Hey Tractorgirl, you're in company i didnt get much done after i finished my summary either.

but i think the break WILL do us good! we are now prepared to work superhard this week. i will keep you company! i'm with you kiddo! in aiming to work superhard this week!

lets say we work super hard monday - friday. and then take it easy on saturday, by giving ourselves half a day off or something as a reward! what say you!?

i am also worried about not meeting the deadline!!

i am glad you are giving yourself the weekend to check through corrections, thats a good idea!

whats your deadline ? ie your ultimate deadline? have they also said to you, they will terminate you, if you dont submit by end of september?

terminate you, sounds like we're in a futuristic world and we literally get terminated, like in "the island" or Logans run or equilibrium, or gattaca lol.

lol imagine if they really did do that. actually terminate you, if you didnt meet your deadline, you were exterminated from the face of the earth by not reaching a certail level of intellect!

I just visited the procrastinator thread:
http://davidmaister.com/blog/18/Done-at-Last-Thoughts-on-Procrastination again.

i highly recommend it! it has very good advice on how to get stuff done!
i just came across this valuable piece of advice,
*setting an artificial deadline*

which will help me, with my anxiety that i am having. i have this fear, that one week before i have to submit my thesis, i will still be working on trying to get my thesis completed.

so to circumvent this anxiety, i will set an "artificial deadline".

i will set several artificial deadlines -

deadline 1: complete final draft of my thesis by August 12th (i will give myself a month, to produce a final full draft of my thesis and then have a *week* as a safety net, to check through and finish any loose endings).

and then give my final thesis to my supervisor by 18th August. which is the final final deadline for my FULL complete thesis draft.

chapter 6, i might give to my 3rd sup a little earlier, if i get it done in time. for feedback before the 18th August deadline.

its better to work in immediate deadlines.

daily deadlines, and weekly deadlines.

i really want to see the film hancock, so when i have my meeting with my sups, in the next couple of weeks no doubt, which i am still dreading!! - i think i will *treat* myself and go watch the film after the meeting, to recover ! as they say a spoonful of sugar and all! helps with the medicine. lol.

{quote}
"Divide everything you have to do into smaller, easy bites.

Set realistic time goals to complete your bite-size tasks, and then plan to take a break.

Promise yourself that you will only work for ten minutes.

Adopt the mental dump approach: just do something and plan to change it later. You can always revise what you’ve done. Most work needs refinement. Drafting something –anything – helps you to avoid your saying, “I didn’t do anything today.” You did, it just needs further work!

Tell yourself this is not supposed to be the best thing you’ve ever done. Tell yourself that you can write a “B” assignment. A completed assignment that is adequate is better than the best thing you’ve ever done that exists only in your head." {unquote}

the above taken from the website on how to deal with procrastination:

http://davidmaister.com/blog/18/Done-at-Last-Thoughts-on-Procrastination

which a forum member once told us about! but i cant find that thread anymore lol

"But there are deeper reasons for procrastination, and one is depression, which can make concentration difficult. Perfectionism, self-doubt and relentless self-criticism can also accompany depression—if you don’t think that what you will do is very good, or good enough, it’s hard to begin."Wendy Leibowitz

Hi

Yeah, i will offically be "terminated" on 30 the September 2008 if my thesis is not in!!!!! In my mind i can see Arnold Schwarzenegger coming to get me on that date if i haven't finished!!!!!!!!!
Your deadlines sound great, having a saftey net of a week is a brilliant idea! Hope you don't mind but i will also aim for this too. Having that extra week would be great, especially in terms of checking through stuff etc.
Hope you have a good day (and watch out for the terminators!!)

LOL your message about the terminator coming to get you on the 30th september made me laugh!! well at least it will be the two of us on the run! safety in numbers and all that!
--

okay peeps i need your advice!!!!

i just recieved this email from my second sup, after sending them my summary/outline.

Hi Lara,
Just so you are aware, I will be away from 15th Aug to sometime in Sept. I am not sure when yet. I have a lot of things that need to be done before I go to the conference in Aug.

***** (1st first sup) is away in Aug too.

Regards

****(2nd sup)
---

so i'm abit stuck now and basically buggered!

i was planning on giving them my thesis by 18th of august, for them to read and give me feedback and then have about a month to do final corrections. but obviously that aint happening! since they are both "away".

so what do i do?

i have given them my 1st draft, which is "incomplete" which they are refusing to read, becuase it's too long (180 pages) and they are too busy, obviously now i know *why* as they are preparing for this conference. so they asked for a summary of my 1st draft instead. which is fine. i dont mind, i understand they are too busy to read my first draft. and dont have time. i understand and i dont mind.


i sent the summary to them yesterday. we will no doubt have a meeting within the next few weeks when they can find time to see me. and once they have read the summary.

so this is what i think. they read the summary. give me feedback , tell me to include x.y.z. tell me first draft is rubbish lol. and im basically told to just get on with it, and take responsibility for checking my thesis myself before submission.

that is all fine. i dont mind at all, if they dont have time to read my final draft of thesis.

the only problem i have. is i really wanted help with statistics for chapter 5. my 2nd sup said the analysis i did is VERY BASIC. which i agree.

she now has told me she is very busy. so ergo wont be able to help me with improving the data analysis in particular the stats part.

so who do i ask for help on how to do statistics?
or do i crack open a stats book? or maybe ask for one to one tuition with a stats student or something?

i dont know how to do pairwise comparisons and i was thinking of doing chi-squared test, but dont know how to sort out my data to do that properly. im really bad at maths and stats!! is it too late to learn stats? ive always just focused on the biology aspect!

as joan bolker states in her book. now is not the time, to learn how to do sophisticated analysis but perhaps get someone else to do it for you. and then learn the fundementals behind it.

this is all my fault. i should have written my thesis last year instead of phaffing around with papers i really really wish i had gotten the letter of termination last year. i just kept avoiding thinking about submitting.

anywyas do i ask my 2nd sup, who i can speak to , that can help me with the stats? now that shes too busy ?

also chapter 6. which was supervised by a 3rd sup. i was thinking of asking him to look over my chapter, once ive completed it. do i send him an email today. and say something like, (i havent contacted him in months and months!) and say, once i've finished my chapter, would you mind looking over it and i would really appreciate some feedback and advice on how to improve it further. or should i wait till i've actually finished the chapter, and then approach him? and no need to give him "advance" warning?

he's abit scary and intimadating too!

help please

Is your secondary supervisor too busy *at the moment* or too busy from now until your submission deadline.

I really really think you should focus on getting as much of the writing of other sections done first, and then perhaps address the things you need help with.

And if you haven't done so already, arrange a meeting with your supervisors. No matter how scary they are, you need to start actively talking to them - there's only so much you can do by email. Sort out your PhD summary as they've asked, and go and see them - it will help you in the long run.