wow hats off to the mothers who are doing a phd AND looking after their children. i really admire that.

i can barely look after myself and my phd. so well done you mothers, i admire your organisation and hard work

i feel guilty that i have wasted half a day and have done nothing and now im writing about not doing anything lol i know how illogical it sounds! believe me!

okay deadline: 4pm

1. make a mindmap for the rest of the week.

2. make a mindmap for chapter 6 (aka scary chapter)

2. start making notes and collecting scraps of notes and rough drafts for chapter, from old reports, lab books scrap pieces of paper. anything... do it one step at a time. and not to worry about connection or logical order. just get it all down in one place.

i know why i am procrastinating, because it feels like a big mess of a mountain, and i have to go in and extract all the information and find it. and sort it all out.

okay will just start in one area and start making notes..

will report back at 4pm.
*Starts egg timer*

now my "Daemon" keeps telling me to DO SOMETHING! anything related to the big scary chapter that i have to write from scratch.

okay drastic actions have to be undertaken.

i am going to have to use my egg timer and bribe myself. lol

I will work in short time burts, and then reward myself with a snack lol ritz crackers with cheese

and report back here exactly what i have done in an hourly update. that's the only thing that will actually make me do something, if i have to update here.

so ignore my posts today please! drastic actions are required today.

now i am reading this article about how to make procrastination work for you.
http://www.procrastinationhelp.com/forum/5_8_0.html

"3 - Do something. Anything!

Ever have a goal that was so challenging you were overwhelmed by it? Didn't even know where to start? Maybe felt a little ... uh ... procrastination setting in?

Put your attention on anything you can do that supports your goal, and do it - immediately. Find something else you can do - and do it. Again. And again. Just keep taking tiny steps. Do whatever you can do, whenever and however you can do it. You'll not only move from procrastination into action"

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OMG!!! i can't stop procrastinating!! now i'm reading articles about procrastination!!! and searching this forum about procrastination. i read some funny old articles.

this one really cracked me up, because it resonated with what i do!!

http://www.postgraduateforum.com/showmessage.asp?thread=4180&cat=4&keyword=procrastination&newview=1&stype=TM&category=0
writingup
[Registered User]
28 April 2006 13:38 Side effect of writing up?
I'm interested to know about any side effects people are experiencing through the writing up process. Some of mine:

Chronic procrastination, including:
constant web-surfing,
compulsive e-mail checking
Addiction to surfing for blogs about writing up phds

Cravings for junk food
Extremely messy flat
Telling friends I can't see them because I have to work
Desire/ mourning for social life

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actually i edit my above post, SillyBilly, its good to treat ourselves not only once in a while, but all the time!! hehe

Anthropologa,
I only did aim 1 yesterday, i did abit of aim 2, but was too tired in the end.
yeh, try the downhill slope, you will find it is useful

so did it work, trying to write first before anything else?
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liminalplace, nice to hear from you! and have you back.
i am feeling stressed too!
oh yes, i have on many many occassions avoided my supervisor. i still do it!

like Joan would say, don't worry about whether the conference paper will be good enough. just do your best, and let the cards fall.

we're all our worst critics!! harder on ourselves than others would be.

hope you have a good day today.
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hey SillyBilly,
glad you had a break, it's good to treat yourself once in a while.and sounds like you had a stressful time at the dentist.
and that's great you starting a zero draft of introduction! good for you.
hope your appointment goes well and you get it sorted out.

oh yeh my aims hehe:

1. collect all rough scraps and information needed for chapter 6. (i.e old emails, lab books, old reports, rough notes, anything).

2. write zero draft of chapter 6: part B

3. write zero draft of chapter 6: part C

(part A was done a couple of weeks ago,it's in its 1st draft almost final format, so will let that stay sleeping for now).

Hey everyone! nice to see all the messages and nice to hear what everyone has been up to!

i've been very lazy today, hardly could get out of bed! i wasn't sleeping, but just felt really tired. so read in bed for awhile (a book unrelated to phd). eventually got out of bed at 12.30pm.

it's 2pm and i still haven't done anything. i'm starting on a new chapter. so maybe that's why. i'm about to do a mind map to get me going.

writing a chapter from scratch is scary!!

update from yesterday.

finalised chapter 4 yesterday: just need a few "style" corrections, which i will do next week. and a few grammer mistakes, nothing major though. so that's done and dusted now.

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now i have 5 chapters left to do before july 4th.
eeeeeeeeek

awww thanks Jojo, you're so sweet , I appreciate it.

hey 750 words! thats brilliant! way to go!

just finished aim number 1. finalised chapter 4 and transferred it to final draft version.

time to move onto chapter 3. aim number 2.

but going to take a break in 20mins and have some dinner and chill for a couple of hours, before i start the "night shift".

but like JB says, park on the downhill slope so that its easier to get back into it. so I will start proof reading and editing chapter 3 for about 20mins.

lol i still do it! i'm just checking my final version of the chapter, and i've put in squiggly brackets alternative versions of sentences. lol habits are hard to break.

lol zelda,. that is funny, unpack. i like that.

this is personal to me, but my supervisor whenever she read drafts of my paper, would tell me, to say something once and to say it well. i had a tendency to keep saying the same thing a few different ways and then not being able to decide which way was the best, and then leaving all the different alternative sentences in the draft.

good on you for wanting to start now! that's great!

i also agree with SillyBilly, that it's best to start on zero drafts. because when the time comes down to get writing, it will be nice to have some foundation writing to work on.

so yah set aside some time everyday to do some writing, it can be very rough, and for only 30minutes or so. but it will build up.

good luck!