Well I suppose it's quite usual to be a bit disoriented but at the same time full of enthusiasm! I mean, unless you have a perfectly defined proposal on a topic you've already worked on (on your masters thesis, undergraduate thesis...) there will probably be a lot of things to decide about your proposal and not having a clear idea of what to read or what to write can be a bit frustrating...

Both things I guess - at my department you have to present 2 chapters of the thesis with a minimum of 25,000 words but you are also expected to do that during your second year, we are specifically warned that there are few possibilities of getting upgraded after 24 months (FT of course). Most people update in May of their second years so that's approx. 19-20 months in.

This is for the humanities though.

When planning my thesis structure I noticed that one of my chapters would be extremely extremely long representing probably 1/2 of the total thesis length. So I re-structured it into an introduction + 3 chapters which form Part I of my thesis, with the other chapters grouped in Part II.

I've been talking today to my supervisor and he said chapters should be about 12,000 words in average (for my discipline), if you go up to 15,000 it shouldn't also be that bad. But I guess that as long as you can keep your chapter coherent and with certain unity, that matters more than the actual lenght.

Obvious answer - depends on what you consider to be a "good job"

Anyway if you have already talked to your supervisor and nothing changed, or if he isn't too approachable, isn't there in your deparment a PhD coordinator, or a graduate studies director, or a lecturer/professor which coordinates the PhD program? You could talk to this person too.

Have you talked to your supervisor about how you feel? Is there any way you could talk to him? My supervisor is a bit like yours now, not setting me any concrete tasks or deadlines and just letting me go my own way with occassional suggestions/guidelines... it works fine for me because I'm a quite autonomous and individualistic person but I guess it won't work for everybody. Maybe if you explain to your supervisor that you would like him to modify his tactics slightly to give you more intense "support" he would agree to do it.

I have set myself the goal of working 40 hours a week in my PhD. That's not to avoid the risk of underworking but of overworking - when I started (6 months ago) I could easily spend 14 hours per day in the library but the quality of this work wasn't fantastic because after some hours of work I couldn't concentrate anymore. So I've gone for 40 hours a week (not necessarily 8 hours M-F, I do also some hours on weekends if it's more convenient) saving time for social activities, other (paid) work and so on. I am a quite strict person and do not like to procrastinate so I find quite easy to stick to my own schedule and do 40 hours a week - that means that when a deadline is approaching I don't usually need to invest any extra time.

I initially applied for start in October but once I was admitted I asked my supervisor and the admissions tutor if I could defer my entry until January (I was working at the time and my employer had asked me if I could stay longer). They didn't object at all, but at that time I hadn't been awarded funding so I was planning to go self-funded. Later on I did receive funding from my university but one of the requirements of my scholarship was that I had to start in October. I was so impatient to leave my job and so happy about my scholarship that I just started in October. However I don't know whether I could have convinced the University to let me start in January and still keep my scholarship. I mean, for the Department it probably doesn't make a big difference if you start now or in 3 months (unless they are planning to give you some teaching or other duties) but the administration is usually more rigid and they have clear procedures. Anyway I wish you luck.

In funded projects it's usually not possible - the project usually has a start date which is the start date for funding as well, and I suppose it's pretty complicated to change it especially if there are several entities involved (eg. University, Department, Research Council, etc.)

If you are self-funded it shouldn't be a problem. In fact some universities have 2 start dates for PhDs - one in September/October, one in January. If you are funded externally (for example by a charity, by your employer...) I suppose there won't be any issues on the university side but you will have to talk to your sponsor to clarify the start date of the scholarship.

1) I guess it depends on which reference conventions you use but that's what mine says (MHRA - Modern Humanities Research Association):
The titles of unpublished theses and dissertations should be in roman type within single quotation marks; capitalization should follow the conventions of the language in question (see 5.4). The degree level (where known), university, and date should be in parentheses:
R. J. Ingram, ‘Historical Drama in Great Britain from 1935 to the Present’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of London, Birkbeck College, 1988), p. 17.
Diedrich Diederischen, ‘Shakespeare und das deutsche Märchendrama’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Hamburg, 1952), p. 91.
Mary Taylor, ‘The Legend of Apollonius of Tyre in Spanish and French Literature before 1500’ (unpublished master’s thesis, University of Manchester, 1977), pp. 45–47.
James-Louis Boyle, ‘Marcel Proust et les écrivains anglais’ (unpublished thesis, University of Paris, 1953), p. 22.

Well - my supervisors are just the contrary - they are worried I have a breakdown if I don't take rests.

Maybe it's different in the humanities...

Just wondering, do you forget completely about your PhD during the summer vacation or do you keep working? I have the opportunity to visit some archives which I need for my research during the summer but that would involve working almost without breaks from April to December! Is that sane?

I have developped a crush for Robbie Williams recently (since my arrival to the UK I've discovered I LOVE British men)... does that disqualify me for continuing my PhD?

I'm pretty much in the same situation - I have a fees only scholarship and I cover my living expenses by doing some freelance writing/translation work (as I had done before starting my PhD). The good thing is that I can work from home at my own pace, on the other hand, being a freelance thing, it's very unstable; for example, during the 2 first weeks of February I had almost nothing to do but for the last 3 weeks I've been working about 30 hours a week in my freelance stuff. My ideal weeks are those with no more than 15 working hours, but I reckon that's because translating/writing is a job which requires some intellectual effort, I did a "lighter" job for a while (exams invigilation) and I was more tired after 3 hours translating, than after 8 hours invigilating. So if you are going to work 15-20 hours a week, I would recommend to choose "lighter" jobs that a job which requires you too much intellectual energy - it's better to save it for your PhD.

What sylvester said.