Hi all,

I've been out all morning at meetings so I'm only just home now! I have a meeting with my DoS tomorrow at uni to talk about my analysis, I'm hoping I can argue my points convincingly so I'm going to spend all afternoon brushing up on grounded theory! I'll be back into writing on Thursday, it's good to have a bit of a break and do some other stuff.

I know the feeling Batfink, I have days where I feel like I'm not making any progress (see my posts from last week!) but I think it's just par for the course. Sounds like you've got a plan though! And I'm glad you had a break Button, you worked so hard last week! We'll all get there! :-)

I feel a bit better about it all now. I had a chat with someone who I share one supervisor with and who started his PhD the same day as me, and it seems like we're both in a similarly frustrating place and are making similar amounts of progress, which has reassured me! I've come up with a brief plan for what I need to do next, I just need to think it through a bit more. But I'm tired now! Time to go home.

Hope you've all had good days!

Hallo! After a one year hiatus in which I have been bringing up a baby and teaching among other things, I am back to the PhD and the forum. Can I join this thread, pretty please? I have two months from today to finish the `minor` corrections I was given in my viva, but they involve quite a lot of additional research and writing. It may sound like an easy goal, but I have limited time since I can only work in the 3 hours a day my baby is in childcare. Today I am easing in to it, just posting on here (done!:-)), filing/getting papers in order, and checking out university procedures for resubmission. So, bye for now! Looking forward to hanging out!

Hi Tokyorabbit, welcome to the thread! I hope you find it useful - good luck with getting back into the PhD!

Today, I'm working on rewriting a journal article I'm co-authoring with a postdoc in my department - it needs a lot of work. Tasks for the day:
1.) Read through and make notes on what needs rewriting
2.) Plan the rewrites, citations needed, etc
3.) Start rewriting!

Hello everyone!

I've not been around in ages but at uni today so to sort a few loose ends and chase up my viva date! I'm taking this opportunity to do some work on my papers as well so today shall be a study day for me.

Goals for today:
1) Speak to admin staff
2) Chase up viva date
3) Review article
4) Make any required amendments
5) Have lunch with one of my peers so we can catch up on the goss lol

Have a productive day all!

Hello Skig, hope you managed to get lots done today (and made progress on the viva date too, eek!)

I've not had a particularly successful day. Made a start on working on the journal paper but didn't get very far. I did, however, track down a citation that I've not been able to find for over a year, so that was something! Not enough, but I'm going to forgive myself for having a bad day, finish reading the journal article I'm half way through then call it a day and start fresh again tomorrow.

Thanks Batfink. It`s good to be back. Hope you have a more productive day tomorrow. It`s all about the self-forgiveness!
Which I have to do some of now as my 3 baby-free hours are almost up and I have spent them having breakfast, hanging out washing, filling out overdue grading forms, and dealing with resubmission procedures. So that is two days back on the PhD so far without actually having looked at it...yesterday was productively (?) spent filing (and being horrified at the stack of previous draft print-outs that I can`t bear to chuck quite yet).
OK! So tomorrow...my friend suggests reading through examiners comments then through the whole thesis, but not sure I can stomach the latter. I think I`ll 1) read through examiners comments and 2) chase up relevant literature ready to order/borrow from my trip to the library on Saturday.
Have a good day everyone!

======= Date Modified 02 Feb 2012 10:45:59 =======
Goal for today, draft practical implications of my findings!  Think this wont take too long...

Morning everyone!

I've been swimming this morning so feel quite alert now. I do like a good swim before starting work, it gets the blood flowing. And also I find I pound out problems with my work while I'm wimming. This morning I managed to work out an important step in my data analysis, which is lucky, as I need to discuss progress on that with my supervisors tomorrow!

Goals for today:
1.) Go swimming - DONE
2.) Finish writing notes on journal article I read yesterday
3.) Write two sections needed for journal paper re-write
4.) Draw up rough plan of data analysis steps to discuss tomorrow

Hmm, that little lot should keep me very busy today!

Hi everyone!

Yesterday wasn't too bad, thanks. I wanted to start my viva prep after lunch but that didn't happen, I went shopping instead :$ some retail therapy was required though as unofficially found out that my internal has not even touched my thesis! Needless to say I'm not impressed. I've emailed sups re: viva date but no reply so far - obviously there won't be anything as the internal hasn't bothered to open the thesis yet though.

Anyway, I'm going to take the advice given here and focus on the prep for one or two hours a day starting from today. So goals for today are:

1) to look at the advice given on the forum
2) start reading the thesis

@Batfink - I normally find starting the most difficult part so I think you've done well.

I think sometimes we're just too hard on ourselves, you know what I mean?

Hi everyone,

Sounds like you've all been busy bees! Don't worry about going shopping Skig, as far as I can see from other posts pre viva you need to concetrate on trying to chillax as much as prep!

I'm sitting down now to work for an hour before lunch, I've been busy doing admin etc this morning so finally knucking down now! I've stupidly agreed to produce another chapter in less than two week's time, I am officially an idiot, why why why why why did I do this?! I have about half a chapter's worth once I pull all the waffle out so I am slightly worried...! So here we go! Fingers crossed I will be able to produce something half decent :$

Hope you're all having a good day so far!

Heh, I think Skig may well be right, we're too hard on ourselves! I think we get so used to putting a lot of work in that we start to feel like we're not doing very much or haven't achieved much, when actually we're doing loads and making goood progress. That's probably one reason why people find the lead-up to the viva so difficult - it's such a dramatic change of pace.

Anyway, good luck with all the work, and viva prep, and everything else.

I've finished making notes on the journal article I read, so am stopping for a sandwich before getting on with rewriting my own journal article.

Hi all,

I've been teaching this morning and am sitting down to get a bit of work done now.

However, I'm having THE heart in mouth moment; I've just found a journal article which is VERY similar to my topic! Eeek. So everything I have planned will have to go on hold until I read it and work out the differences and similarities, ready to raise it with sup tomorrow.

Goal 1- read journal article and try not to panic
Goal 2- find references from journal article

Button - what a scary discovery! I`m sure you will find many differences between your analyses and conclusions though, and hey, it means that it`s a popular and valid topic!
Skig - sounds like a good plan. I had my viva (well over a year ago, that`s another story) and to be honest there is not too much you can do apart from knowing your thesis. If you do loads of extra reading, note taking etc. it is sods law that none of that will come up. I was really worried they would pick apart my overall argument, which they said was fine. Was not expecting them to ask me to add more background stuff.
Right, baby at the babysitters and now its time to dive in. First on the list is finding the ring-binder with all the documents in (yes, it`s been that long since I worked on it!)

Hope the article hasn't caused you too many headaches, Button! And Tokyorabbit's right, it's unlikely to be a disaster, just good you found the article now.

Tokyorabbit, hope you got lots of work done!

Today I have a meeting about the journal paper I'm helping to write, and also a supervision meeting. So the day is about preparing for and attending those meetings. And I'm really tired, so I'm going to knock off reasonably early (well, probably about 4pm!) and go and meet friends in the pub. Definitely looking forward to this weekend!

Good luck with the work, everyone!