I am still here! I have been doing a lot of lurking recently as I can waste quite a bit of time during my working day posting on forums.

I have been working on typing up the last loose ends of my chapter today to send to my supervisor. I am a few days behind schedule (although he isn't officially expecting it until next Friday). I also REALLY want to take the whole weekend off so I must finish it today!

Oh yes, I can waste a lot of time too! Try to limit it, but some days it feels like it's all I do...

Anyway, I've done a fair amount of work on the stuff I wanted to get done, and now I'm going home and meeting my other half in the pub. Going to totally relax tonight and have a day off tomorrow, then get back to it on Sunday. Yay for the weekend! Have fun/relax/do lots of work (delete as appropriate) everyone!

Fourth and final analytic chapter drafted and sent to my supervisor. Happy weekend everyone!

I don't believe it is Monday again so quickly. I hope everyone had productive/relaxing weekends.

I have 6 weeks to draft out my literature stuff and methods chapter. Arghh. I have various bits in different documents so my first goal is to figure out where I am up to and my second goal is to write 500 words on a particular topic by lunch time.

Good luck star-shaped, I'm sure you'll manage it!

I have to write a document before meeting my supervisors tomorrow. Not a difficult document - notes/comments on all the decisions I've made so far while designing my data collection, which means it's all stuff I have noted in my many notebooks and I just need to go through and pull the stuff out. But it's going to take ages to do. Gah.

I did an inventory of the stuff I already have written and actually have a lot already drafted out. I identified a couple of gaps so rather than banging out more words I have spent the morning reading around one topic, and my next goal is to spend the afternoon reading around another so that tomorrow I can start writing.

I'm not getting very far with the work today. It should be really straightforward, but I just can't make myself do it. Oh well, keep plodding on....

Sympathies batfink, I returned to my laptop at 9pm and promptly wondered why...
I was doing so well earlier, but then began to feel rather ill (this thesis is quite literally, bad for my health). Still, have chapters one and two mostly slain, just reference gaps and a few defined issues to sort. So I think I'll give in to the siren call of sleep and re-start tmw.

Morning everyone. I hope everyone finds work a bit easier today. getting into things in Mondays can be difficult!

My first goal today is to write out a plan for my literature chapters (I have it mostly planned out in my head!) and to email it to my supervisor in case there are any huge gaps I haven't thought of.

Morning everyone.

Feeling a bit disheartened today - I have a supervision meeting at 11 but haven't achieved either of the two major tasks I said I'd achieve by today. I know my supervisors will be perfectly nice about it, but they have this way of being nice that just makes me feel completely guilty!

I need to identify why I've struggled to get this work done. I know one bit is because I'm waiting for an academic at another university to send me some information that might or might not change the focus of part of my work, but the other bit is just sheer laziness on my part. Oh dear! But usually when I get into one of these lazy states, when I dig down I realise it's because I don't know how to take the next step, or lack the confidence to take the next step. So I need to identify what the barrier actually is...

So, tasks for today (before supervision meeting at 11):
1.) Think about supervision agenda and prepare for discussion
2.) Read article previously sent by other academic to be able to discuss direction issues with supervisors
3.) Tidy up and print out questionnaire and methods documents as they stand at present

It is good that you are being reflexive and working out why you have been struggling, Batfink.

I have now achieved my first goal. It took a fair bit longer than I expected but it was worthwhile. There are about 3 areas which I haven't started writing up yet so my goal for the rest of the day is to get a chunk done on one of these. I am aiming for 700-1000 words by the end of the day.

Yes, I think one of the most important things I've learnt on this PhD journey is to be able to stand back from my work and see what it is that's actually a barrier to progressing, and then finding solutions to that.

Anyway, supervision meeting was fine, we talked about the possible difference that this new area of literature might make and agreed that it's not significant enough to really hold me up. So it's all systems go again, and I'm back on track.

Tasks for the rest of the day:
1.) Finish making notes on journal articles I was reading earlier
2.) Write up notes from supervision meeting
3.) Draw up to-do list and schedule for work
4.) Work on poster design for competition (a nice thing to end the day on!)

1050 words written. I feel guilty about finishing work so early when I am in the last few months of writing up but I am completely burned out.

Heh, you're not 'finishing early' though, you've achieved the day's work, that's all! Take the time to recover some energy and enjoy some sunshine or whatever, and tomorrow you'll be fresh to be productive all over again.

My supervisor just came to find me to ask about something from our meeting earlier, and then to make sure I'm planning to take a week off when we have all the bank holidays in a couple of weeks! The other one was saying the same sort of thing to me at Christmas, insisting I take a couple of weeks off. I can't decide if they're both just really nice supervisors, or if I'm unknowingly giving off 'burnt out' vibes. I'm not feeling burnt out, honest! But I'm going to take the week off anyway!

Yep good point Batfink. I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself to finish in the 3 years and it is going to be really tight and I am finding it difficult to have guilt free time off and to relax. But I should focus on having achieved my goals for the day rather than working 'enough' hours.

My goal for the morning is to write 500-600 words.