Good luck! Let us all know how you get on!

Fair play to her for doing it, but I honestly don't know why they feel the need to airbrush women to within an inch of their lives, she looked fine before! I'm glad I'm not the only 20 something who seems to bruise like a peach despite the fact I lead a fairly restrained life style!

Whilst I was looking I saw the pictures of Catherine Zeta Jones - what has happened to her!!! She's still stunning but how much weight has she lost! She looks as though she never eats! Someone get that girl a burger!

I've had a super unproductive morning (I have eaten two eccles cakes and a flake though, not sure how good they are for the old brain cells!)
So goal number 1 for this afternoon is to finish reading this chapter I started, oh, 4 hours ago...

Goal number 2: make amendments to my research paper

Fingers crossed! good luck everyone for today :-)

I've only just started in the grand scheme of the 3 years (3 months in) and I've found I do get a lot more tired doing this than I did working 40+hours in the public service sector. It's true that you need to look after yourself and MAKE time to do things you want to do. You can't work all the time, you'll just burn out and lose all your enthusiasm for what you're doing. Remember quality also counts over quantity - if I find my mind wandering (like today, for example!) I'll go and do something else for a bit and have a break until I feel ready to sit down and concentrate again.

I know it's boring but exercise is also crucial - I've found that being mentally tired is sometimes not enough to guarantee a good night's sleep so I'm very grateful I kept my corporate gym membership and can go for a run or a swim/jacuzzi.

It's ok to have a break sometimes! Plus what's right for one person isn't necessarily right for you - when I first started I was constantly comparing myself to another phd student who started at the same time - and doing my head in - til I realised we're all going to develop and work at different paces and you can't really compare yourself to anyone else!

I am feeling super lazy today, managing about 10 minute snapshots of work followed by half an hour of internet surfing! I have a deadline for the end of the week for a fairly substantial piece of work but "I'll do it tomorrow..." !;-)