Anyone burning the midnight oil this evening? Do you find that even though you are most productive at night, you still feel guilty for not getting the work done during the day - or is that just me??

Hi nimrod81 - I appreciate it's not going to pop into my head after 3 weeks of reading, my concern is more centered around the fact that all the other new PhD students seem to have something definite to answer when asked "so what are you doing yours on??", Whereas I just stutter and flounder for a good while and feel/look stupid... then tell myself that I really have no clue what the answer to that is. So in those respects, I suppose my point is that I wonder whether I should have at least some 'clearer' ideas of what I am doing.

It seems like I have been reading so much over 3 weeks but at the same time I feel that I still haven't really got anywhere near a decent research topic, so in that respect I feel like I haven't read enough and should be trying harder (feels physically impossible though!). For those who have just started their PhD's in the past 3 weeks, how many hours a day are you spending on work?
These past few days my ideas either go round and round in circles or I come up with the same dead-ends and my mind totally blocks. I am suffering a huge mind block on the theoretical concepts and just feeling generally bogged down - to think this is only a few weeks in!! Yet again I feel like forgetting the whole thing :(

I have been given some sessional lecturing on some modules within the department, but I have no formal teacher training or previous experience and the uni don't offer it either. Although I am enjoying it, I still have reservations about it because of my lack of experience. My superviser doesn't seem to have a problem with any of this which I think is strange - or maybe it's how things are normally done, I just don't know.
Has anyone else been through this? I would like to continue the teaching when I finish - a long way off it seems! - but I am worried that it will cause problems because I don't have the training further down the line. Any advice?

that some of the people who you write to on this forum are in the same department as you??? just a curious thought.

Thanks again AnnieG! :) I have just been having a general look at the things you suggested and I have already found some decent looking articles! EBSCOhost seems to be another good one, which also cross references citings in the article with other articles - I guess it's a matter of spending some more time in front of the computer! (better get used to these square eyes)

Hi AnnieG - thanks for your reply. I am also in the social sciences.
I meant trying to find relevant journal articles... my searches are just finding nothing of much relevance!

Does anyone else here find searching journals a right pain (through Athens and so on)? Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but it just seems to be slow and frustrating... any tips???

Hi ericonrhicam - to be honest with you there isn't anything that I haven't stressed over since I started! What subject are you doing?
I have found myself going back to basic textbooks just to re-assert my brain into what I'm doing. I can't believe a year ago I could read this stuff with little problem and now I'm struggling so badly!!
One thing my superviser said to me (something echoed here by o.stoll) was to start writing straight away - it doesn't matter what it is, even if you never show it to anyone but yourself - just write! I guess it helps to get your head in order and shows the areas you're lacking knowledge in etc. Another problem I have is being led off on tangents (good and bad) with almost everything I read... it's going to be an interesting 3 or more years !

I have been in the same situation many times over the past 2-3 weeks! What I have actually found is, the less work I do the more panicky I get over it. But if I do a bit of reading, it tends to start putting my mind at ease a bit more about the whole thing. I am hoping that the more I do, the more confident I am going to feel about the whole thing. Rightly or wrongly, I am thinking of my project as some sort of monster that has to be tamed somehow!
I have to agree with the others in that you wouldn't be where you are now if they didn't think you are capable of it! I have this concern too - but you would be wasting their time just as much as yours if they didn't think you were capable. I was completely daunted by my superviser at first as he spoke about things that he seemed to expect me to understand (I didnt), but I need to realise that he has had many more years of experience over me - and that's what I'm there to learn.

Yep - exactly the same here. I am two weeks in and I am wondering what on earth I have let myself in for! Even though it's only been two weeks, I have had a few occasions where I have just felt like throwing it all in.
My superviser has suggested some readings which I am currently trying to do (it's hard to know exactly what they expect of you in these early weeks). I took a year out inbetween MA and PhD and although I used to be OK with theoretical stuff I am now finding it a struggle, I am hoping this is just because I am having to get used to it after a year of doing other stuff! Anyone else feel the same on that?
How many hours is everyone doing of reading and so on? I am also teaching (although not many hours) but I feel that has taken up a lot of time. I just have no idea the amount of reading you are expected to get done over a week. It feels like I am going at the pace of a snail...

I was too late for the esrc deadlines when I decided to apply for my PhD and so had to apply for departmental funding for my first year. Has anyone applied for ESRC funding once they have been a year or so into their PhD? Is the process the same as you would apply in the first instance?

SixKitten - out of interest, how long did it take before you started developing topics from your reading?

Thanks for your comments
It's a relief to hear that I am not the only one. I haven't met many other new research students yet, and the ones that I have met seem to have things sorted out, or at least give an illusion that they do! So this makes it hard for me to ask them questions like this.
It seems that the nature of postgrad research is to allow yourself to go with the flow somewhat - and that is something which is the hardest thing to get used to for me personally, as I tend to get anxious about the uncertainty of it. I also worry that because I have no defined topic, my superviser must think I am unprepared. I guess it's all part of the experience!

I've just started my PhD in social sciences. Although I had to submit a proposal and general area of study, I don't really have what you could call a defined research topic yet. I've read that you can spend at least a few months at the start of the PhD just reading around your area of interest before you really start to formulate research ideas. I don't know whether it's just nerves - worrying about not having something definate, worrying that this means I havent 'started' anything concrete yet, and then in turn worrying that I won't ever find it (a vicious circle it seems) - or if this is just a normal PhD process. I seem to be over-stressing that my superviser expects me to have a set topic right from the start, even though they haven't really said they expect one.
How long did you spend before you started formulating research questions (once you were actually registered)? I would really appreciate some real life experiences on this, as reading about the process in a book and doing it in real life can often be two completely different things! (and apologies for rambling on!!)