Hey Tulip. great to have you here!

I'm *really* struggling today, everyone! :(

I'm trying to finish off adding a few bitty sections to chapters that so far I've only got notes for. It's taking me forever and I'm finding it really hard to concentrate and get motivation. I'm so near and yet so flippin' far! I'm not sure why I'm struggling so much today (and yesterday a bit), but I am.

Anyway, whinge over. I just needed to share.

I hope you guys have a productive day. I must remember the day is not over yet and I can still get loads done =D
Good luck!

That's great. I'm glad he is feeling better about it all. Good luck!

I hope things go well for you silverlining. You've got to find what works best for you :)

Welcome Aisling! How did your abstract writing go? And how's your chapter going, GM?

I'm working on big edits to my Discussion and conclusions section today.

Good luck everyone! =D

Works for me Tree :)

I haven't been through the viva process yet, but I've been in to speak to my supervisors about how I should prepare. I'm not sure where you're studying, but I'm in the UK and one thing that my supervisors told me is that the viva is not a memory test. you can take your dissertation in with you and make some notes. In fact this is an important thing to do. But the examiners don't expect you to remember everything by heart.

It sounds a little bit like you're panicking. I know it's hard, but try not to. Take a deep breath and remember: You know your dissertation better than anyone else because you wrote it!

Good luck!

I'm so sorry to hear about your situation. As Satchi said, I think the best thing is for him to speak to the university and this needs to be done as soon as possible, given that he seems quite near the end. Only the uni will be able to give you the range of options. Remember universities want their students to succeed because it reflects on them and with an open dialogue things can normally be sorted out. it's when there's a communication breakdown that things go really wrong.

Good luck to both you and your son with the situation.

Love this thread! hahaha

Ah yes, I think that was part of it. Thanks, Eds.

This is probably obvious, but be careful of copying and pasting charts from Excel because they may be attached to your data source and if you send them to other people the link can be broken.

Apologies if I'm 'teaching my grandmother to suck eggs' ;)

What are you using at the minute, Liz? My friend told me to save images (charts etc) as pdfs but I can't remember why now.

Sorry that's probably not much help :(

It's all gone quiet! ;)

How did everyone do last week? Are we still plodding onwards? I hope you're all ok.

I've got a few meetings this week, but only 2 weeks till I have to send my full draft. working on my results chapters for next couple of days. What is everyone else up to?

Hi Anon

First of all, well done for posting. It can be hard to reach out, but you're doing the right thing to help yourself.

I struggle(d) a lot with stress/depression/anxiety throughout my PhD/life. I'm also nearing completion (submission by 1 July). I attended counselling sessions in uni too, which I found to be really helpful because (as you said) they understand more about the PhD process.

When I finished my allotted number of sessions with my uni counsellor, she did say that I could email her at any time if I felt I was struggling. Now because you had a difficult last session (which I don't think you should worry about at all btw), your counsellor may have not had chance to offer this. I'm not sure if this is a regular thing or just something they do at my uni. I don't see any harm in you sending her a brief email, thanking her for all her help and asking if you could keep in touch. Do be prepared that she could say 'no' though, and that would probably be governed by the uni guidelines. Think about how that would affect you first and make your decision from there.

If maintaining contact with her isn't an option, then I really think that you should seek help elsewhere. I've also had private therapy and I cannot explain how much it has helped me at various points in my life. I believe that I could only start to 'be my own counsellor' after I went through some proper sessions where they helped me to recognise the emotions/thoughts and understand the processes I can use in dealing with them.

Yes, it can be hard to trust, but at this stage: finishing phd, looking for a new job, and moving house - some of the most stressful things we can do in life, I think it's really important to have coping mechanisms and someone to turn to if things get really rough.

Good luck and take care
g

That's really useful information, awsoci. thanks for taking the time to reply :)

That's so lovely of you to say, Grumpy! (I feel bad calling you 'Grumpy' all the time, but the only other option is 'Mule' and that doesn't seem much better!) Haha!

;)

Well done on getting goal no.1 done so early in the day. I hope the coffee helped and your chapter is going well.

I've finished all the big work on my background section, including adding in an extra bit I wanted to talk about. So I've achieved today's goal - woop!

Tomorrow I start with the big alterations needed on my methods section, or as I prefer to say: tomorrow I'll be doing meth!

Hope you guys are all having productive days.
G

Hi Mathcomp

I'm in a similar (worse?) position. I'm close to submitting (June/July) and have no publications even in the pipeline. I'm concerned about the effect this will have on job prospects too. My supervisors and close Professor friend don't seem worried about it at all though. I plan to get some work where I can and spend as much time as possible focusing on getting some publications under my belt after I submit. All of my peers seem to have a few publications sorted, but I don't. I guess I've just got to deal with it and get stuck in asap.

I'd also be interested in decreasing the effect of lack of publications if anybody has any advice.

Good luck with finishing the thesis and getting those papers prepared :)