Sounds like you've both had successful days! I think I'm coming down with some lurgy, I have pain in my chest and feeling a bit swimmy so going to call it a day and get some rest. I'm having trouble getting hold of the author so I may have to try one of the co-authors, but thank you for your reassurance Batfink! And congratulations on the house Button, you're both going to be busy with moving then! (up)

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Ooh I've just found another study which looks at the same population as me, but I've found something that doesn't make any sense... Should I contact the author and how should I do it? Do you think I should just ask them to tell me more about it and see if it then makes sense to me? I'm now also massively worrying that I've missed something really important :$

Good luck with that Batfink - I don't have a university laptop but I have had to try and download software onto a public service sector computer before and it's not fun! I've spent more time on the phone to the IT department than one person should in their working day!

It is an awful time at the moment, we want to buy soon but it's just not feasible at the moment *sigh*

Anyway, I'm making some inroads into chapter 7 which is good, hurray! Hope you are both having a successful day so far!

congratulations!

Morning!

House viewing eh? Are you looking to buy something? Or just moving? How exciting, anyway!

I went round the shops yesterday whilst I was waiting to pick my hubby (squee very exciting to call him that!) up from work yesterday, there's lots of pretty summery stuff in but nothing really conferency! I can see why you struggled yesterday! Is your hubby a good shopper? Mine is pretty good, but in some ways he's better than me, I just walk around the shop at random and wait for something to jump out at me!

I now have a plan - I think....!
Goal 1: this week is to get Chapter 7 amended and ready for supervision.

I will then have the rest of the month to work on Chapter 2, and plus I think it'll be easier to get back into work mode by working on something that already exists, rather than writing from scratch. But before I start, I'm going to amend my PhD timetable so I can show my sups that my plan is feasible and realistic! Hope the conference prep and chapter amending goes well!

Good morning,

Hope you are all well today and had successful afternoons! I re-read my chapter yesterday and it's not as bad as I thought it would be, hurrah! I have to make amendments to this chapter for a meeting in two weeks, and I also have a new chapter to write this month, so with this in mind my goals are:

Goal 1: Have some breakfast!
Goal 2: Write a plan for the next 2 weeks

"see" you tomorrow Button!

Oh I hate moving too Batfink, it is such a pain! I had to be upfront with my sups when I moved house last year as they wanted a few things doing and it totally wasn't doable, it takes ages to be properly unpacked and ready to go really. I needed about a week before I was ready to settle down and get going.

I've managed to catch myself back up today up to the re-reading parts, so that's what I'll be mostly doing this afternoon!

Thanks Button, it feels lovely, it's going to take some time to make the name change official though! I love being a Mrs, it's great, although it's been a bit of a heavy bump back down to earth this morning! I've got so many emails to sift through! Hope the work goes well this morning!

Morning all!

I'm back! I've had a lovely two weeks off but now it's back to the grindstone! It sounds like you've both been really busy and have made lots of progress in my absence. I'm starting to get that sicky feeling where I know I have loads to do and feel guilty about having been off work :-( but I had a truly wonderful time!

So it's an easing back in day today.

Goal 1: Catch up on the massive amount of email I have in my inbox
Goal 2: Re-read Chapter 7 and supervision notes
Goal 3: Read up on some background literature

Hope you all have a great day! (up)

Hi Beth,

So sorry to hear your news - I don't think I can offer any advice because I've no experience of this, but I just wanted to say I'm thinking of you. It seems strange that it has been met with a positive reaction only to be failed! Is there no way you can get a second opinion? This can't be right!

Thank you! See you soon :-)

Thanks Button, glad to hear you're doing well! I'm going to give it a rest after I've finished sending everything off as I have really lost the ability to concentrate properly now!

Have a great two weeks everyone, I will see you when I get back!

:-x:-x:-x:-x:-x:-x:-x:-x

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I've finally managed to conquer goal 1, hurray! Sooooo glad to have got that done!

I know the feeling well Batfink, I regularly hit the wall with pieces of work and it is best to leave them for a bit if that happens. You'll get it done, sometimes I sit here thinking "where do I start?!" but once I've started typing I find that I've made inroads and then it gets easier.

Thanks for the advice both of you, I think I've done enough to leave a trail for myself. I hope!

I am ridiculously excited now but I've also got that slightly sicky nervous feeling! I'm going to pop out in a minute for a little while to get some fresh air whilst it's nice and sunny outside. Hope you're both having a good day so far 8-)

Hey Sparkles,

I think it's incredibly common to feel the way you do, there's a phenomena known as "imposter's syndrome" where incredibly bright people feel like they're really stupid and it's only a matter of time until they get found out. Don't be so hard on yourself! I agree with the other posters below, if you want to work in this field then stick with it. I constantly feel like I'm less capable than my peers, and if you read through a lot of the posts here you'll find it's something everyone goes through. You just need to push past it. Why not set yourself a goal, say get a paper published in the next year or something? Aim for a journal you like and see what happens. I think it's achieving goals like that which make us feel better about ourselves! And come back here and talk to us! We're all in it together (up)

Ooh, spicy....! Oh dear, my brain has already shut down I think...!

I've had a quick read through and made a few changes here and there, and kind of written the basic frame of the re-structure, and that's it. I'm now attempting to read through my other chapter that I'm sending off today, but I'm finding it hard to concentrate! Must read chapter!