i thought i would try a different strategy today. i read somewhere that you should have a schedule. where you schedule in the hours you work, the hours you rest, and take breaks, and exercise. and do something you enjoy.

so i am going to give it a try. i seem to have this guilt, that i should be working on my thesis 12 hours a day with no breaks and just be like a robot at my desk. but i am going to try the 10 min break thing and see if that helps in my productivity.

i can't seem to get to the stage Joan Bolker writes about, how if its your last 2 months you should push yourself and work harder. i am not doing that :S

on page 130 she writes:

" getting on with it. back in chapter 5 i warned you to keep a sustainable pace. but now as you move into the final stages, you can afford to get wired, to overwork, to push yourself harder than ever before. you'll be amazed at how much work it's possible to accomplish in a month or two, if its the LAST month or two. samuel johnson notes that "when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully" your work now is to keep up a steady, perhaps accelerating pace. and to get yourself over the last hurdles, - psychological , intellectual or organizational. you also need to force yourself to revise your thesis up to a standard you'll be proud of, even though you may feel like just printing out whatever you've got and handing it in as is " {end quote}

tractorgirl! thanks! you're so right, a little bit is better than nothing at all.

oh and i'm the same as you! i made this determination of getting up early this morning, did get up at 10am, (but only cause i really needed the loo drank water before i went to sleep) but felt so tired, i went back to bed. lol but couldnt actually go back to sleep, so just lay there. eventually got out of bed around 11.30am i think. lol so bad. will try again tommorow. that should be our aim for tommorow! maybe we can try in small increments. tommorow i will try to actually get out of bed at 10am.

oh im really bad at maths, and i dont understand statistics at all! will just to get a dummies guide to it or something - figure it out somehow.

if you find a shop selling motivation, let me know! i need some too.

i found a free download version of the book. you can download it to pdf

the art of public speaking by dale carnegie

http://manybooks.net/titles/carnegieda16311631716317-8.html

ooops wrong thread lol

i found a free download version of the book. you can download it to pdf

the art of public speaking by dale carnegie

http://manybooks.net/titles/carnegieda16311631716317-8.html

i just read miss spacey, juno and pc geek, advice. excellent advice guys!!!

if i come across any pearls of wisdom, i will let you know!

i've been told confidence comes from knowledge. knowing what you're talking about, confidence will naturally flow. so the way to prepare is to know and understand your subject. then its just a matter of conveying what is in your head and explaining it to your listener.

i have dale carenegies book about public speaking, i am going to read it before my viva , i might have a quick look at it before my meeting with the dragons ie my sups lol

*actually only managed half of aim 1. as i have bags of little notepads i havent had time to look through. will do one notepad a day or something.

but i have gathered most of the notes i made from the meetings with the statician, the rest i will find from the internet.

basically, need to find out:

what is the difference between: maximum parsimony tree analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis using R.

if anyone can direct me to the right places that would be super!

okay me clocking out for the day.

only managed aim 1.

well done tractorgirl you managed to finish all your aims!!! ..

thanks tractorgirl for your advice and for the support! I really appreciate that.

thanks for saying such nice things about how i am handling it :)

nice to hear that i am not the only one that feels like that about the chapters lol.

i agree with you. you are right, focusing on one at a time *is* a good idea! so i will do that if i get very anxious, i will rotate every 3 days or something. if i feel like i am spending too much time on one chapter.

well it was a very slow day for me. was not very productive. hoping tommorow will be better! and i will start writing and working on the chapters, instead of worrying about how much i have to do and how little time i have left!

goodnight peeps

and i really need to focus on working on the chapter i'm working on, instead of worrying in the back of my mind about the other chapters! i wish i could clone myself and each one of us be working on the 4 results chapters simultaneously. lol. i think thats my biggest problem. i want to be able to work on all four chapters at the same time, which is ridiculous! and illogical i know.

i really need to start waking up early aswell! i guess it doesnt help i go to bed at 3am. but tommorow i am going to force myself to get up at 9am. and try to switch my body clock. that way if i get up early, i will go to bed early, and that might help.
---

okay my aims for today:

work on chapter 3:
1. finish looking through all my notepads and collect all the notes i ever wrote with the meetings with the statician. print out email correspondence aswell.

2. read through text book photocopies from the stats book. and make notes.

3. do R cluster analysis on all data.

4. do penny analysis on all data.

5. collect all the data and make an appendix for it.

5. find out the difference between the two methods of R cluster and penny analysis.

okay i was just about to add a shedload of more aims, and realised i need to be *realistic*!

okay so i have about 4 weeks before my sups dissapear.
and i have 4 results chapters. i've just written a pros and cons list to clear my head and i have decided i am sticking with my original rotation plan i made last night.

spend 2 days per chapter. if i feel that i am really getting somewhere with one chapter, and just need a little bit more time, will change plan accordingly. but at this early stage, i really think its best to spend time on each chapter.

and i wont worry about what i have to write tommorow or next week..as Joan Bolker states: p97 "write one day at a time... don't waste your energy on worrying either about next weeks writing or about yesterdays, either done or not done."

chantal, WELCOME! nice to have you join us!! i hope you find this thread motivational.

i look forward to hearing your aims and accomplishments