I started thinking in a more positive way today, instead of thinking I "need" to do this, I am thinking I "want" to do this. No one is forcing me to do a PhD, I want to do and I want to finish, the world will not end if I was a bit late, or will it :)

I ended up re-writting big parts of Chapter 2, I had an internal struggle between wanting to finish quickly and producing good quality, finally fussy me, won. The chapter still need better discussion section which I am working on now.

Hi Lara, Don't worry about long term plans such as finishing your thesis on time, just focus at 1 week at a time. I found short terms plans (1 week max) more achievable than long plans. Tiny plans (daily) never worked for me, it needed lots of efforts and usually left me frustrated at the end of the day. Perhaps, you can worry once a week instead of once a day, write down your plan for the week. And after the week finishes you can worry and check if you have achieved the targets or not. If you didn't achieve them you can write down the reasons so you will not face the same problems next week.

Many thanks Lara for you encouraging words and good advices . I really appreciate the understanding side of you. Most people can't realise the complex mental state a PhD student is going through.

I liked the idea about setting some time aside for "worry/panic". I think it might work with me, I am postponing many things in my life for the PhD. So why not postponed the worrying as well?

I heard about mind maps before but never used any, after trying a couple today I found www.mindmeister.com, it is web based(there is also an offline option). Mindmeister has a free basic version and the first month you join you get all the full features for free. I like it because it is simple, no learning curve.

I have created a main map with all my chapters, and map for each unrevised chapter. I found mindmaps much better than To-do lists in organizing ideas.

Hi Lara,

The sprint failed, I have stressed myself so much the last few days, that I have not done much work. I need to find the right balance now, I had more motivation to work before I started revising. I am hoping tomorrow will be a good day. How is things going with you?

I panicked when I started to refine the background, so I spend few days doing more reading which was unnecessary because I didn’t find anything new. Revising is taking more time than I have expected and I feel less motivated than when I was writing new stuff. I am setting the coming Tuesday as a deadline to finish revising.
Good luck Lara in your work as well.

Hi Walrus,
I am doing a PhD in Computer Science, I am nearly finished. Up until recently I never imagined myself in academia, but now I am starting to think about it. I think it is better not to think about your future job. Focus on your research and finishing the PhD, after that you will know what you really want. Also, think about PhD as a safety net that will always give you more choices in life.

Good news everyone, I managed to finish the last appendix which talks about my developed software. It is 6 pages and it took me around 5 days to finish. Now I need to start revising Chapter 2, 3 and 4. I will start with Chapter 2 tommorow. Wish me lots of luck!!!

Thanks Lara for you kind words.

I took some time off, and I feel better now, more energy to work.

I have started with the appendix, hopefully it should not take long. I have it in my mind so I need to write it down.

Good news, best of luck, keep going and you will reach to the end.

As of now, I have written all the Chapters, the front matter (Abstract, Acknowledgments,..) and 1 appendix. I still have to do the following.
1) Write 1 appendix
2) revise three chapter 2,3 and 4. I have written them a while a go, so they require updating.
I will keep you updated on my progress, wish me luck.

Hi All,
I am in the last stages of the writing process, but I have been running out of steam lately. No accountable progress last week, I don't have much left, but I feel sometimes that I still have a lot to do!!!! I want to share my progress with the lovely people at this forum. Your similar stories and struggles remind me I am not alone, which is by itself a great motivator.
I have 7 chapters and two appendices in my thesis. My supervisor is happy with my writing quality at last and he is being supportive. But he expected me to finish sooner. I feel I don't have enough energy left, I am tired most of the time, not eating or sleeping well. I try to remind myself I don't have much to go, but it seems it is not working anymore.

I lived in a denial for a long time, kept blaming myself, my family, her evil mom and my PhD. Slowly I came to accept it and moved on. I agree with JoJo, it is hard to maintain a healthy relation during a PhD. Most partners will not understand the complex mental state you are in. You will get through it, others have been in a similar situation and moved on. Take things easy and keep yourself busy with life, make friends and go out and enjoy yourself. Don't rush into a new relation, good things happen when you least expect them.

Hi TJ, I have been in a similar situation to yours in my second year of PhD. We broke up because of family problems, I came from a somehow conservative culture, and her family (mainly the evil mom :)) wanted us to get married which is something I was not ready for. And my family were not supportive. After fighting both families for few months (almost a year) and not getting anywhere, she gave up on the relation and lost hope. For me, this was very hard to accept because I loved her and needed her.

HI MichaelA, it is normal to feel lost in the beginning of your PhD. I think the relation between a PhD student and his supervisor is a complex one. Working hard is a vague term in PhD because u need to develop research skills and to know your thesis domain very well. You don’t need to confront him/her it is not a war!!! Try to find the reasons of being behind in your research together. If you feel it is his fault tell him how you feel in a “polite” way, no need to be aggressive or afraid about it. At the end of day the supervisor is there to help you, if he cant/wont help after talking to him find someone else.

Good luck

Hi All,

Rick, I am doing medical image analysis on 4D cardiac dataset. The analysis can be later used to detect heart diseases. I am from a computer science background so my work stops after automatically recognizing the heart chambers from the datasets.

Danny, don’t worry about your job. Robots driving taxis are still in the early stages of development. It will take years to build the first autonomous one, and when it is build it will be much more expensive than a human. I will say human taxi drivers should feel safe at least for the next 30-40 years