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Good morning folks. Thanks Armendaf :-)

Well i did wake up at 9am, but felt abit sick for some reason, so stayed in bed. Last night i brought my laptop with me to my bedroom, so that i could get some work going in the morning when i wake up and do what winston churchil did, he used to work from bed till 11am. and then break for lunch, take a nap for an hour, then work again, then take a nap before his dinner at 8pm, and work well after midnight. because he rested often he was able to work 16 hours a day during the war! impressive. so felt inspired to do the same!

but still feeling abit nausious (cant spell it) so might just work from my bed for an hour or so and then go to my study room and work on the desk top.

Armendaf, totally agree with you on the weather front, i woke up this morning, and thought wow it really is september, summer is over!

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my immediate aim:

finish the introduction section of chapter 5.

i havent done anything yet, just about to start, but i feel that i cant start until i post on here. its like a ritual or something hehe.

will pop back after an hour to update on the progress.

good luck everyone.

and a big GOOD LUCK to swantje!!

Thanks so much everyone for your support. I took your advice and spoke to a few people, and have made a deadline for myself, the 17th september. and to just basically glue myself to the chair and just aim now to tie it all up.

i'm not feeling depressed anymore, and feeling much more positive about it. today i worked well on chapter 5, today i started writing the final draft version of the introduction section, which made me feel good because i felt that i was now writing instead of preparing, which made me feel better.

i started on the introduction, and have done most of it, probably have about 30% left to write then can move on to writing the final draft of the discussion. i'm trying not to panic and just working consistently on each chapter and basically thinking that i cant include everything i want to, but just have to consolidate and keep to the main argument, no time for perfection, or very good. just gotta keep it to the "okay" level now. the ideal thesis i have in my head, i cant achieve that and there's no point of having it in my head and failing, i just gotta tie up the loose ends of what i have written and done and submit that and just hope for major corrections to fix it. one person told me that most of my thesis is done, its just tying up the loose ends now and that i am overestimating what i need to do, because i am panicking.

and in a way i just want to submit and get it over and done with, and dont want to drag this on anymore. so in essence i dont really want an extention, i just want to get it done and submit it.

i'm also cutting down on the number of hours i sleep at night, and going to aim to try to wake up at 7am. 6 hours of sleep should be enough. if i feel sleepy during the day, can take a quick hour cat nap.

progress today: total hours of productive time = 6 hours. total words for introduction of chapter 5= 2205 words.
i am pleased with my productivity today.

my technique basically: worked for maximum of 2 hours and then took a break.

i then had dinner around 9pm, and then after dinner relaxed for 45 minutes and watched an episode of "profiler" and then came back to my computer at 11pm, and worked until now.

i am now going to sleep and going to wake up at 7am. which is going to be a struggle as i hate waking up early lol. but i am going to try! i might bribe myself and tell myself i can watch abit of tv to wake myself up and then start work at 8am.

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Armendaf, i am so sorry to hear about your tooth, i hope you feel better, but poor you, you have my sympathy, and tommorow i will join ya, we can keep each other motivated during the day (up)

Tractogirl and Ruby hope you had a good day, i look forward to hearing your updates tommorow.

goodnight everyone and thanks again :-)

Thanks everyone! you're all so great, i will respond in detail at the end of the day, but just wanted to say a big big thank you to you all, for your brilliant advice and support. thanks so much!

i am just going to work really hard today and try to get chapter 5 introduction and discussion done. but yes you're right, i should not overwork as being tired does make things worse. and i will speak to phd admin and see what they say.

thanks everyone :-)

Thanks so much Ruby, you're so nice to say that about me , i really appreciate it. you're right, maybe we're just tired and just need some sleep and things will be better in the morning. sorry to hear about your day, i can sympathesise about techy stuff getting in the way, it is very frustrating and even more so when you think about the time that gets wasted on it. i hope you have a good night sleep!

i might go to bed too, i cant seem to motivate myself to do any writing. maybe i just need a fresh rested brain to start working on my discussion. just feeling abit depressed at the moment

:$ maybe i will feel better in the morning. i just feel guilty not working in the evenings..but after dinner, i just feel tired to do. but then i think what if i had to submit tommorow, then i would be up all night. but then i think, sure i could do that one or two days, but not for the long haul. so i should look at this as a marathon and not a sprint. i gotta keep the momentum going for a couple of weeks yet.

Hi folks, dragged myself to my desk very very reluctantly! feeling tired and all i really would just like to do is just go to bed. but with the deadline looming, i feel that i can't afford to slack off. but i dont know about anyone else, but i find it hard to work on my thesis after dinner, when i've been working on it during the day.

i'm having serious doubts about my ability to complete this thesis by end of sept, each day that passes causes me anxiety.

what would you do if you only had a week left and you HAD to submit, but you still had chapters incomplete? would you ask for an extention or would you just cut chunks out instead and just get it printed and bound.

i'm thinking of asking the university for an extention. but i know they wont give it to me. but at such a late stage, i dont even have my entry forms signed. my supervisor wont sign my entry forms, so what is the point anyways? its not that i have any examiners to read my thesis even if i were to submit it end of sept.

i'm beginning to think maybe my sup was right, in thinking i was incapable of completing my thesis by the end of sept, so i can understand why he cant be bothered to sign my forms and arrange examiners for me.

i cant believe its thursday tommorow, the week almost gone, and i still havent finished my chapter 5, and i have 5 other chapters that are awaiting completion.

i wish i were those people that were able to meet deadlines and were able to work all day and till really late at night on their thesis. i know people who have jobs and have worked late in the night to get their thesis done, those people are really amazing.

my friends and family keep asking me,. 'if i'm on target' and i am getting more and more irate with that question.

no i am not on target, im so off target, the target is a dot, and then they ask me, if i can get it completed by the end of the month, and i honestly, do not know if i can. if i do the maths, my answer would be no. i wish i had the luxury to submit it, when i have completed my thesis. seriously what harm can it do the university, by a few months? its not like im using any of the uni facilities. i'm just a name in their registry. i mean wouldnt it be better for the university, to let a student submit, instead of terminating them and then having a "failed phd student" on their records? wouldnt that be more harm to their "league tables" or whatever.

i just feel that i dont want to give my thesis in , that i am not even sure is correct or up to standard, i dont want to waste an examiners time reading a thesis that is below standard. who am i kidding, my sup wont even arrange examiners for me. so who am i giving the thesis to then?

i dont know , just feeling low at the moment. i get like this every night. i really admire those people that just get on with their thesis and meet the deadline and work very hard. i wish i were like them. with their confidence and motivation. sorry to sound all moany. i hate that i am like this. trust me i see myself as a big failure. i keep thinking how dissapointed my family and friends will be in me if i fail to complete my thesis. no one understands how much time writing a thesis actually takes.

my advise for those that have plenty of time, seriously the sooner you can start working on your thesis and writing, the better. you dont want to be faced with a deadline. hindsight as they say is 20.20

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my productivity, motivation and interest has drastically plummented now!!

so i am clocking out now, from the "day shift" and will resume later on tonight for the "night shift"

and feeling hungry, so going to have dinner now. and relax and watch some telly (lost in austen and the nine :-)), and then come back to it - later on tonight.

i am going to start writing my discussion in 1st draft format now. am bored of making notes from the papers i have read, and want to start putting the discussion together.

so far today i have done about 4 hours of 'productive work'. and written about 16 pages of notes from papers (hand written- getting tired of that format now, now i am itching to start writing on the computer and start putting this discussion together). so no more making notes from papers!!

i will just start writing my discussion now, and refer to the actual papers. have only managed to make notes from 4 papers, and its taking too long, so gotta cut corners now and get to the core of the work!

aiming to come back to the computer at 11pm. burn the ol midnight oil.

see you guys tonight if anyone else is working late tonight. i will keep ya company! (up)

How has your day been ?

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http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=764

"no matter how long it takes" hehe

and

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=765
lol:-)

lol H , sorry your message made me laugh, although i dont think that was your intention!
i know what you mean about feeling ugly, i've put on weight since i've been in "writing mode" going on a warrior diet now, where you fast during the day (eating fruits and water) and then have one big meal at the end of the day, and then you relax. its working out well ,because im no longer sleepy during the day and able to concentrate better on my thesis, even though do feel abit hungry, its nice to have something to look forward to, ie dinner and relaxing in the evening.

im sure you've not become ugly! but i can sympathesise with the weight gain! im a comfort and stress eater!

oh and WELCOME to the forum! you're going to love it here :-) and yah i totally agree, it really is a phd life saver!

if you ever have trouble finding motivation pop along to the accountability thread, we're usually gearing and cheering each other on ;-)
i'm on my own aswell, writing up my thesis at home in my study room.

you in your last year ?

like everyone said, best to check with the uni regulations, i am in the sciences also, and have included my first paper as one of my results chapters, basically at the end of the chapter, i'm just going to write "part of this chapter has been published (Appendix X) and then slot in the paper as an appendix.

you do not have to have the paper exactly the same in your thesis, actually its better that you dont. so you can cut out whatever lit stuff you dont want. its meant to be more of an adaptation. and no need to cite yourself.

so just take out whatever stuff you want from the paper and plod it in your thesis. (up)

by the way, what time does diagnosis murder come on and what channel?