I relate to you, im in that horrible head down grit teeth and write stage-at least im meant to be. I finish in sept and I am appalled at how little I have done, so Ive just made a massive chart of how im going to get to sept with daily tasks and submission dates to try and do it. Its not easy and they are right gritting your teeth is the only way to do it, there is no magic unfortunately.

Try reading Joan Bolkers writing your dissertation in 15 minutes a day. I swear by it, it should be made compulsory for every PhD student.

Hello my lovelies

Well I have been very absent for a month or so now, mainly hiding underthe sofa in fear of my PhD but I have tonight given myself a beautiful new wall chart which has a day by day break down from now til sept submission and what I will be doing until then. Heres the thing. Ive never stuck to a schedule in my life, and I think the schedule is pretty kind sat and sunday off but Im still a bit worried about sticking to it.

I NEED to stick to it. Its squeaky bum time and for me to genuinely get a good running jump at this bad boy stuck to it must be (oh I sound like yoda)

Can anyone offer any advice or support? Ive moved back into my office and gone into superduper organising mode, but im still worried.

This is the first time I have ever not left anything to the last minute and Im currently bribing myself shamelessly to get through it, a trip to Los Angeles is on the table at the moment for october if I get all done and handed in!

I just for once want to do something well, and I have had enough of panicking so this is me trying with all my might to get a handle on this and finally get this awful awful thing done.

Love to you all

Lim

p.s Joan Bolker is a God I freakin love that woman

Hello all, very glad to see this one has really taken off!

Im just finishing up my massive to do list on a white board and its appalling. I haven't even got a first draft done yet! My thesis has changed so much over the 2 and a bit years that methodologically its changed and writing has just been far from my mind. Ive only written so far a very embarrassing 25,000 words. I know I can work quickly and also with certain elements of my thesis being practical I have a smaller word count but honestly Im still freaking out.

My other half keeps telling me to see the smaller picture and work to small goals, he also tells me 9 months is plenty of time, which I suppose considering I wrote my 25,000 word masters thesis in a week and a half by that measure its plenty of time but I just cant get rid of this panic. My supervisor doesn't seem unduly worried and has no doubt in my passing, but also says things like 'writing isnt your strong point' and 'youre a much better talker' I dont know I think maybe I just feel Im rubbish at writing and its really putting me off.

Im sorry guys I dont think I really had a point here I havent applied for any jobs as yet, and I havent worked out yet when my last paycheck is meant to come in from the funding bodies. Is it in June or is it in September. I dunno.

Gosh what an articulate post from me...not lol!

lol thank you all for taking up the challenge, irony of ironies I currently am in bed sick and am as useless as udders on a bull atm. Ruby I feel your pain and goodness me everyone else you have tons done. I feel like that kid at the back of the class that never admits to how much they have done cos everyone else has done more and instead tries to find fellow slackers! lol.

Urgh just having one of those days where I hate the whole thing. I also wonder what possessed me to be quite honest.

I would even go so far as to post a postgrad notice on the noticeboard of your local uni, get a group together of postgrads go for coffee and talk. Always great. I isolate myself more than I need to but I should really take my own advice!!!

Im in humanities specialising in performative limens. So much work still to do sigh!

I know your feelings. I live about 2 hours away from uni and even simple things like going to social event just arent on the cards because of transport home etc. I know 2 hours isnt exactly 7 but I relate and it is really hard because you do feel really isolated and it harder to stay motivated because you arent in uni every day.
Well done on being on schedule, Im not but thats all my own procrastination. I think one of the things I notice is how well I gt on when im in my dept for occasional supervisory meetings, talking and getting information from people is so good.

The tips I will give you are:
cultivate a relationship with some people in the department, email relationship, ask faculty members things send them emails, read their research etc, just talk to them, even by email it still helps. I know people who sit in the same office 2 desks away and email each other. If you email people you can build up some kind of relationship even if it is as basic as they know your name.

Do you have any universities near you? If you do you could go in and talk to their faculty as a researcher. Ive done this before and it works quite well. I usually just send an email and ask if they have a research seminar or coffee meeting-a lot do. And you could go in and listen to their meetings and contribute. It might not be your uni but contacts are always good.

Get a hobby. Sounds stupid but get something to get you out of the house, it isolates you terribly when you can go for a few days without leaving the house because your work is in it and you dont need to. If you have something that you do with other people and you enjoy it will work wonders.

We all feel like we arent smart enough- I mean that- I feel useless most days. But the only thing to do is keep on going and hope for the best.

Good luck.

I found this and OMG is it true!

I have gotten so bloody fat! Sitting on my backside everyday gradually putting myself into the comatose state of learning something

I have put on about 2/3 stone
My lighter roots are coming through
I cant be bothered getting dressed into 'proper clothes' unless Im leaving the house then I try to look decent.
Generally I find doing a PhD you spend less time on you. More time grabing food even if you arent doing work you always have that hectic stressed look on your face.
If we arent working we are worried about not working. If we know we should be working more, we scare ourselves and end up working less.

Is there a post PhD diet? Maybe we should start marketing one?

To my fellow third years, I have posted a call to arms, well not necessarily arms but shall we say keyboards? (I suppose our writing tools are our supposed swords no? Anyway, I digress.)

Im in third year and submitting in Sept. Im also highly stressed, (big shout out to my fellow highly stressed people) I thought being that Im an absolutely dreadful procrastinator and I have nine months left now is the time to bring us all together. You see Im woeful at the moment and I keep having to yank myself out of fear based stupors (you know staring at the computer with a confused look on your face, realising you have spent most of the day trying to work out what a certain button on your microsoft word actually does)

Im only aware of some lovely students in a different part of the faculty who pat me on the back and say 'dont worry you can write a thesis in 6 months' But to be honest I don't want to I'd like to produce something really really good, I know that can't be done haphazardly. I just feel at the minute the fear is getting in the way and I would like to actually get some communitas with other years, not just the uber relaxed in my department, or the ones who lie through their teeth. I know by this stage we are all meant to be very very busy and shouldnt be meandering around the internet but would anyone like to share how they are getting on, or any current bugs they are having.

General annoyances, procrastination attempts and motivational words are always welcome. Lets do this thing!

I know that feeling, Im submitting in Sept and I have loads still to write, time is like a seriously heavy sandstorm, not exactly slipping through my fingers as battering me in the face.

Hey put it this way, I work from home and I seem to LIVE in my 'loungewear' which are kinda pajamas. And my big fluffy ugg boots. Its got to the point now that I sit at my desk all day and wander round in EXTREME COMFORT putting on normal people clothes is such a chore now.
God how bad is that?

ps, I love my crocs, they are the most comfortable shoes I have ever had, I took them to Rome with me and when my fellow travellers were knackered with sore feet from walking from trevi to the forum and over through the colusseum, I was pleasantly fine. I call it croc smugness. If it makes you feel any less badly of me though I have little sparkly gems for them and mine are tastefully grey.

I totally dont get how you wasted the break. You did loads. I feel crap now. lol

To be honest its made me question staying in academia, those in my area of academia seem to be vastly overworked with little pay to show for it. And I just look at us all working our backsides off to finish PhD's, get transferrable skills for what seems like b*gger all. Anyway Im sorry for ranting Im just a bit work stressed and disillusioned with it all. To be honest right now anything for an easy life.

Does anyone with local authority funding know when its meant to end. I have asked some of my colleagues and they all say different things. One says it will end with the last bout of it being in June and the usual Sept funding wont happen because the submission date is in Sept, essentially the other one says that the usual funding which happens in Sept will still happen even though that is when we are due to submit and the december funding wont happen because that is when the viva happens. With the sept funding meant to carry us through to our viva in december.

I have no idea I assumed June would be the end, does anyone know? Mainly with the PhD coming to an end in the midst of a credit crunch it would be nice to know how much saving I need to start doing. Can anyone illuminate me?

It depresses me no end, honestly. I find myself now doing my PhD and whilst madly writing up, I taught very heavily in my second year but now in my third Im trying to cover the other modules in my department so I have some teaching experience in all of those. As well as that though Im trying to do all the extra non PhD training offered through my uni, with IT training, software training, things that arent of any help in my PhD but are now felt helpful and that I am being encouraged toward doing. The reason being, its so difficult to get a job and we now all have to set ourselves apart. Now our PhDs aren't good enough, we need more publications than everyone else, even thats not good enough, we need more teaching experience than everyone else. Even then we need other transferrable skills. Well Im just tired. Honestly Im tired.

Our PhD's are devalued by all of the other frills we have to add to even get to an interview. In my department I have more transferable skills than many of the lecturers who are amazed at the hoops we are now being made to jump through as PhD students. I feel this is a real difficult time for us all doing PhDs with stricter and stricter deadlines being put on our time limits and the entire system engineered to get us through as quickly as possible its getting harder to find your feet and build up a lot of the experience you need.