ah no, she's not at uni - she goes away from about May to October lol, so its better that way. In previous years she has also 'claimed' that she can't get the internet. Anyway, all done now. I just hope I can read the handwriting when it gets spat back at me! (and she tried using track changes once - was NOT good for morale as it came back completely red).

Unfortunately, I have a deadline for a different qualification on Monday, so I'm going to have the evening off and then its full steam ahead again this weekend.

I have lots of things to do today and if I finish before 5 I'm going to reward myself with reading the end of my book (fiction, not horrible academic book!)

Things to do...

- complete portfolio of work
- phone supervisor and discuss jobs (not looking forward to this!)
- write abstract for conference
- start sketching out a plan for a workshop I have to give.

That sounds like a nice reward, Sneaks.

Today, I'm going to get seriously stuck into the work, after a couple of weeks of pootling around rather than working. I'm coming up to a couple of deadlines and am getting nervous about how little I've done to meet them so far!

Goals for today:
1.) This morning, work on my second year report
2.) This afternoon, work on a journal article
3.) In between and throughout the day, do some cleaning

Has anyone used the Harvard style adapted for Leeds Met in Mendeley. I think is the best Harvard style I like, but I was just wondering if anyone else has used to and whether they have encountered any problems?

CRASH - down to earth again. Just spoke to sup who thinks I need to re-structure the entire thesis. YAY.

Sneaks, I'm sorry, that's terrible. Did your supervisor not have at least a reasonable idea of your thesis structure? I showed my supervisor what I intended to do in advance.

That's rotten Sneaks - looks like you have some tough decisions ahead. My supv came back at me with a heap of changes, plus some re-structuring after my first draft. I implemented about half of what he suggested, returned it to him and said "although I accept there will be comments/changes, my thesis is the way I want it, I'm happy with how I have structured it..." My heart was pounding but he said "okay, I hear you; it's good you're taking ownership of your thesis 'coz at the end of the day it's your work, your decision". GULP. Still waiting for him to come back to me after that second draft, five weeks later:-s but I think to be fair that's becuase of his own massive workload. When I get it back I am telling him that I will give it another three weeks work but then I'm submitting.

Must admit Ady, once my supervisor sees a full draft I don't expect any substantial feedback in relation to the structure and would say and do exactly as you have.

well she's still not read it - she's basically going on the titles of each section rather than the content. So I'm going to wait to see her in 2 weeks and go through it properly. There is no point, of re-structuring now and then having to re-do that in 2 weeks anyway.

From what she says, one thing I do agree is I change the order from X Y Z to Y X Z which makes sense to me and I was thinking about it as I put it all together anyway. But she wants me to pull out all of my theory from the method chapter and stick it in the lit review. I don't understand this as I've used the methods section to justify why I'm using a mixed methods approach (and therefore discussed how most people have approached the study of my area by looking at the theoretical approaches) to remove those theoretical approaches will leave that chapter just plain odd, and short - would result in a 20,000 word lit review and a 3,000 method??

I'm going to spend the next week sorting out references, which is something that needs to be done whenever, so its probably best I step away from the content, get the niggly little stuff done, like labelling tables etc and then return to it when she's actually read it.

well I actually feel quite up beat. I've just looked back on the notes I took during my convo with sup and it looks like the ramblings of an insane sheep, so I'll be ignoring that until she's worked out what my thesis is about.

I've managed to sort out a job issue with a best case scenario really, and its a problem that has been twisting up my insides for a while, so that's good.

I'm also well on the way to finishing my portfolio.

I have also stuck to my diet today, which is a miracle as usually I would have dived into a pot of jaffa cakes.

well its not quite all there yet, but I've managed to strike a balance between Job A and Job B and not making the people associated with Job A peed off, could lead to Job C which is a full time lectureship (which I have an interview for already), so that's good, but also means that by not annoying people for Job B I have that as a back up. Following? anyway, I hate letting people down and potentiallu having to say no to Job A and then potentially lose even a chance at Job C and just generally being crappy by backing out of a previous agreement was really stressing me out. Once I commit I mean it, and if I'm forced to do otherwise it stresses me out beyond belief.

well I don't know what's happened to me today, but I'm in a wonderful mood :-) I have no idea why. I haven't managed everything on my list but I have..

- finished my work portfolio AND followed the ridiculous bureaucratic rules about how to present it
- sorted out job situation (ish)
- got senior lecturer to look through a chapter I'm worried about
- got good news about a student who I'd thought had gone off the rails
- been offered more work :-)
- had a paper that I've been working on with sup submitted into the top journal in our field (fingers crossed!)

I'm going to take the evening off, the first evening in AGES! (up) I know it will all come crashing down tomorrow, but I'll enjoy it for now!

That sounds like a really good day, sneaks, enjoy the evening off!

I haven't achieved everything I wanted to do today either, but I've made good progress anyway so I feel good. Now I'm going to do some cooking and maybe some cleaning before watching a documentary that everyone in my department has been advised to watch this evening. It had better be interesting!