Hi,

I'm a bit behind you in that I'm only at the start of my third year, but I can understand how you feel. Certainly for me I have days where I feel like I've been really productive and then days where I get almost nothing done other than procrastinate and surf the web! If you read through the posts on this forum you'll find that it's not uncommon to feel like you do, and a lot of use academic types suffer from "imposter syndrome" most of the time!

You just need to focus on the final outcome which is that coveted PhD qualification - and do it one step at a time. I have days where I feel like I'm drowning in information and can't see anyway out of it, and days where I feel like I can't/won't/don't feel like it but you have to work through it. Also, it might help if you set self imposed deadlines that force you to work. I've done it myself and informed my supervisors that they will see three chapters by the end of March. It's scary but it's forcing me to work at a pace I've never achieved before!

Break it down into chunks and set yourself achievable goals each day. That way, if you exceed your goal you'll feel good, and even if you achieve the bare minimum at least you've done something productive towards achieving your PhD.

I hope that's somewhat helpful, I must apologise for rambling, I'm writing my analysis chapters at the moment and I tend to waffle and wander off the point at times! :-)

======= Date Modified 27 Jan 2012 11:07:02 =======
Hello everyone,

I just wondered if anyone can get full text access to:

Battilana, J., Gilmartin, M., Sengul, M., Pache, A-C. & Alexander, A. (2010) 'Leadership competencies for implementing planned organizational change'. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(3), p.422-438

and/or

Ford, J. D. & Ford, L. W. (2010) 'Stop Blaming Resistance to Change and Start Using It'. Organizational Dynamics, 39(1), p.24-36

Thank you!

Eek well it sounds ouchie! I can't imagine trying to type with injured fingers!

No I don't have a job lined up for when I finish, which is a massive source of worry for me too, but the plan at the moment is to just get a job, any job, and then go from there really. I am worried about the job market and the stories you hear on this website about people being jobless when they qualify but I have another year left yet so I'm hoping things may have picked up by then. Fingers crossed! I have to get this blinking thing finished first though!

I don't blame you for worrying - it's a horrible time at the moment! I only narrowly missed being made redundant because I left my job to start a PhD, goodness knows where I would've ended up had I not been successful!

Oh dear - I hope you've had your hand looked at?! Sounds painful!

I know the feeling well - I started writing a chapter before Christmas but I lost the will to live with it and gave up! I will return to it in a couple of weeks time when I've got my analysis chapters under my belt. I get fed up if I spend too long working on one thing and can't see the woods for the trees at times!

Hope you have a good day! Working in a coffee shop sounds good - I'm at home and it's real willpower to stay in the office!

Morning all - and hello again to Emmaki! Sounds like you had an early night last night! Just checking in to say I'm going to try and crack on today, I think it's unrealistic that I will have the chapter completed today but I want to get it almost to a point where I can tidy it up next week then put it to one side! I feel like I've been working on the same chapter forever now so it'll be nice to get it over with!

Hope everyone has a good day!

Hi Button,

I've read some of the other posts with trepidation - my methodology chapter is currently sitting at 16,000 words so I'm guessing I should probably split it into two sections based on what has been said below!

My chapter structure is roughly as below:

Intro: 2,500
Chapters 1 and 2 - both literature review and contextual: 12,000 words each (similar to you)
Methodology - 16,000 (!)
Chapters 4 and 5 - both analysis chapters: 13,000 words each (I am a bit superstitious though so I might have to do something about this!)
Conclusion and recommendations: 12,500 words

All subject to change of course once the draft is in!

I agree with Bewildered too, I think you would be justified in asking your examiner for clarification.

Hello,

Well here I am, back again! I've ended up having an extremely productive day - I really think being accountable on this thread helps so thanks to Sneaks for setting it up in the first place and to all you lovely PhD Forum peeps for posting and keeping me motivated! I've written a crazy amount of words today - in the region of 1,500 but a lot of what I've written has been written in my theoretical framework then integrated into my analysis so I've made great progress today!

Hope you've all had a great day too, see you all tomorrow - off to get our new car now (not like a brand new car, just new to us) (up)

Same at you Davies - let's do this! I will report back at around 1545hrs (Going to pick up a new car this evening, exciting!) with some word count!

Haha the whole shoe thing - what is it about us PhD-ers and our shoes?! I've just discovered that the bottom of one of my boots is coming away from the sole so it now makes a squeaky noise when I walk! I will not throw them away though - I'll probably take them to a cobbler!

Anyway, I digress! I'm switching off now so feel free to chastise me if you see me pop up in users online at any time before 1545! Good luck with the words today!:p

Ah, One Goal Thread, I will resurrect you from page 2 of threads!

I was at a stats course at uni yesterday (about a 4 hour round trip so not really possible to do work whilst I'm at uni!) so I didn't get any work done so catch up day today. I don't really have a word count to reach today, I just want to have made some progress on wrapping this chapter up with a view to having it "finished" tomorrow or by the start of next week at the very latest. So here goes...

Hi Delta,

Sorry to hear you're having problems with your stats, do you have a stats/mathematics department at your uni? Is it worth pinging them and asking for some advice? You're so close to the end now, so don't give up! The end is definitely in sight and you will be free of your supervisor before you know it!

We have a stats advisory service at our university (they pretty much disapprove of anyone doing their own stats) who are accessed through the graduate centre, I don't know if it's the same at your university?

Actually... having re-read your post... when you say you're embarrassed by your research and don't want to be associated with it, is this why you feel you can't approach anyone and ask for help?

Finally, and I know I probably shouldn't condone this approach as we'll all get smacked wrists but never underestimate what you can find through a good search engine! I'm sure there will be bods on this forum who will be able to help you out too, I'm not much of a statistician (I'm taking a refresher course at the moment as I've not done stats since undergrad)

Please don't give up - you are so nearly there!

I can if you pay £24.95, I can't get it for free though...

Hi all,

I wondered if I could pick your brains about how you structured your analysis chapters? I am a social sciences researcher and my approach has been an ethnographic, qualitative study. I've written my first analysis chapter in rough and I'm attempting to tidy it up, but I'm wondering what would work best in terms of how it is structured. At the moment, I've kind of told my story then reviewed it at the end of the section in terms of where it sits in the existing literature. Is this normal? I've read some other theses and how people have approached it seems to vary from person to person. Am I "doing it" completely wrong? :-( Is there a magic chapter structure I should be using?

Any thoughts most gratefully received!

Well done peeps, and hehe Batfink, a great excuse to go shopping if ever I heard one.

Oh... I am having a terrible week this week. I suppose I should be grateful I had a very good last couple of weeks but I am really struggling now. I've chopped a massive section out of my analysis this morning and put it in a different chapter so I've lost a significant amount of work! (Even though I've put it in another section so it's not really 'lost'!)

Hope everyone is having a much much better day than me!

Interesting, I suppose Sneaks, your husband had the upper hand because he finished before you! I confess I am an old romantic at heart and I love the idea of being "the Mrs"... but not at work! I have a rather peculiar vision of feminism where I love being girly and looking after my H2B, let him open doors for me etc etc but I want to be seen as an equal in the work place!

I try to keep work and home very separate but I do prefer my H2B's second name so I have no qualms ditching the maiden name!

Thanks for all your replies!