I'd just be honest. Things happen, I slept in and missed an early morning meeting last week :$

Im near the end of my PhD and I have 2, but I know people with alot more.

Im very nervous when it comes to presentations. To be honest im less nervous when im doing one than during the time leading up to it. I attended a class on presenting. We were told that we should warm up before giving a presentation(releases all the nervous energy :-) ). From my own personal experience the only real advice I can give is;
1. Practise Practise Practise, even stand in front of a mirror in your bedroom, ask your friends to listen to you(even if they dont know what you're talking about the experience of talking in front of people helps) and time yourself.
2. When giving a presentation try to make some eye contact with the audience.
3. Try and reduce your caffeine intake(if you're a tea/coffee drinker that is!! ) .
Try not to worry so much about presenting, it gets easier everytime you do it(Believe me, this is coming from someone who was so shy at school they got embarassed answering questions they got asked-even though they knew the answer).
Hope my advice is useful to you!
Good Luck!
:-)

I know how you feel Jinkim65, Im submitting in a matter of weeks, not months, still have alot to do but procrastinating on here. However, in the past few months I have managed to get a reasonable amount of work done. Instead of looking at the whole picture I did little parts at a time so as to not get overwhelmed by the amount i had to do. Set yourself a goal, for example, "in an hour i'll have such and such done", then you'll find yourself getting into your work and you wont want to stop. You're almost there!!
Good Luck!

:-)

Hi everyone, hope everyones Thursday is better than their Tuesday. My Wednesday was quite productive. I managed to get a chapter finished although it needs a bit of tidying and no doubt there will be corrections. Unfortunatley my Thursday hasn't got off to a good start, I slept in again this morning and I missed a meeting with my supervisor :-( Its after lunchtime and I've still done nothing today. Hoping that my Thursday is nothing like my Tuesday but it seems its just a wish that wont come true. *Sigh*.

:$

How is everyone today?

We've all had a bad tuesday! thank goodness its almost Wednesday(up)

Nothing worse than trying to work at a cold desk when you're tired and in pain.:-(

Hope tomorrow is better Sneaks (up)

How are you getting on now Jojo?

Sneaks- I can relate very well to your statement on "clicking on the refresh button on youre email for hours." It's funny how I can sit and read an email but find it difficult to motivate myself into reading a paper :$

Hi Jojo, I'm in the same situation as you. For the past couple of months I've been having problems getting to sleep at night, sometimes not getting to sleep as late as 3 or 4 in the morning. As a result ive been sleeping in alot- and im at my most productive early morning and late evening. Arrived in the office at 1.30 this afternoon, had no motivation to do any work. Looks like it will be a late one for me today also.

What I really wanted to say was Good Luck, you're not alone! :-)

I will have about 130 pages for my thesis when it is all written up and will have 6 chapters. I'm wondering if 6 chapters is too small, the number of pages doesnt bother me. I'm able to split one of my chapters into two but I'm not sure if this is worth my while. What I'm really trying to ask is how many chapters should a thesis have. Any thoughts? thanks :-)

:$

what do we win?!!(up)

Just wondering how many hours per week, on average, people spend working on their PhDs, either in the office or at home?

I'm in my final year, very close to the submission date. I'm worried that my work isnt good enough and i'm running out of time, I read works from the past that others have done and my mine looks/is so simple and trivial in comparison. I read what i've done, I dont think its of PhD standard, it will be too short in comparison to other theses, and to be honest I am panicking about my viva already, because I feel/know my work will get torn apart. :$



:-(

Hi Monkey,
Your supervisors wouldnt let you submit your thesis unless they believed you would pass. I am feeling as you are right now, I am due to submit in a matter of months, so you're not alone. I read past works and my work looks so trivial and simple in comparison and I start to panic. You're almost there, dont give up! Its good to worry sometimes, it shows you really care ;)

Good luck!! :)

If i can give one piece of advice it would be to not wait until the last minute to read literature on your subject, it helps alot to start reading and writing a lit review early on. Also try not to waste your first year, the time flies in PhD land! If you don't understand something there is no such thing as a stupid question, we are trainee researchers, we need to question things

Good Luck from a final year PhD student :-)