anybody else get a pm from a company offering to write their thesis? Things going so badly at the mo that I'm sorely tempted - can they guarantee me a pass and let me get on with the rest of my life?????????:-(

yes, I had that PM, very tempting lol.

Well I had a mini-mental breakdown yesterday which saw me descend into a 5 year old and scream and stomp around the house with tears streaming down my face and then hiding in my duvet. I now feel a whole lot better and able to get on with my thesis.

I've wasted a lot of time over the last few days, so today I really want to get at least a few sections re-structured.

well truth be told I am still feeling a bit of dread about doing it all, but I do feel that I've let out the stress/tension that has built up since my sup went through all the changes with me. What stresses me out the most is that I thought it would involve re-structuring, but it actually will involve writing several sections from scratch. She seems to think that this is 20 mins work, but in reality, to feel confident about what I'm writing, I need to factor in 3-4 hours on each section :-(

Right I have 2 WHOLE days :-) some time at last to get some PhD work done. I'm supposed to submit in 9 days (HA!), but I want to have done at least half of what I want to get done by then, if not more.

So today I really really want to push on with the lit review. I think my tomatoes may be coming into force, although perhaps I'll up the minutes?

GOal 1: to finish section 1.

Good luck Sneaks! I quite often up the minutes on the mytomatoes technique - I find about 35-40 minutes is good for getting into the flow of the work (but any longer than that and my mind just wanders and I achieve less...)

My supervisor's asked me to be third author on a paper he and another academic have written - the paper's two years old, and they want me to go through it and update the literature and be fresh eyes to see what's wrong with it. Supervisor says it's three days work, but I know what his idea of a day's work is, he always underestimates! If I can get it done by the end of the week I'll be very happy, but if it drags into the weekend I won't be at all suprised.

First goals for today:
1.) Sort out list of references another PhD student asked me for
2.) Read through journal article
3.) Plan out the revisions needed

Good luck Sneaks, I hope you manage to get a good chunk done over the next couple of days.

Today I need to finish everything off so that I can print and hand in for binding tomorrow. I'm struggling a bit because I had a bad night- ended up getting up at 4.30 to do a couple of hours work before my driving lesson because I was wide awake and want to be done today.

My first goal is to put everything into one document and make sure format of headings are consistent, etc, etc.

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wah! I should be at the same point as you star-shaped :-( now hate my sup for giving me all these changes last minute! The worse thing is, is that I'll push to get it done, it will get done soon (ish) if not for the actual date, so she'll interpret that as her 'methods' working and she'll go on to do it with her next supervisees. :-s

oh I've been given a child to babysit, I think she's downstairs, possibly playing with knives. really wish people understood that working at home meant WORKING at home and not dossing about being able to babysit :-s

Hi Sneaks,

I'm sorry you're having to babysit just when you managed to get a whole day to do your PhD work. That's pants! I really don't think most people know how much work is needed in a PhD, especially with deadlines approaching!! Could you get the child to entertain itself at all? I hope you get some work done...

My goals for the day:
1) Amend lit review
2) Amend two sections of a chapter
3) Amend another chapter
4) Review another section
5) Send a couple of emails

Having written these down now, I don't think I'll be able to do them all, but I'll give it my best shot. And I can always do whatever's left tomorrow!

Hope you all have a productive day!

well I got the old 'haven't you done it yet' from the parent last night, and I suspect that she also thinks that I'm 'scrounging' off hubby cos he goes out to work while I 'lounge about' apparently not getting anything done. I'm going to a job interview next week though and I hope to god I get it - it would mean I can live in my own house!

well she's back now. I managed to ignore the child, but its still annoying with the thought that you're responsible for something in the back of your mind. JUst had ridiculously early imposed lunch so now feel stuffed and sleepy :-(

Must get on!

Good luck with the interview next week Sneaks!

I now have all of the main stuff in one document and am happy with my references, formatting, etc. My next goal is to sort out the appendices and cover page.

well I've done 2 out of 8 sections of my lit review. BUt I've now finished the bits my sup could be bothered to comment on, so I'm left with trying to take an objective look at what I've written, which is very hard, because I read it and think "wow, someone amazingly talented wrote this" :p finding it very hard to stand back and work out what could be wrong with it. And Sup has refused to read any more of it and probably never will. :-(

I've spent the first hour today updating my laptop cos it went into "I'm not going to work until you update me" mode :-s

Still working on the lit review. I'm going to try and work a bit quicker today.

Goal 1 = write up theory 4.