infection strains eh, sounds interesting

kinda like outbreak the movie! hehehehehe my imagination going into hyperdrive. probably nothing like the movie. but i just saw abit of it the other day hehe

an A4 is better than nothing!! its a start, and that is great !

TG dont be so hard on yourself is it the discussion /summary chapter? those are the hardest! i am sure whatever you come up with , will be fine. its not your final final version to give into senate house. so it doesnt have to be perfect. it can just be a scrappy version of the final version you will do. just jot down the main ideas. and if you dont get it done, just tell your supervisor. im having a hard time coming up with ideas. but you will most of your other chapters done. so it will be fine.

your sup wont hang you for it. try to take the pressure off yourself abit. i think thats whats causing the block. its the anxiety of it all.

it takes time for ideas to formulate. sometimes you can find inspiration when you let it go or come across an interesting paper. it will come together soon enough.

good luck!

angie i know what you mean! a few hours of my day was sucked up by admin emails too!

i hear ya tractorgirl!

don't worry i've had a rubbish week aswell! and keep adding to my list of aims from past days and never really accomoplishing finishing anything.

i'm going to try a different strategy tommorow. spend an 1 hour - 2 hours maximum per chapter. as i have only been working on one section of one lousy chapter, whilst the other chapters have been neglected!

total productive time about 2 and half hours.

although i am having lots of fun with my mind maps, and its really motivated me i am finding it easier now to organise things and i feel psychologically secure, when i find a good reference, i wont forget about it. as i have put it in my mind map and made notes on it etc.

tommorow i am going to work abit on 3 chapters..rotate every hour or 2 hours.

thanks TG you're right about how 4-6 hours is realistic. i agree!

i will stop beating myself up about 10/12 hour shifts lol.

and aim for 6 hours instead

my aims for today.
1. finish making notes on maximum parsimony
2. describe few patients for penny analysis
3. compare cluster and penny for a few patients.
4. work on SNP global data.
5. compare SNP data with m/s data
6. sort out cluster analysis for chapter 4
7. do global cluster analysis for chapter 4
8. bike ride at 8pm for 20minutes
9. have dinner at 9.30pm.

*** work for an hour and take a 10minute break away from my computer***

aim to clock in 5 hours of productivity time.

hey TG, you're so right! just need to keep at it and work as much as you can. i know i cannot do 12 hours or 10 hours!! yep you're right we all work differently. like you said what you do each day is more important. thanks TG really needed to hear that.

glad you enjoyed mamma mia, you deserved to take a break. good luck with chapter 7! i am sure you will get it done.

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celesmai sorry to hear that. that's really unfair. you've been working so hard. i hope you find the samples. how annoying to go in and sort it out.

also work in one week deadlines also. say to yourself, by sunday, i have to have to get section A completed. or a rough version of chapter X.

work in short time bursts and take a break AWAY from your computer. if you begin good study habits now it will be easier for you when you're nearing your deadline.

today make a plan for the rest of the week. what chapter/section you're going to work on each day. and then during that day work on that section/chapter. and get as much done as possible.

keep track of your work progress.
good luck! 4 months is plenty of time. you can do it!

the best thing to do is tell yourself you only have 3 months, and keep one month as a safety net. also set yourself shorter deadlines.

my advice, (which is what i did) give yourself a deadline, of one month, say september 1st, by which you should have a first draft of ALL your chapters. now this first draft doesnt have to be perfect, but should contain most of the stuff that will be in the final version.
and then the 2nd month, can be used to improve on the 1st draft and fill in the missing sections etc.

if you have 4 months, it will take you 4 months. if you had 1 year it would take you one year.
basically whatever time you have, you organise yourself and work more each day. if you had a year to write a thesis, you would probably just spend a couple of hours each day and the rest procrastinate. if you only had one month, you would work 10 hours in the day.

you're very welcome K - that's right mentally and psychologically writing a thesis is challenging!!

hope your worry schedule went okay.

i did mine at 9pm - 9.30pm. lol i kept having worry thoughts throughout the day but had to forcibly remind myself to stop. at one point it got bad, so i took a few minutes and wrote what was worrying me.
and that helped because i told myself to write a solution to it.

my biggest fear, that time will run out and i wont have completed my thesis by the deadline. the way to circumvent that. i just need to clock in more hours and work harder on my thesis everyday.

aww angie good luck and i've heard batman is excellent! so definately go treat yourself

i myself cant wait to watch it too!! might treat myself next week if i get alot of stuff done.

my aims tommorow:
wake up at 8am.
schedule 1 hour deadlines per "bit"
work on some bits for chapter 3
some bits for chapter 4
aim to clock in more productive hours than today.

hi everyone! TG hope mamma mia was fun, and congratulations on meeting your aims!

and celesmai well done to you too!

you both are doing so well! meeting your aims. well done both of you.
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well as usual i didnt meet my aims.
i am going to try a different approach and look at how many hours i can clock in - working "actively and productively" on my thesis.

total productive time today = 3 hours and 15minutes.

tommorow i am going to aim to clock in more hours. and try to beat my record today.

i had my first "worry schedule" scheduled at 9.00pm - 9.30pm. my biggest fear is that i wont get my thesis completed and time will run out.
and i am worried that i can't seem to clock in more hours. a collegue once told me she used to work 12 hours a day everyday when she wrote her thesis in a couple of months! i dont know how she did that. she told me she basically worked from 10am - 10pm.

i wish i was a robot lol and didnt get tired or bored or panicked.