What brilliant tips and ideas - I love the star chart (never had one of them!) and the timer - great ideas. Its so good to see that others are just as bad as me lol - and yes, that's in a good way - I do like the idea of being non-conformist - I WILL be a rebel, if only in that I don't manage the 9-5 lol.
I agree that it would be good to keep things going - I'm sure a lot of students are much the same - high achievers, hard working, but feel like poop because they don't seem to manage 'it' lol.

Yes Stressed I completely agree with you, glad you found some tips etc.
Go on the non conformists!!!!!
:-)

''I'm so happy I haven't had to delete and edit loads of words out, which is what people who wrote much more have to do''

That's how I feel Alice. My first drafts are always the best and I find it works best to to write from scratch (or very brief notes). Mountains of years-old paper to re-edit would depress me.

I think what I'm finding hard is that I am now trying to force myself just to get finished when my interest and motivation are at rock bottom. The irony of course is that it was in order to avoid this kind of situation that I chose to do this in the first place. I guess wherever you go, there you are. At some point in all jobs, you will just need shere perseverence and gritted teeth to get on with it.

Think I'll givet the sticker chart a miss though. I'm using one to potty train my daughter and can't bear to look at another one! I sometimes fantasize about some kind of celebration/party when I finally submit (and try not to wonder how to pay for it.... that just spoils the effect).

I'm with you all. I submitted for the second time a month ago and talk about leaving things to the last minute - to get it in on time I had to work 2 days straight with one hour of sleep and a 2 hour break! It nearly killed me mind you. I always think I could work harder but unless I have a deadline looming I dither about and take 2 hours to do something that takes me half the time when the pressure is on. At the end of the day, we're all different and what works for one doesn't work for another. Don't ever let anyone tell you that you're not working hard. Unless they've done a PhD, they have no idea the effort and the stress involved and I can't imagine that there are many who still enjoy the PhD process by the time they finish. Do whatever suits you. Ignore all those who tell you how hard they work because in my experience they are usually trying too hard to convince themselves and others about how hard working they are.

Sarahk5275, if you did the same thing with your second submission it almost proves that's how some of us work, it's just the way we are. Once you know that's how you work and accept it, maybe it gets better because you can work with it, to a degree! It cuts out a lot of the guilt if nothing else! Thinking time counts as work as it's essential for doing research, but it probably doesn't look like it to those who assess work only by their current wordcount. Don't want to encourage any extra procrastination in anyone else, but sometimes I find even watching crap tv lets ideas swill around in my brain and shape up into something relevant to a current PhD problem.

Hi fellow non-conformists!

Has anyone found that they are being pressured into working the hours that some of the others in their office work? There are those in my office who might turn up at 9, but stand at the coffee machine, and then go for coffee for an hour seemingly every hour. And those that are in my office seem to spend a lot of time surfing the net and doing no work, personally I find working in the office really offputting. Its never quiet and there are always people moaning, a few hours in there and I want to fling myself out the window. I just cant be bothered with it! I walked in today to pick up a file I had left on the shelf, I dont have my own desk because of space rows, so there was someone sitting where I normally sit eating crisps and looking at Heat Magazine (productive) So I walk in and 2 of the girls are like 'hello stranger, have u been lost or something?' clearly having a pop about the fact I havent been in. I just was so mad, in the end I ended up saying 'lost? No. just working on my thesis at home because there is more room' They did an odd snigger, and truddled off to get another coffee.
Im so annoyed about them. I know they are just stupid girls not even in my dept but why would i have to sit there all day just to make them happy? They all seem to be in everyday showing their faces as my mother calls it. Thinking that if they are seen, that constitutes doing work. I see them sucking up to the faculty heads and hanging out with the staff from the departments and in a way I wish I could be more involved in the department but Im trying to work. Im just so irritated that they are all buddy buddy with everyone and such hateful girls. I dont think I have ever seen them work and they are in third year. They seem to talk a big game, whether they deliver it I dont know!
Anyway I shalll stop ranting, just had to get that out!!!
OH IM SO MAD!:-s

That's a classic rant there Liminalplace, but don't let them get to you!!

There are always going to be annoying people that you have to work with, and with an unpleasant array of habits that get on your nerves, but as long as you find a way to work that gets your own stuff done, that's all that matters at the end of the day. Are you really under pressure to come in, or do you just think you should because other people do it? To be honest, even if you do feel obliged, unless it's a lab-based project or something where you need specific kit, I'd have thought you could easily justify working at home towards the end of your PhD with your supervisor's agreement if it helps your productivity. Especially if it's a noisy/busy workspace, when it would be easy to justify - I've NEVER worked in college as it's noisy, has the odd irritating person in there, the room is stuffy and smells a bit so I'd never get anything done, plus it would waste time and money travelling in. It is good to show your face now and then though as you mentioned, even if it's just for a bit of printing, photocopying, library, going to the odd meeting or seminar - it can be a good alternative to sucking up, for those of us who don't do that!

Lol I know Im the rant queen ruby! I dont have to be in I suppose my supervisor and I are in touch via email everday when I email her things So its not in that aspect. One of the other lecturers in the dept who isnt my supervisor or second, but supervises a guy is a bit ' oh how odd to see you here' which is a bit rude but I just ignore it. At the end of the day I just answer to my supervisors and they are both happy.
Sigh oh well lol!!!

Lol, I like the rant - I hope that it was soothing - I like a good rant - I particularly liked the bit where you were in danger of flinging yourself out of the window - I have a form of that - its normally someone else I'm going to throw out though ;-)
I'm sure that if your supervisor is happy with you, then just showing your face should be enough - I don't work at uni - it would be a nightmare - sooooooo noisy - and full of undergrads (were we really that annoying he he he) I work from home, I go in sometimes, I have to spend a lot of time off campus anyway in the archives, so I suppose its easier for me - but I tend to just drop in, say hi, wave at a few lecturers and then go home again. Don't let those awful girls drag you down - they sound right bi*ches to me :-s

Hey, I log in here so I can read people moaning, makes me feel less alone!!! because I have no department - ahhh the luxury of actually hearing live PhDs winge... something I can only dream of at the moment. Maybe the stuff about where've you been was a bit of banter.

Yay its lovely to not be alone! glad u relate in some way anyway. I just think there is so much internal politics between PhD students I stay well clear of it most of the time, all the lying and posturing, oh for some honesty!

Yep, I like the ranting, moaning and whingeing around here too!! This forum is great for tips and advice, but I want to know other people have downs as well as ups, it seems more honest, as you say. I wonder if some people really do have a perfect PhD experience, on an even keel from beginning to end with no problems, or if it's just a fantasy?

Well I think PhDs like all projects are fundamentally prone to change so its about how you manage that change that reflects how your PhD goes. To be fair I think all PhDs are going to get some kind of scope creep on them I think to quote Kipling 'If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs' thats a good piece of advice, or more up to date Douglas Adams' immortal piece of advice in the 'Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy' which was 'Dont Panic!' or for those more macabre in their tastes may I recommend some Dante

MIDWAY upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.

So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.

I cannot well repeat how there I entered,
So full was I of slumber at the moment
In which I had abandoned the true way.

Dante totally must have done a PhD, because I know that feeling....

Yay, there's nothing like a good poem. We should have more on the forum:-). I wish I could write poety, but I'm crap.

I sympathise with everything on here; like it says on another thread, we just have to try to not take things personally, or let people's annoying habits take up too much space in our heads.

Yes, it does make a nice change! I liked Walminski and Aloha's rhymes over on another thread, very funny and very impressive to one who can't do that sort of thing at all!