thanks for sharing!!! explains me so well!! every morning i have great expectations and always fail to finish my aims

" It's also why the list-makers among us get up each day and make to-do lists that by the same evening will seem laughable, even insane.
"

wow good luck with finding a new supervisor that will help you, instead of standing in your way.

so you can have a new supervisor and fire your current one? that would be so awesome, "you're fired!"
i wish i could look for a new supervisor too!!

*clocking in*

my aims for today.

chapter 3:
1. describe a few penny trees
2. compare few patients of penny and cluster
3. SNP data global table
4. cluster analysis of SNP data
5. penny analysis of SNP data
6. cluster analysis of SNP and M/S data

chapter 4:
7. sort out cluster analysis
8. global cluster analysis

chapter 5:
9. cluster analysis of meth data
10. compare meth data with m/s data
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good luck TG with your chapter 7 I will be keeping you company today, going to glue myself to the chair all day today. but will take a 10minute break every hour so i don't get tired.

and celesmai and angie you two have a great weekend

thanks celesmai! you are so right about the disheartening bit! i will certainly be more realistic. and like TG said, if i find i have done my aims, then just *add* to them

and you're so right about the long list of aims i tend to produce everyday, will be more realistic from tommorow onwards.
i'm also going to try to spend an hour on each chapter everyday. that way i will feel better that i am spending time with each of my chapters. abit like the advice on the procrastination website. "spend time on each task, like spending time with each child" lol we can see our chapters as our little children, that need time and attention lol

good luck with chapter 7. i am fully confident that you will get it done! you can do it. you've shown me in the past that you've accomplished things you really aimed for!

lol!! your messages (especially the last one) really made me laugh!! you've put a big smile on my face. and i am soooooooooooooooo happy to hear that the worry time worked for you! brilliant!!

and good on you for sticking with your chapter 7 and taking the pressure off yourself. fantastic!
thanks so much for the kind words you wrote, i really enjoyed reading all your messages!!

you've given me the boost and encouragement in return! it really is inspiring to me to see your progress and "stick with it" attitude . top kudos to you!!

lol i love our film references lol!!

i loved the mind maps so much, i bought the student lite version. expensive. but its definately helped me with my motivation. i know feel psychologically secure that everything is there. if i havent quite finished something. i make a note of it on my mind map. and i also have a document, where i monitor my punch in and punch out hours. lol and i have my trusted egg timer! for times when i lack motivation, i set it to 15minutes, for other times, i set it to 30mins.

anyone can try out the mind maps for free, for 30days. mindjet.com
be careful- its quite addictive!

thanks betty, you're very kind

well i had a "down" day. tore down my mind maps that were on my wall, taunting me that i hadn;t accomplished my aims for the week. so i figured it's august 1st. start fresh, clean the slate free. so i went for a bike ride, sat in the park and wrote down my fears and worries, and then addressed each one and wrote solutions to it. and felt better about it.

i then had fun working on my mind maps. and breaking down what i have to do, in really tiny tiny steps.
like saying to myself.

I want to sort out my penny data for pt 1-16. then i would write. why?
then i would write to myself, because it will help me to compare the data with cluster analysis. and then i wrote -why do you want to do that? and then answered myself - to see if the data is different or matches.

that way i feel like i am in control. i am doing it because i *want* to, and i pretend it's interesting! lol

i think the key is to tap into our inner child. when we're children, we're constantly facsinated by the world around us, we ask questions, we want to learn. but then we hit school and that all changes, the focus changes to get grades and we're "controlled".. we no longer feel we have any options and are "forced" to learn things so that we can pass a test or an exam..

maybe go back and find something in your research that you *are* interested in. there must be something. and work from there.
good luck!! you are most definately not alone, i feel like you most of the time we're all here to support you, please feel free to come back and share your concerns , positive and negative, its important to get them written down so they can stop controlling you, and swimming around in your head. the very act of writing down what you fear or worry about , is thereapeutic.

try to find internal motivation to do it. not because you HAVE to do it, not because your supervisor told you to, not because you want to get a phd degree, those are all external factors. find and tap into your inner child that is curious and wants to learn and feed your intellectual curosity.

i'm reading this really fascinating book called "punished by rewards" by Alfie Kohn, he writes about how external motivation are not productive, one needs to find internal motivation.

{quote} "the core of pop behaviourism is "do this and you'll get that".

do it for yourself. write the thesis or plan it for yourself. think of it as a biography. writing about your life for the past 5 years. indulge yourself as a writer..

"worrying and planning both involve thinking about the future - but planning is productive"

like betty said. work in very very short spurts. just work on your thesis for 10minutes everyday. everyone can do just 10minutes everyday. even if you hate it, you can do it for 10minutes. and that might help you to overcome your fear and might get you motivated to do more.

also work on just a small tiny section of your thesis. and before you set your timer for 10minutes or 15minutes, ask yourself.
"why do i want to write about X?" "how will X improve my own knowledge?"

the same concept can be applied about lack of motivation. at the moment you feel that you are not motivated.

well one way to overcome that, is to actually *do* something related to your thesis. no matter how small! and no matter for how long. but something, anything related to your thesis. you can ever write or make notes on bits you dont like about your thesis. your worries your concerns your fears, what bits about your research you do like, how you would organise your data to explain it to a layman, so they would understand what you've been working on the past few years.

recently, i learnt of a strategy - whereby you schedule a "worry time" you pick a time during the day, and for 15-30minutes or whatever you sit there and you worry. i know it sounds absurd, but it has actually been helping me. i usually write down my worries first, and then i address each worry as a rational person and try to find a *solution*

but it means that for the rest of the day you tell yourself STOP when a negative thought creeps into your head and remind yourself that you're scheduled to worry at 9pm. or whatever.

Dale Carnegie writes about how to overcome worry and that is to do something that requires concentration. it is impossible to think two thoughts at the exact same time. you just can't do it. think of the statue of liberty and then think about what you want to do tommorow. you're mind can only think one thought at one time, and it might go back and forth, but you cant think both at the same time.

bettyspaghetti is spot on!

i feel like you, most of the time! i go through cycles of feeling motivated to the complete opposite, and usually within the same day! - i have felt lack of motivation, procrastination, anxious, fear of failing, fed up. it's constant up and down.

usually lack of motivation is fear in disguise. i know it is for me. it's not that i *don't* want to write my thesis. but i am scared of failing to complete the thesis in time, or not doing a good job of it.

the task of writing a thesis is sooooooo huge and overwelming and most if not all phders go through the stage of "i just dont know where to start and it just seems too big to even start!"
--

you have to tackle it on daily/even hourly basis. it's not easy the demons are always there in your mind reminding you and wanting you to indulge in negative fantasy.

angie well done! its done now, and your sup can read it when he/she is back.

celesmai, well done on consistently meeting your aims .

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i dont know if i should even bother putting my aims down cause i never manage to meet them i'm very annoyed at myself.

well since it's august 1st. i should rethink my plan and make a fresh plan, so i am not constantly "catching up" on the aims in the past..that i didnt complete the past 4 days. because feels so disheartening. so will make a fresh start today. wipe the slate clean so to speak. and make a fresh new plan for the next 7 days. starting today.