. sometimes just knowing that you have to report publicly what you've accomplished can give you motivation.

the website for timer is :
http://www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-stopwatch/

that's a great idea! i think i will do the same aswell so i can track how long i'm actually studying. i also have an excel sheet, where i clock in times im studying and clock out, and then count the total time i've studied. but using the timer is easier. you can use the STOP WATCH and then pause when you're away from your desk and then resume when you're working again. good luck!

Satchi - great to hear what you're planning, i'm glad im not the only one that has "reading papers" on the agenda, glad of the company. good luck with that.

Ruby- how wonderful to hear from you! really missed you!!! i'm glad you had a good rest and i admire you for starting to think about your viva and making a resolve to start studying. i'm glad to have a viva partner :-) if you need any help let me know, and i compiled a list of viva questions and advice, so if you want i can email you a copy of it. save you time having to compile common viva questions. pm me your email addy if you're interested.
thanks so much for your support , you understand perfectly how it is, that's so true, one stress replaced by another! but yep i agree, no point floating about , and knowing how much time i have left, i can then plan accordingly.
---

great to hear from everyone, it was getting very quiet around here.

my aims for today.

1. read papers. i've got quite a stack so want to get through as many as i can.
will clock back in at the end of my study day to confess how much i actually achieved. study time and papers read.

Lara, my decision to start revising isn't really admirable, more due to a touch of anxiety really.... I started looking at my thesis the other day and kept seeing mistakes, a word missing here, a typo there, odd sentences that didn't look as clear as they could be. That started me wondering what other bigger things might be wrong with it, and what with the easter hols imminent, it just seemed best to get on with it sooner rather than later. I don't like the way you really don't have any idea of what might happen, even if your thesis is perfect (which mine is not) you still don't know what the examiners will say. The only good things about the forthcoming viva are it will be over an awful lot quicker than the time taken to actually write the thesis, and it's another step towards the conclusion of the whole business. Thanks, I would like to look at your questions, will pm you! :-)

That is so true Ruby what you said, about how the whole process of viva is so "unknown" and blanketed in secrecy. i guess all we can do is try to prepare the best we can, but it is rather scary that your whole phd life is in the balance based on one day's performance for a few hours, seems abit unfair, i mean what if that one day you just had an off day, your mind just went blank. its a shame that you only get one shot at it. but you're so right, at least one good thing about the viva that its one step closer to finishing with the phd one way or the other!!

well i'm clocking it out for today. i've been studying all day long, with odd breaks here and there. so even though i was clocked in since 2pm, and am clocking out now at 10pm, TOTAL actual study time amounts to 2 hours and 40minutes! out of 8 hours. barmy aint it! but there you go.
i've only managed to read 3 and half pages of a review article, there were quite a few things that i didnt know that i then had to go off and find the definitions of.. and i made 8 pages worth of hand written notes from the paper. i find that i cant simply read a paper, i need to copy out important bits even if its just verbatim. i read that its a study technique that some people employ and im one of those people! i like making notes, and making notes from notes lol. not sure how much of it i will remember tommorow, but like they say its the constant reviewing that enables information to go from short term memory into long term memory.

tommorow i'm going to make a plan to start reading my thesis again and instead of just reading it, make notes from it. and also start making notes for viva questions too. perhaps i will be less ambitious and give myself to answer 1 viva question a day, and read 5 pages of my thesis. i find that if you give yourself a small task to do, you're more likely to accomplish it.

well i'm gonna go and have dinner now and then relax and watch a dvd :-)

i'm clocking out for today. night night folks!

ps checked my email, no email from sup (phew!) lol

hello folks. i'm clocking in for today.

my aims are:
1. read papers.
2. read 6 pages from my thesis and make notes this time, not just reading (reading through my thesis again, worked out in order to read my thesis in 30 days, i have to read 6 pages a day)
3. answer 4 viva questions (i have about 112 viva questions, but even if i just jot down a few sentences for a viva qs, that's okay, cause later on i might get an idea and go back to it. so the point is to just familiarise myself with new viva questions each day and that way i can keep them in my mind whilst i read papers).

Hi Lara, hope the revision plan is going ok - someone here has their viva tomorrow and also reckoned Murray was very good for anticipating the mock viva - hopefully will be the same for the real thing.

This isn't work related at all.... did you watch CSI yesterday? Grissom's last episode, I was quite sad to see him go, he's the best of the main investigators, loads better than his Miami and NY counterparts. He does gory forensic investigation in a pleasant zen-like way that comes over as either wooden (NY) or pretentious (Miami) when the other 'Grissoms' do it. But Lawrence Fishburne looks good so maybe it will still be worth watching.

hi everyone I didnt get much done today; I went for a (part-time)job interview--and because I miscalculated (the distance etc.) I arrived at the interview venue 10 minutes before---only to discover it was the WRONG place (AAAAARGH). The staff there were very kind, they called up the correct place and asked if they could wait for me :-) so that was my whole morning...

tomorrow will be better; I am feeling better too, also less depressed.... I will be reading more papers tomorrow
love to all

======= Date Modified 19 Mar 2009 00:02:52 =======
hey Ruby and Satchi

wow Ruby, i did not know that about Grissom! loved your explanations about the other grissoms hahaha made me laugh. i agree with you, the original CSI will not be the same without grissom!! that totally sucks he is leaving

my revision is going okay, was rather slow today, i had to help my dad out about some computer stuff, so didnt get as much work done as i hoped. but i did read through 6 pages of my thesis and made notes. didnt work on any viva questions today whoops. must do better on friday! i printed out a wall planner (well A4) size for month march and april. and given myself a deadline of may 1st, to prepare for my viva. by then i want to have re-read the thesis again. and go through all the viva questions. even if just rough one line sentence answers. and have read through the mountain of papers i have piled up. approximately 40 days.

tommorow i'm going to the britsh library and studying there and reading papers there.

Satchi, glad to hear that the interview got sorted in the end. good luck, and good luck with reading the papers aswell!! :)

tommorow im also meeting up with friends in the evening and going for dinner and then watching the film WATCHMEN.

oh and if you guys want to print out your very own wallplanner, here you go

they have individual months and a whole year on one single A4

i;m about to stick mine to the door!

http://www.year-planner-calendar.wanadoo.co.uk/2009-year-planner-wall-diary-calendar-public-holiday-chart-free.htm

hi lara thanks so much for the weblink
how's everyone today? I'm cooking dinner tonight and have invited a friend over to join me :-)
have a wonderful weekend

======= Date Modified 23 Mar 2009 19:42:33 =======
Hey Satchi, hope you had a wonderful weekend :)

it was mothers day yesterday so cooked my mom and family dinner. i made shepherds pie , it was so delicious, if i dont say so myself! i did some googling on how to make the perfect mashed potatoes!

anyways i havent done any studying today been quite poor past couple of days actually. ever since i started working on the viva questions, procrastination and boredom and frustration and kicked in.

i feel abit overwelmed by the sheer volume of the viva questions i've made myself! but perhaps i'm going about it the wrong way. instead of sitting down and thinking i can belt out the perfect answer to one viva question, and then move on to the next. i should take Jane Bolker's advice, and treat the answers, as if im producing a rough draft, playing with mud so to speak....

. if i think i just have to forumlate a zero draft/rough draft of an answer, that way it might be easier. yep i think i will do that :) yep i think that's better. so by the end of april. (in approximately a months time, i would have gone through all the questions at least once, and written a rough sketch of an answer).

okay going to start tommorow afresh and set myself the target of 4 viva questions. ontop of reading 6 pages of my thesis and reading one paper a day. its like the whole, when you have so much to do, you just paralyse yourself with feeling overwelmed and you end up doing nothing. but if you set yourself small targets, its easier to get to work.

so my aims for the rest of tonight.
1. 4 viva qs
2. 6 pages of thesis
3. read one paper.

okay starting today.
viva qs 1-4
6 pages of thesis
1 paper

Hey Ruby, how's it going?

Armendaf - heard anything yet from the sup?

miss spacey i know you're away from the net, but wanted to wish you luck for your writing and hope its coming along good.

Hi Lara,

I'm still rehabilitating myself into normal life again I'm afraid, so not a lot of activity on the viva front. My examining panel was officially approved a week ago and the thesis copies for my examiners only went out on Friday, so I'm guessing my viva will be some time yet - May/June maybe.... it's difficult to start thinking about revising when it's all so far off. It is SO nice to wake up every day and not have to force myself to get on with the thesis though - it's still a novelty at the moment!!!!!!! I know that feeling won't last forever when the viva thing becomes imminent, but right now it's great and it's only been a couple of weeks since I handed in, so it's fair enough really.

I think today I'll re-do my cv. We've been warned of massive cuts recently, not quite compulsory redundancies but it has been mentioned, so things look fairly dire for the near future. And I'll sort through my clothes too. Both my sups and other research people have told me to just have a good rest at the moment, so I'll do that for a bit longer, maybe till the end of March then that'll be a month and starting to revise will seem more urgent, so I'll be joining you more regularly then.

It does sound like you're revising regularly, it's not like you're doing nothing so don't be hard on yourself. All these papers and questions you're working on are simmering in your brain, and you still need to have a life away from the PhD too. What more can you do while you're in limbo with no definite date even for a mock? Did you get a response from your sup to your email last week?