i worked from 2pm to 8pm today. til tomorrow.

how did that happen? i try not to log onto this site at the office. people just seem not to mind their own business.

thanks everyone for your encouragement. i've picked up my pieces and decided to have a positive attitude. today i managed to draw a time plan and break the task into bits. i have started reading on it and it's not as bad as it sounded though not easy either. i worked from 10am to 2.30pm. i'll be doing some more work in the evening. i guess, if i keep at it, one day i'll wake up and it will all be over.

my perfectionist supervisor has decided that i need to do a major rewrite of my theoretical chapter. therefore i have to start from scratch again. am not very happy . she is a perfectionist and would rather my first draft was the perfect final draft - so we keep going back and forth.

thanks shani. i'll be seeing my supervisor in the next two hours.

thanks Jayney. Yesterday's hours; 12pm - 6pm. today am preparing for sup ervisor meeting tomorrow. fingers crossed .

i usually take two weeks off after each submission. i submit monthly. i find that i need the time to recover, otherwise i can't keep up and easily get depressed and fall ill - stress related illness. when i get back to work am usually cheerful and full of energy to do more work.

6 months in first year!

i was reading through your posts again. sounds like you have a good plan. am going to adopt a lot of the things you're doing. thanks. we can learn one or two from each other.

oh i forgot that i had attended an international conference at some point. lol.

i have a colleague who is analysing IMF and WorldBank for their PhD. i will certainly look at charityjobs. my thesis is theoretical so i haven't done any fieldwork. during my phd i have taught for 3 academic years and done a few placements here and there, so that might count as experience. as for publishing, am now writing my third paper.. two submitted and awaiting feedback. so hopefully i'll get my name out there somehow. i plan to send copies of my work to the agencies concerned although i don't know if that would be a smart move because i criticise some of their work. as for experience on the ground and conferences - which i have only attended two - both in the same town as my uni - i will need to give that more attention. thanks for that. i'll keep you posted on how i get on.

i agree.

sounds likely exactly what i want to do in the long term; get involved in policy formulation and write a bit in my area. but how do I get into an NGO? google all their websites and look for adverts? i have had a look at the world bank and UN websites... also WTO. a lot of them need quite a number of years of working experience. am torn between working for a couple of years first and going straight to the NGO coz i haven't sat the professional exam that is needed to practice in my field yet. am primarily interested in NGOs working in development. which NGOs are you interested in working with?

am just about to go to sleep. not really looking forward to the hard slog after feedback. it's been a great two weeks of not thinking about my thesis. have to be up early tomorrow to go for medical tests at the hospital. i really hate needles!! hopefully get some time to look at the paper again. am really struggling to write this paper partly because its not in my specific research area. anyway.. no excuses, i need as many publications as i can to get a job. i was sitting tonight thinking.. ' what jobs to PhDs do?' apart from academia. i sometimes think it would be sad to get a PhD and just be an academic and never 'change the world'. there's got to be more out there.

What is everyone else planning to do with their PhD?

anyway, lets see what tomorrow brings.

am using strength of argument as an indicator of when to stop. since my thesis is theoretical, once i figured out the argument, half the work was done. now am in the process of writing it in a convincing manner / not a perfect manner. i used to be a perfectionist and in many ways i still am, but this PhD has helped me to learn that its ok for everything not to be perfect.

meanwhile - my personal deadlines also play a role in determining what is good enough, as i'd like to submit by the end of the year, preferably Sepf or before Christmas. i think there comes a point when you have to decide to finish.

one of my colleagues, now in his fourth year has not yet submitted and is still looking for the perfect thesis. to me, hardly anyone will ever read my thesis after examination, i can perfect it later in publications - whilst am teaching and being paid for it - and only concentrating on those bits that really interest me.