Grrr, I obviously jinxed myself by saying I'd have no problems finishing this article by 5pm! Re-ordering it has changed the points I need to bring out of some of my analysis - it's a good thing really, it's much more logical this way and supports my argument more strongly, but it's more work than I expected. Hopefully I will still get it done by 5, but it's going to be tight.

Hi both of you!

I've been out doing non-related PhD work this morning, and I'm now absolutely shattered! But my task of the day is to write the background section of my introduction, which is proving extremely difficult. I may try the technique of free writing though and see what I end up with, as I'm hitting a bit of a blank with it. I also need to go to Tesco!

Keep going!

I hope you manage Batfink!!

Button, good luck with the background section. I just see it as the very basics of the broader topic if that helps.

Work is thankfully still moving forward.

I had an enlightening moment some time ago though and I now know what's holding me back. I'm ok rewriting when the material comes from my head if that makes sense but if I need to look for info and I can't seem to find it (my filing went to pots at end of thesis writing part I and viva prep) or I struggle to link topics, then work comes to a temporary hault. Not really sure how to deal with this apart from pushing myself to write? Any other ideas?

======= Date Modified 09 Aug 2012 17:24:56 =======
Hope I have found this post earlier... Can I join in? I am in the last several months of my PhD, really need to push myself. I stay home, 2hrs driving from campus. So I am very easily distracted and procrastinate. Hope I can work together with other girls/guys in this thread to have our PhD done.

I need to do a couple of tests to verify my understanding and implementation of a statistics function is right. I have stuck in this for almost two weeks. The old implementation turns out to have some errors. hope I can a)modify the code b)run the test c) document the results. If I can do a) and b) today, I am happy enough.

Welcome, Benyaya, and I hope the thread helps - I know I find it a really good way to motivate myself.

Button, good luck with it! I see the background in the same way as Skig, it's the bare basics about why your topic is worth even looking at.

And Skig, you too! The only way I know to deal with the bits you're talking about is to get a big blank piece of paper and do some brainstorming, and then from that I come up wth bullet points for what I need to include. Then I sort those into a logical order, then try to write them into sentences, then build up into paragraphs, and hey presto, it's done.

Anyway - I didn't quite get my journal paper finished, but all that's left to do is small changes to the abstract, a paragraph on aims and objectives, and then some changes to the discussion and conclusions to bring out the points emphasised by the new structure.

Morning all!

I managed to get my introduction done yesterday, which I'm very happy about! My deadline to get it done was by the end of today, but rather than doing nothing I think I'll get cracking on editing my methodology chapter. I might also go into town for a mooch.

So not a busy day for me, and I've got the weekend off to look forward to!

Morning everyone,
Having a stressful time at the moment and haven't done any work over the past few days. However my goal today is to transcribe at least 1 interview. Wish me luck...

======= Date Modified 10 Aug 2012 16:29:23 =======

Batfink27, Thanks a lot. English is not my native language, I will try to express myself better in this thread.

Button, congratulations to have introduction part done, its very nice to take the weekend off. Wish I could have the coding done by the end of next week, then go to the museum next weekend.

Noctu, I also feel very stressful, cannot sleep well. I waked up around 9:30am this morning, usually I can wake up at 8 am, feel tired in the morning. This substantial stress follows me several years. I don't know how other people work under stress.

have done yesterday:
1. try pdf function version 2.

my goal today:
1. try pdf function version 3 today, and document tests about pdf functions.

Morning all!

Well I didn't win the £148 million on the euromillions, so unfortunately I'm back at my desk today!

I'm working on editing 2 of my findings chapters today, ready to send to sup as part of my first draft of the thesis. However, I don't know how long that will take me, so I might be able to edit the other 2 findings chapters too (maybe!)

Morning everyone!

Had a lovely weekend with MrBatfink and now really don't want to do any work. But needs must.

My plan for today is to try to finish the changes to the journal paper I was working on last week, and also to look at amendments for another journal article that my co-author has been working on. It would be great to get those two things out of the way today to clear the decks for getting back to data analysis tomorrow, but we'll see how it goes. Hoping to get to swimming later as well.

Good morning!

I'm glad you had a good weekend Batfink.

Button, sorry you didn't win the euromillions. I forgot to buy a ticket :( maybe next time!

I had to do some bits of work over the weekend but still had some time off. Not done anything exciting but it was nice not to be working (even if at times I found myself thinking about it!).

I have several different things to work on at the minute and I don't want to leave any in case I lose track so I'll have a ponder on how best to get everything done. How do you do it? I'm tempted to use mytomatoes, split time available into number of tomatoes and assign numbers (time spent) on each thing...

On a different subject, what computer programme do you use to make a poster? I need to make one for a conference that is fast approaching!

I hope you all manage to get lots done today!

======= Date Modified 13 Aug 2012 19:04:23 =======
Good afternoon everyone!

done some chores over the weekend, grocery shopping, house supply shopping, house cleaning. It is a relief to have those chores done which are supposed to be done a couple of weeks ago. spent about four hours working, not very productive though. Got to see supervisor tomorrow. it makes me quite nervous after two months not meeting with him. He asked me to update him via email while he was traveling over the summer, I didn't do that. He must be very disappointed. I have disappointed advisor for long time.

Skig, mytomatoes.com is a nice strategy, I use it regularly. However, I don't feel its productive when it comes to doing some research. I always don't know what shall I fill in the activity inventory list. I know my general direction, but don't know next step: next step is always based on the result of this step, for example, if the data analyzing results are bad, I need to rethink about the design of test, methodology etc. I also don't know how long this step/task is going to be, it also depends on how well it goes. Those characteristics makes dividing one task into several tomatoes hard. For research, there is only todo list, no activity inventory list, no explicit definition for end. This is very frustrating for me. maybe someone can handle this better?

I know what you mean benyaya. I don't know how long things take but I need to work on several these simultaneously so I try to divide my available time amongst them if that makes sense?

Can't say today was a very productive day. It started quite well but seems slowed down throughout the day. Hubby is away this week with work again so I'm going to make the most of it and work for another hour or so tonight.

Skig: it sounds good and practical to divide available amounts of time into small pieces to work on several those simultaneously. Try it. Good luck.

I think I fail at mytomatoes - it's great when I'm not feeling motivated, but tasks don't always seem to fit neatly into the time slots - if I've finished reading a paper I don't really want to start another with 5 minutes to go. Somtimes I just get to the point where I'm just happy getting on with it and end up skipping through all of the breaks or carry on and don't realise for ages that I forgot to click that I started work again.