that is such a great idea having a change of scenary. its good to have a change of atmosphere. good thinking! i might do the same. maybe like once a week or something. you're right, being around people that are also studying, will be good.

let me know how you get on

LOL I was very tempted to run away! far far away from statistics.

finally got over my fear and found a really good article tonight, on the internet - it is really explaining it in basic terms!
but now i dont know how to "reference" it. cause its a website link, and i heard that you are not allowed to reference website links in a phd thesis. but will worry about the referencing later.

i set myself a 15minute egg timer, and ended up working for an hour! making new timers everytime the timer went off lol. love the egg timer website

thanks so much for the kind and encouraging words about not worrying about having a couple of unproductive weeks i must add, you made me feel better. i appreciate that!

also i think i was suffereing from ambivalence, for those that have the book: page 86.

Joan Bolker writes:

"it is absolutely possible to want very much to write your dissertation and also to want very much not to, and if the forces are just about equal, you will end up in the seasaw position with a lot of tension and no motion".

"most of us are ambivalent about the important ...events in our lives: getting married, having children, being in love or taking the sort of major leap forward professionally that earning a doctorate constinutes. You can't banish mixed feelings by denying them....."

my *aims* for tonight.

1. google for articles on R cluster analysis and make notes on the theory behind R cluster analysis.

2. pubmed search for articles that have used R cluster analysis.

and another thing i will do, is make my aims more achievable. like JB says don't make aims that you would have to be superhuman to achieve them.

p95: Joan Bolker: "unreachable goals kill motivation. you need to evaluate realistically, not fantastically, what a reachable writing goal is for yourself and then go for it. Each day that you succeed will make it easier for you to write the next day".

Chantal, glad you like the egg timer! i am going to use it today, to see if i can get "something" done. i like to remind myself that even in one minute you can get something done towards your thesis. in one minute you can learn a new fact.

i have to keep telling myself that. it's not how much time i spend on my thesis, it's the "productivity" and what i have accomplished that counts.

so tommorow is a fresh start. my *main* aim tommorow is to wake up early! i am planning on waking up at 9am. i read somewhere once, if you publicly declare an aim , you're more likely to achieve it. i think if i force myself to wake up early, then i will be able to go to bed earlier and be able to shift my body clock. i feel guilty going to bed at 3am and waking up at midday. i feel the day gets wasted when i get up at midday.

i want to start waking up early and going to bed by 12 or 1am.

hey guys- sorry i've been AWOL! i just had a really weird week. not productive at all.

this week: i went through all my notes/emails/lab books/notepads, and got all the notes on R cluster analysis and maximum parsimony trees.
that took a few days.

i did go to the british library twice this week though, and ordered some books and references that may help with the theory behind cluster analysis.

but i haven't done anything really productive towards my thesis. and i took a few days off where i did nothing.

but as JB would say the past is in the past, and no point crying over unproductive work in the past.

how did your meeting go with the Dean?

well done on getting your appendix done! good luck with the chapter refinements!!

how are you doing miss spacey?

and tractorgirl?

hi miss spacey, thanks for the message. i've been feeling rather guilty. this past week, haven't got much done. but i did go to the british library twice this week and ordered a bunch of references that might help me with the statistics part of chapter 3 and 4.

i spent a couple of days trawling through notepads and lab books and emails and picking out notes I made on cluster analysis.

i feel this week has been very unproductive. so i am making a fresh start tommorow, and will forget about the "unproductive" week i just had.

a few days i completely blew off and didnt do anything.

i will try to control my anxious feelings about the whole thesis ...and just concentrate on doing it bit by bit.

I've made an excel diary and will track my progress from tommorow onwards and see how much i can get done in 2 weeks. i have set myself a deadline of 3rd August. to try to get as much of the results chapters completed as possible.

thanks guys for your advice about arranging a meeting. i emailed my 2nd sup today.
---

hey tractorgirl and chantal, use the following page:

http://www.myeggtimer.com/

to monitor your breaks and what you have accomplished. it's really cool!
i cant remember who told us about it.
but thought i would give you the link incase you didnt know about it.

you can set alarm times for your breaks. or use countdowns and monitor how much work you've done and how much time you've spent working "productively". you can also add to do lists.

hey celesmai, hope baby is doing well! and i hope your gran gets better soon.

*accomplishable

my specific aims:

1. read up on R clusters and maximum parsimony tree analysis and make notes *madman stage*

2. find out and explain the difference between the two methods (search on the internet, for the answer - if get really stuck: find a stats expert and email for help)

i am going for realistic goals today. it is better to set realistic goals and actually achieve them, then set unrealistic goals that you would be superhuman to meet them. as JB would say!

As Olivia said anything is accomplisable (dont think thats a real word) if you break it down into tiny parts.

"Promise yourself that you will only work for ten minutes"

i think i will try that. work in 10 minutes until i get my momentum going.

"Set realistic time goals to complete your bite-size tasks, and then plan to take a break."

so here's my schedule for today: lets see if i can stick to it:

13.00 hrs : 45 mins work (egg timer): 10 min break (play my piano) and so on...

okay will give it a go and see how i get on.

my aims for today : work for 45 mins, and take 10 min breaks throughout the day.

then at 7pm: take a 30min bike ride around the park.

"Strangely, procrastination can be caused by panic. Urgency makes us fearful and stop working. There is enough time pressure on us without artificially creating more". - i think that's what i am suffering from!

then in the evening, will reward myself with a dvd. i will write down exactly how many hours of productivity i have accomplished today. and how many words i have written.