**********DEADLINE**************
********1st of July*************
Full draft of my entire draf.

I have a deadline of a FULL draft completed by first week of July. That my graduate tutor has told me to meet. In order to prove to my supervisor I can submit by end of september.

I have exactly 14 days to meet this deadline
and 6 chapters (i am leaving out chapter 7 for the time being the conclusion and future bit and concentrate on the 6 essential chapters.

okay really gotta get cracking on getting the sections completed now in a methodical way, instead of a crazy haphazard manner.

gotta get my table of contents completed by tonight.

THANK YOU Olivia, for sharing with us about the flowers technique.

i googled it, and it's fantastic! it's really helped to unblock me

thank you!

i too, have difficulty thinking methodically and linear way and my way is usually haphazard way. i can't think linear either.

thanks so much for mentioning the flowers technique, I really appreciate it

hey chris, how's it going?

you know what just helped me - I was also struggling, so then i just started to ask myself.

okay what do you mean by that? what does this table actually show?

so then i just started writing in a really babyish way.

things like, this table shows X number of xyw, which shows that such and such.

and then i would ask myself, and? so? what's the point of that?

and then i would answer that bit.

abit of a split personality thing.

when you break loose of the shakcles of the "judge" the "madman" gets loose and gets creative.

or then i started to think:
as if i was explaining it to my daemon

explaining it in really simple broken english crappy grammer- bad words kinda of way. and you know what, it unblocked me. try it

i know i've said this countless times before.. saying it for me, rather than anyone else.

I did like 30mins or so working on my table of contents last night. so i started being more methodical and organised.

in the words of Joan Bolker, always leave writing on a downhil, so it's easier to get back to it the next day.

also remember:

"do some work on your thesis EVERYDAY, even if it's only for 15minutes"...

"everyday is more important than how much time you spend, or how many pages you produce or the quality".

"if you begin by working on your thesis 15minutes everyday, you will dramatically increase the odds that you will finish"..

*clocks in*

My specific aims for today are:

1. organse a detailed table of contents for my entire thesis (in zero draft format)

2. for each section write at least 1 sentence summarising (explaining) what i want to say for that section in zero draft format, do not worry about making it sound all scientific, write as if you are telling a friend...(aka thesis map)


-------
deadline for zero draft of table of contents and detailed thesis map
midnight tonight.
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break it up into tiny little pieces. start writing messy, what you wanna say. make a spider diagram

work on it for ONLY 10 minutes. you can do it for 10 minutes even if you hate it. start the egg timer

report back at midday telling us exactly what you have done! even if it's just one sentence

good luck

* i meant "without you all"

damn the no edit function!

3. he reassured me that 'we are all working together towards the successful completion of my phd thesis. with submission by the end of september, without any further delays'.

=======

i feel so relieved now. now i can just focus on my thesis.
i am really glad i wrote to him detailing him my complete phd history and the reason for such a long time. he understood. so im glad its all out in the open and qmul know now, exactly what happened.

okay septemeber club, let's get cracking, and wrap this baby up!
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Thank you all for all your support and advice and words of comfort and encouragement, I could not have gotten through this with you all! I owe you big time!!



in my acknowledgements, I am going to put in some cryptic thank you to you all. will have to think of a way like an acronym or something. haha. friends from the pgf club. lol

just recieved email from the postgraduate tutor at my uni: i feel like such a weight has been lifted off my shoulders now.

summary of email:

1. he emailed my sup on my behalf, telling him i am working on a rough draft of my thesis and will send it to my sup by 1st of july. if my sup is happy with the thesis then he should sign the forms.

2. he said that I can carry on talking to student welface etc, but they wont be able to help me with the finer points of registration and exam forms because -
whether or not my registration is terminated is actually down to him.

how bizzare, to not read it and then have the audacity to critise it.

Thanks Cakegirl!

also he said to make sure i have a good understanding of the fundamentals. and to think of my introduction chapter and general methods as if i am trying to explain it to a layperson. and that i dont need to worry about knowing the intricate details of stats that the statician did, but just understand the basic fundamental idea behind it. and that in the viva, they will question you on your basic fundamental understanding. in science, you tend to be so focused, that you sometimes forget the bigger picture and fundamental. so that was good to find out now.

*clocks in*

didn't do anything related to my phd. had a lunch thang with my family. and my dad's friend's son, came over to advise me on how to approach my thesis, so he offered me loads of advice. about doing a good thesis map and table of contents etc, and helped me think about how to introduce my chapters in my introduction chapter. so that was very helpful.

will start tommorow on my table of contents. and make it good.

he also advised me not to worry about word count per day. but instead focus on what sections to do, just do it section by section. and not to put in extra results just for padding as will take time to refine that. so just to concentrate on the essentials.

i know someone else on this forum also said to just concentrate on doing section by section. so that's what im going to do and not worry about word count anymore

*clocks out*

oh dear, poor you. i can see how frustrating that must be.