======= Date Modified 25 Jan 2009 16:16:22 =======
something wrong with this message, wont let me paste. going to try in a new message. sorry admin

======= Date Modified 25 Jan 2009 15:44:36 =======
======= Date Modified 25 Jan 2009 15:43:57 =======
hey Ruby! i felt relieved that i wasnt the only one that was feeling lazy yesterday!! thanks for your message to me yesterday, it made me feel so much better!! you always know the exact right things to say to cheer me up!! you're going to be an amazing mentor one day!

thanks for the encouraging message about my work the other day. that really gave me such a boost :-) thats so true, its hard to do lots everyday. and yes i totally agree, it will probably take a week to get into a proper routine :) thanks Ruby!

the film i watched was ghost rider, it was fun entertaininment, something to switch your brain off to lol.

haha thats so cool you got the gone with the wind quote hehe.

wow you use clips in your teaching, thats so cool, what kind of subjects do you teach?

thanks again for your message! you really are a star :-)
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well yesterday before i read your message, i had only managed to read 1 paper, and then after reading your message, it gave me motivation to read a couple of papers. but spaced out during the whole day, with long breaks in between lol.

so all in all i read 3 review articles yesterday. i feel like i'm slowly getting back into the "swing" of things.

and today, when i woke up, before doing anything else, i read 1 review article. then did some exericse, took a shower, and now going to have a late lunch and then relax afterwards and watch a dvd.

and then in the evening, going to read a few more papers.

hope you have a good day Ruby!

my aim: read 5 papers

hello. i am feeling very lazy today, i just want to slouch around all day and not study. because of my insidious behaviour, i am going to force myself and "bribe" myself. so trying the 15 minute study time technique.

so the idea is to study for 15 minutes and then take a break. and continue this cycle and see if i can get out of this rutt, my body just feels very tired today, which is silly because i had a decent night sleep of 9 and half hours!

my aim:
read 9 papers and make notes from them.

but i so dont want to ! lol i'm being a brat today.

aww dont worry Ruby about flagging, we all do it. we're not robots that can sustain high productivity day in and day out. yep good idea, take it easy and start afresh tommorow! besides i reckon the lack of sleep is the culprit! and tommorow is another day! (gone with the wind) but good that you got those emails done! thats work after all ;)

never heard of billy fury, i will have to youtube him.

yah its nice to have a routine going now. :-) i think once you get back into the study mode everyday it gets abit easier. when you take such a long break from studying, its hard to get back into it! i cancelled all social plans this weekend, as i wanted to sustain my momentum.. so i'm going to be at home all weekend studying away. you got me as company!

i can imagine the pressure you must be under. it is a huge part of your life. right now, its the only part of my life. i feel like im married to it! but i have confidence in you that you will pull it out of the bag! so dont you worry. you will get there. and submit it on time. its weird but somehow it just magically happens. you're already nearly there.


and wow thats great about opportunities in the background! must mean that they are impressed with the work you have done ;)

hope you had a nice dinner. and get some rest. and see you tommorow!

i'm going to have some dinner now, and then going to relax and watch a dvd film :-)

my progress today :
i did paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 :-)

and found the journals i cited in the paragraphs.

and then did a pubmed search for new articles or review articles about the subject i talk about in the paragraphs, and so next going to do abit of "extra reading" to increase my reserve power. and better understand what i wrote in my paragraphs! and make some extra notes, before i move onto the next stage of paragraphs.

but for now, i'm hungry. so yippeee its 7pm, and time for dinner and a movie :-) ahh my favourite time of the day :-)

hey i'm still impressed, because you could theoritically have a lie in, but you dont ;)

well i finished paragraph 2. then took a break to jump on my trampoline, and had a banana. and then i was naughty and had some kettle chips, they are just so scrummy!! i like the black peppercorns ones. i was really hungry. but if i have a big lunch i know i will get really lazy and want to take a nap and fall asleep.

so i'm going to just tie myself over with fruit and forcing myself to drink water.. till dinner time which will be around 7pm. (cant wait!) lol after which i am going to relax and watch a dvd film. i've gotten myself into a routine, which is nice, as it gives me something to look forward to.

i'm back at my desk, and going to study paragraph 3 now. before i allow myself a tiny break.

yah i loved the lion the witch and the wardrobe when i was a kid, it was my favourite book. that and the faraway tree by enid blyton :)
i've not seen prince caspian yet, i wanted to read the book first. i have the dvd waiting for me though.

nice to hear from you. and good idea about the soup for lunch! what type of soup was it?

i'm currently reading how to improve your mind. and i read the best concentration for studying is 10-45 minutes. after 45 minutes your concentration declines. and you should take a 2-5 minute break. so here's me setting my timer to 45 minutes!

chat to you later :-) glad the corrections are going good
(up)

ps so impressed ruby you were up at 9am! and rearing to go, you're so good at waking up early :-)

Hey Ruby! good luck with your aims today, very nice to see you so focused and in battle mode! :-s

if you do feel very tired, try taking a quick power nap like 15-20minutes, it might perk you up!

my aims for today:
1. read through and formulate qs and answers for paragraphs 2-7 for section 1 of chapter 1.

i got my egg timer back on my desktop again.

already feeling hungry! but going to do one paragraph, before i get some lunch.

i failed to wake up at 9am! whoops. i woke up at 11am instead lol. i'm just not a morning person, i should just accept it and stop fighting and beating myself over it. i went to bed at 1am, and probably fell asleep around 2am, so that means my body likes to have 9 hours of sleep. lol

for me to relax when i go to sleep, i listen to audiobooks, and helps me to drift of to sleep. i'm currently listening to prince caspian :) it's very comforting and nice listening to it and imagining it all in my head, without straining my eyes having to read the book. i like audiobooks :)
yesterday my eyes were feeling very itchy and watery. so was nice to just close them and relax and let someone else do the reading for me ! the narrator does all the different character voices which is really cool.

anyways sorry for that bit of tangent information!
setting my timer and going forth towards paragraph 2! (battle face) :-s
and then taking a break to eat once i've done it.

======= Date Modified 23 Jan 2009 12:37:45 =======
haha i like what beave said, we can all be ugly together lol.

yah for me have put on weight. but i have a small trampoline, and i am going to try to jump on it every hour. as a break from my desk aswell. i'm not going to focus too much on trying to lose weight by strenous exercise and diet, as studying for a phd is stressful in itself! but i think even small little exercises everyday is better than nothing.

besides if you take a break every hour its meant to increase your productivity and concentration.

so thats my new vow from today onwards! i always say after im done with my phd i'm going to lose the weight!

okay me clocking out for the day. finished with paragraph 1!
basically to make it interesting for me, i converted the paragraph into questions. so i would read a sentence and then formulate a question to it, and then answer it. that way when i revise , i can look at the question and then try to recall and explain the answer. it's actually more fun like this aswell. its like jeopardy but in reverse.

tommorow's aims, paragraphs 2-7 !

i'm aiming to wake up and out of bed by 9am, i've been oversleeping far too much. going to bribe myself that for every paragraph i cover, i can take a small little break like 15 minutes or something.

goodnight folks.

WOW Ruby that's FANTASTIC! great news about the exhibition, that is really nice and a great boost to your confidence! sounds like the work you do is at a high standard, congratulations! i'm happy that you had that positive feedback, it's good motivation :-)


haha thanks for liking my posts, lol :-) i always imagine that at least one person (i.e you) will read them in the future. haha thanks!

yes i'm glad i took the first step. i hadn't finished paragraph 1, and so before i head to bed, just want to read through it once more and add a few more "explanatory" notes and then i can tick it off ! this particular section has 7 paragraphs, so i've made a list, and a checker box next to each paragraph number. nothing like ticking things off to motivate oneself. haha

i'm glad you had a good talk with your supervisor and sorted out things with your methodology, i think once your brain is rested, you can find inspiration at the oddest moments. apparently einstein got his great ideas whilst sitting on a hill on a sunny day watching the clouds go by.

it sounds like you are on a roll! good luck with the writing tommorow. i think tommorow will be a great day, you will be rested and refreshed. see you tommorow! :-)

======= Date Modified 22 Jan 2009 19:26:47 =======
hellooo - i hope you all had a productive day. i'm clocking out to have dinner and taking a break.

aim 1 - accomplished - i sorted through all the piles of papers and i put them into different categories, which hopefully will make it easier to locate a particular reference as i come across it whilst reading my thesis (i hope!)

i finally cracked open my thesis and read the first paragraph! lol it wasn't as scary as i imagined it would be. it took me a long time to actually read the paragraph - but i took the first step!
i'm taking it one paragraph at a time.

i read through the first paragraph a couple of times, and then converted the first sentence into a question, and then formulated an answer to it, adding some extra information to it and practiced answering it on the whiteboard. pretending as if i was teaching students, i imagine a group of invisible students eager to understand what i'm going on about lol.

i feel happy that i have actually taken that first step and have read the first paragraph to my thesis. i was really scared and kept avoiding my thesis. but i'm splitting up the task of reading and understanding my thesis paragraph by paragraph, into small and taking it literally one sentence a time. as they say, when you make a task very small, its more achievable.

going to have dinner now, and then relax and watch a dvd movie, as a reward :-)
lol i know i've only read one paragraph, but it's a milestone for me haha considering how many weeks i have wasted procrastinating and not being able to muster the courage to start reading my thesis.

i hope to return later on tonight to finish the rest of the sentences of paragraph 1.

how are you doing Ruby? Armendaf?

Sarah how was your viva? no doubt the last thing you're going to be doing is coming back here, i hope you take time to rest , but do come back and let us know how it went and any advice you can offer us. i hope you are okay.

Aloha - thats great, how did your mock viva go? what kind of questions did they throw at you?

======= Date Modified 22 Jan 2009 17:42:08 =======
wow its really nice to hear everyone elses experiences !! i dont feel so alone

well i will share what i have done today towards gearing myself to my viva prep. i'm pretending that i have to give a lecture on one of my chapters from my thesis. essentially i am pretending that i have to teach subject X to a bunch of undergrads. so in order to do that, i need to know my chapter throughly. so using the chapter as my "resource" before i go off doing "extra reading".

right now, i dont remember anything i wrote in chapter X or about subject X, but going to take it one section at a time. so here goes!
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for those that have your viva next week. GOOD LUCK: Rah and Zelda - i wish you all the best for next week, what day is your viva?