Good luck Sneaks!

I'm back from Paris finally. Actually I got back on Monday night but slept most of Tuesday and achieved almost nothing yesterday! But today I need to get back into the routine. (The trip was great - my presentation went really well and I got loads of good feedback on possible future directions for my research, and then I just had the most fun weekend staying in a youth hostel in Montmartre - fantastic!)

So, goals for today:
1.) Write report of Paris presentation for funding people
2.) Start planning seminar presentation to be given on Monday
3.) Look at initial feedback from test version of questionnaire

aw I'm so jealous Batfink!

Trying to get on with work - I have a very squeaky bird outside my window though :-s

Thanks Teek, reading this actually made me feel like you were talking to me, so I just started with my First Year Report. The report is literally due in a week and I have been procrastinating all month(few months actually) and been hiding behind Lab work and reactions in the lab so I wouldn't have to physically sit down and get on it. I couldn't name the feeling but 'paralysing fear' sums it up quite well. Th fear of not writing things down with technical words rather than the not-so-technical words like 'thingy' and 'that thing', was written by 'that person what's-his-face'. More so I have been trying to impress my Supervisor, and the constant need to be perfect is actually driving me insane!

Again, procrastinating, halfway through my first sentence of my report I thought I should vent and here I am , calling out to anyone out there who can offer sympathy , encouragement, or a can of whoop-ass!:$

Oh dear, MissinHome, hope you're feeling a bit better about it all now! But how you're feeling sounds really familiar to me - the paralysing fear of getting stuff wrong and ending up putting things off instead of risking being wrong, and then the pressure mount up, and it feels like something is blocked, and then the panic about getting done in time... It's paralysing. The way I get out of that is to take a deep breath, try to be calm, then make a list of all the tasks that need to be done, and start picking my way through them, starting with the easiest ones first. Once I get going it's all fine, but until I do it feels like I'm never going to achieve anything!

I could have used some of my own advice this weekend - I'm giving a seminar this afternoon to other PhD students/my supervisors about the main theories I'm using in my research - I'm the only person in my department who knows about them, so this is to share my knowledge. Except I haven't written the seminar yet. Eeeek! I spent all weekend avoiding it, and now I have hardly any time left, as I have a supervision meeting this morning.

Let's see if necessity really is the mother of invention!

Goals for today
1.) Write the bloomin' seminar presentation!
2.) Send an email to potential collaborator for future project
3.) Go to supervision session and write up notes afterwards
4.) Blag way through seminar and hope nobody notices......

My one and only goal today is to collect 5 copies of my thesis from the local uni printers/binders and get them ready to send to my uni for submission. Oh and to maybe sneak a little look at one of them just to make sure it is not full of blank pages, but not to look too carefully as I don't want to see any mistakes just yet :$

Morning all. I thought I would join in with this thread again after a bit of a break as I have fairly tight deadlines over the next couple of months.

Today I am working on a chapter which I am *hoping* to have finished by the end of the week. My first goal is to rewrite one section.

Yay, blagged my way through giving the seminar I hadn't really prepared for. Lucky I know the subject so well! Now I just have to write up notes from this morning's supervision meeting and I can clear off after that. Feeling very lazy at the moment!

Invigorated after a good swim this morning, so ready to tackle the next mountain of work... Actually, I've just got through a major period of deadlines and piling up of work, and I've achieved it all, and feel pretty good about that. Trying not to take my foot off the pedal too much, but at the same time I know I was starting to overwork and I don't want to burn out.

Goals for today:
1.) Prepare for site visit to organisation I'm studying on Thursday
2.) Read supervisor's lectures/seminar papers on new area of literature he recommended I look at
3.) Search for further relevant lit in new area

Whoop! Go Batfink, your progress puts me to shame.

After visiting sups back home I was really cracking on, but now I've slowed down again. I think the problem is that I've gotten back into it enough that I'm starting to see the gaps (or as they are in my mind, BIG, SCARY, YOU WILL FAIL YOUR VIVA, GAPS). I know this is not the time to start re-writing my theories, and I suspect I'm getting crazy because I'm about to send the full draft of my general discussion chapter to sup1 and it's all feeling a bit real. So I'm sitting here amid 50 new references and making tea as I stare vacantly into space. *sigh* atta girl, Teek.

Ramble aside.... Goal 1 is to rewrite the section I now need to in chapter 4, then summarise it in the discussion.

Ahem.
(sings badly) All by myse-e-elf..... (then duck a beer can and wisely stops).
Anyway, bad karaoke aside....I did it! I sent that chapter to my sup yday :-) whoop!
Now trying to work on a nemesis paragraph in reviewing chapter 1 (HATE this bit!) So my goal is to get through this section, then hopefully feel smug enough to go to bed. Last night I went at 4am and lay there so wired I started debating the merits of a nightly run - bearing in mind I haven't run in weeks and am clearly not fit at 4pm, nevermind am.

Oh dear, this poor lonely thread! Are you still out there, Teek, or anyone else...?

Been away at a seminar for a couple of days, and then yesterday managed to do no work at all. Really don't know how I managed that! So today it's action stations, back to it with a vengeance. Was at my desk at 8.15 am and have until 4pm to get lots done (my partner's parents are in town, and are taking us out for a posh meal tonight, so that will be a nice reward!)

Goals for today, then:
1.) Sort out acceptance forms for summer school and send them off (DONE)
2.) Look at new methodology and discuss whether to follow this up with supervisor (DONE)
3.) Look at documents sent by researcher at external organisation (DONE)
4.) Reply to email from researcher at another university
5.) Start editing draft questionnaire
6.) Start writing document describing methods development
7.) Decide whether to arrange discussion of methods with Stats Advisory people

(Avoiding the tumbleweed as I enter the thread...)

I'm going to keep using this thread even if nobody else does! I find it really helpful to set out my targets for the day, and listing them publicly here feels much more binding than just making a list in my own notebook.

So, goals for today:
1.) Go to poster design training session (DONE but what a waste of time)
2.) Make a good start on document describing development of my methods and decisions made
3.) Finish early and meet my other half in the pub by 5pm!

Write an essay - Why is it that when I have to write I start procrastinating? :-(

Heh - I know that feeling!

I've just realised I do that - this is not good! :$