Hi Cindrella,

Gosh sounds like you've been through the mill a bit, I can understand how you feel burnt out and stressed about it all. I suppose the only thing I can say to you is you need to tell someone you are struggling. There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a break from your work - if you just work, work work all the time you will start to feel burnt out!

My suggestion would be, arrange a supervisory meeting and tell them you're having a bit of a crisis. Take to this meeting a timetable of the next couple of months with some deliverables on it (e.g. 1 chapter per month). Also, it will really help if you search for some completed theses in your area to help you pin down exactly what your thesis should look like and the layout, structure etc that is expected in your field. You can download theses from the British Library Ethos service which you should be able to find on Google. As for the failed experiments, I can't really help you there as I'm a QUAL researcher but is there not a maths/science department or postgraduate support service at your university whom you can contact for help? Even just talking about it with someone else sometimes helps.

But most importantly - DON'T PANIC! One goal at a time. Set yourself little goals every day, then when you've achieved them do something nice, go for a walk, make something nice to eat, watch your favourite TV programme, come on here and talk to us! You will get there (up)

It's incredibly easy to get overwhelmed and feel like you can't do it, but remember, you're not the only person who feels like this and it will get better.

Ooh well good luck Batfink, the testing of the questions, exciting! Conducting my interviews was my favourite part, I really felt like I was actually doing something productive! Hope it all goes well! And don't worry Button, it takes a few days for me after a holiday to get back into the swing of things, you'll get there (up)

I'm doing ok today but nowhere near as fast as yesterday - I've hit a grey area where I need more research and the university library system isn't working today, ARGH! Why is it always on the day where you really want to get on with some proper work?! I'm trying to bypass it by going straight to the source but it's a real pain as I can't even see which database supplies the access to the journals today! So expect to see me on here today begging for references ;-)

hehe that made me chuckle, yes I think printing it out counts :p

Well I'm up early again, unfortunately I do work best first thing in the morning however much I enjoy sleeping! I would love to get Chapter 7 into a state where I can leave it for a few days today so that's the "one goal" really.

The one good thing about being up early is that I can finish earlier in the day, so at least whilst it's sunny and lovely outside I don't mind too much!

Hope you all have a good day ;-)

You can do it Button! One you get started you'll be halfway through before you know it!

Sounds like you've been busy too Batfink!

Ah the joys of the one goal thread! (up) Good work today everyone!

Ooh aren't we all busy bees! I'm having a ridiculously productive day today, I've got my mojo back so I'm making the most of it by getting on with chapter 7! I am going to have some lunch in a minute, no chocolate for me though sadly as I'm only a month away from my wedding now and I'm having mild concerns about not fitting into my dress on the day! I don't really fancy magic pants (ok, this is off topic so I'll stop now!)

Back on PhD relatedness.... I've achieved Goal 2 and Goal 3, but I'm going to keep going whilst I'm feeling in the mood for writing! (up)

I'm figuring that if I can get the chapter into a reasonable state then I can put it to one side for a few days and come back to it refreshed to check for spelling, punctuation, grammar etc so this is the plan!

Hehe I know exactly what you mean - I had it all mapped out in my diary but it seems to be all going to pot now! I've had a little looky at my methodology but I'm going to put it to one side until later as it needs SO much work! I've mapped out the rest of my chapter 7 though so that's helped a lot to get me to focus. I'm now going to get on with some writing!

Holiday sounds great, I can't wait for mine, I've got one booked in July! Can't wait for some lovely sunshine and a relax!

Phew! (up) glad I helped :-)

I haven't but I will, thank you!

Oh dear! That is a strange sentence! Can you provide a bit more of the context around the sentence please? Like, what is it about?!

I think, and this is just a guess, that this person created a personality which was against the norm. Evoked mass of feckless educational n'er do wells sounds almost like it's a group of academics and the author is suggesting that they are reckless...! If you could provide a bit more info though then I may be able to have more of a stab at guessing! Is this an autobiography of someone? It sounds like the author is suggesting the person arose to be great or something despite the climate they were in!

I hope I haven't confused you any more!

Morning Button! Good to see you :-)

======= Date Modified 19 Mar 2012 08:31:05 =======
Morning all, Hope you had a good weekend Batfink, I understand Wales won the grand slam so I expect there was a fair bit of partying over the weekend! I'm up a bit later today as I had a ridiculously busy mother's day yesterday so I needed a bit of rest! I'm going to spend a bit of time planning this morning so that I can get my chapter finished without having a nervous breakdown! But before I do that, I'm going to amend my methodology chapter ready for supervision in a few weeks time. So, goals for today:

Goal 1: Make amendments to methodology chapter
Goal 2: Plan the remainder of Chapter 7
Goal 3: Write at least 500 words of Chapter 7!

Have a great day everyone!

*edited to correct typos!

Hmm tricky! Does your current job rely on you having a PhD? I would say give it a time period, say 3 months. Try and get your PhD completed within 3 months, then review the situation. It would be a shame to have done all that work and then give up and make a rush job at the end and risk failing or a revise and resubmit which would take you back to where you are now! I can sympathise with you, my nightmare situation will be not completing within the next year, then having to juggle full time work, part time PhD and family life!

Actually scratch that last - I've found it but I can't log in for some reason, there's something wrong with either their website or Shibboleth, if you PM me your email address I'll try again later or on Monday and send it to you then.

I can get access to the journal but I can't find what you're looking for - have you got the reference right? There's no volume 3, issue 3 in 1995?

I'm always more productive when I'm up early, I just wish I had the ability to get out of bed at that time every day! I suppose I ought to get used to it, what with having to get a job in the next year!

I've managed to beat my daily word count already today, and I've drafted up an abstract, and also sorted out lots of personal admin so I'm doing really rather well! I'm going to have lunch now as I think I deserve it!

Hope you're all having a good day! (turkey)