http://davidseah.com/tools/ett/alpha/

this is the website.

so today. *just* work for 15minutes. and then log what you did during those 15 minutes, and take a break.. and keep doing that. even if it's work for 15 minutes, and take 30 minutes break to do whatever you want. and keep cycling like that.

yesterday i worked for an hour or so. took an hour break, then worked for another hour or so, took a nap for about 3 hours. then worked for a couple of hours. etc.
before i used to tell myself. right i am going to sit at my desk ALL day and clock 10 hours of productive work. i ended up only ever clocking maximum 2 hours.

now that i am getting used to taking breaks and not being so focused on staying at my desk all day, i find that i am more productive. i find that after the hour is coming close, i get bored and restless and want to take a break. before i used to punish myself and not let myself leave my desk.

so today, i am going to try to reduce the length of breaks. it's all about doing it slowly.

so today. your mission is to just work for 15 minutes, and then report back to us, what you actually did. everyone can manage for 15 minutes.

and to combat worrying is to engross yourself in something that takes your full attention. Dale Carnegie said we cannot think two thoughts at the same time. you cannot think of the statue of liberty and what you want to do tommorow. the mind can only think one thought, you can keep swapping between the two, but you cant think of both at the exact same time.

same goes with worrying, you cannot worry and work out a calculation at the same time.

i;ve been suffering from panic attacks and worrying for the past month! i do still worry, but then try to distract myself by just doing small tasks for my thesis.

i tell myself to do X and give myself a time limit of 15 minutes. if i dont complete it in 15 minutes, thats fine, i reset the timer again to give myself another 15 minutes.

Tricky, Miss spacey and Juno - excellent advice indeed!

Juno, loved quote!! i am going to stick it on a postit and on my wall :-) how true that is.

not much for me to add from the great advice given to you already.

but i have been feeling like you for a long time. i have a deadline end of september, and i wake up everyday worrying how to work 12 hours to get my chapters done. but then K and Tractorgirl (from the acountability thread) gave me advice to stop thinking too much about being productive, and just set myself small taks to complete. like already mentioned having things to cross off, feels good.

so that's what i did yesterday. just told myself to do one little thing, just for 15minute. i even set a egg timer. when the timer went off, i got *into it* and carried on. 15 minutes turned into an hour. and then i told myself every hour i would take a break. sometimes i would work for a couple of hours before taking the break.

the trick is to tell yourself. that you *only* have to work for 15minutes. and then you can take a break and do whatever you want.
sometimes you will get into the zone and not want to take a break after 15minutes, other times you will want to take a break, and that is okay too.

so today, i just want you to try this little experiment.

visit this website, to track what you are doing every 15 minutes. it even chimes every 15minutes, you can check the box on the left side. and then write down what you did. if you were doing nothing, thats fine just log on saying *nothing* eventually psychologically, you will want to do something, no matter how small, just so you have something to record.
try it out.

i did mine yesterday, and usually i can only manage 1 or 2 hours of productive work. but yesterday, even though i took massive breaks throughout the day, more breaks than i worked. i managed to clock 5 and half hours of productive work, and checked off about 4 things from my list. they arent huge things, but somethin

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Thanks K! that is brilliant advice! :-) I really appreciate your message, it was perfect , just want i needed to hear. you're right, i am going to focus on making each day productive, instead of thinking of the 2 week deadline or whatever... and that makes so much sense about pushing ourselves too much to be productive and working long hours, and that average productivity is good, thank you.... i liked that quote about Thomas Edison :-)

i'd give you a gold star, if i knew how to!! (ooh just realised i cant give gold star, cause i didnt start this thread - talking of which i hope Anthropolago is okay, not heard from her in ages).

thanks again K! you're a star!(up)

you make alot of sense, because that's how i feel every morning, the dread of having to work all day and all hours on a chapter, instead like you and TG adviced, will work on little bits and build from there... and i like that philosophy make each day as productive as possible instead of worrying about tommorow.

todays aim:
chapter 5: work on the results section, restructure, add additional analysis and finalise.
i have about 8 sub-sections. but need to take out a couple of them, and add a few more.

hope everyone has a good day!

Thanks TG!! for your encouraging post! you always make me feel better!!

well i did as you suggested, something *easy* and i just read through my sup's comments again on chapter 5, and made a list of all the corrections and additional stuff to add. so feel abit better now that i have it all written down. the list has 32 check points. so tommorow will tackle it one at a time. and then tick it off. and if something creeps up, will just add it to the bottom of the list.

you've done incredibly well, on getting the 6 chapters. dont worry about the abstract! that can be done later , and is usually done right at the end when your thesis is completed. i am sure your sup wont be fussy. those other things can be done whilst your sup reads the content. ie the contents and references. i wouldnt worry about those things, they are just icing on the cake. you got the bulk of the cake done, and that is fantastic!! you definately deserve to treat yourself off tommorow and take a day off or something (up)

it makes me feel better that i am not the only one that is suffering from panic attacks! i think its the looming deadline thats causing us to feel so anxious!

i am with you, i want a break from science too!! even though my brother was saying how cool it is that i am in research and contributing, which was nice to hear :-)

thanks TG for taking the time to write to me. you made me feel heaps better!

i am going to head to bed now. and start afresh tommorow. and just tackle each bit on my check list one at a time, and tick it off.

i agree with you,about working on one chapter a day. so i've made a 2 day deadline, work on each chapter for 2 days and then move onto another chapter. so i have a deadline every other day.

hope it goes all okay tommorow handing in your completed draft. well done you!!!!(up)

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[quote]Quote From tractorgirl:

Hi Everyone, Hope you all had a good weekend. I was a bit naughty!!! and watched a lot of the olympics so today i have loads to do if i want to make my deadline of handing most of my thesis in tomorrow! So i will be having a long day today!!!

Aims: Still have to finish Chapter 1! (am getting there slowly!!!)

Re-read chapters 3,4,5

Write my abstract

Sort out the table, figures and contents pages!

[quote]

rooting for you TG!!! i hope you get it done you've done so well this past month, you met your goal!!! you should really be proud of yourself
(up)

i've wasted this past month, doing god knows what!! but you've done so well in completing your final draft. am so proud of you!! :-)

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okay folks, its sunday which means a brand new spanking week , which we can grab hold off! i am going to make a resolution not to be depressed and negative about my phd. i was telling a friend of mine yesterday that i feel that i am going to fail and he said, i shouldnt think like that. i think i just needed to let it out my deepest darkest fears and insecurities and now that i have said it out loud i feel better about it. he was being really supportive and said to try my best and agreed with me that it wont be the end of the world. i guess i just needed to hear that.

anyways so it's a brand new week. so i am planning on working super hard and get as much done as possible! there is still time, and anything is possible and will use the philosophy of it's "good enough" without becoming obsessed at making it perfect.

my aims for today:

1. email a professor that formulated the original idea of my phd, and type out the reviewers comments on the 2nd paper for her to see.

2. email a collegue that i colloborated with on chapter 5 and ask her for help. since my own supervisors cant help me. ask her a few questions that are troubling me.

3. re-organise and restructure my results section for chapter 5. and start reading papers to think of what the data could mean and think of an idea of what it means. thinking is hard! especially at this late stage where you want everything to just be on a plate!

Anyways, the only way to combat worry, is to work on something that engages your brain. so will distract myself from worrying by working on my chapters.

my aims for today:

work on chapter 5: results section. restructure and reorganise results and condense and remove repetitive results and add extra result analysis.

and like K and wal said just work on it bit by bit. take one section at a time..... each step/section completed and finalised means that you're one step closer to finishing..


good luck everyone who is working today! (up)

thanks K, you're right. i will do that.

i was having a panic/anxiety attack last night. i kept worrying that i really believe i am going to fail my phd. irrational unhelpful though it may be to just worry, but i couldnt block it out. i feel that i have to learn all the background knowledge to my phd in 5 weeks which i should have been doing over the years. naughty phd student that i was!

so advice for those newbie phd students. get your background reading and knowledge down as early as possible!

but then again, once you submit your viva, i may have a few months to revise and prepare for the viva. i just feel that i dont understand or know anything about my phd or the background. i feel like a fake phd student, i just played one on tv lol.

anyways dale carnegie states the only thing that can push worry thoughts out of your head, is to do *something* to engage yourself in your work. because you cannot think two things at the same time. ie i cannot worry that i feel i am definately going to fail and work on my chapter at the same time. so if i just concentrate on my chapters and push worry out of my head.

i then tell myself, what matters is i just try my best, and if i do fail than that's just life and will have to deal with it, like anything in life.

one of my collegues a professor, sent me an email yesterday telling me my 1st paper has been cited in several other scientific journals. i have to admit i felt quite chuffed that papers were citing lil ol me ! lol

but then i got reviewers comments back for my 2nd paper, and it needs major revisions and whilst reading the reviewers comments stressed me out, because they know so much and i kept thinking, i dont know that, and that. and i should cause its just general background stuff. i think that was the trigger for the panic attack last night.

and also that i dont know the background knowledge, or i might have a vague understanding it, but i cant articulate it or explain it to someone else.

good luck K !! you are doing so well. you're nearly there. well done (up)

Miss Lara