Have you considered the OU? Not sure that there's much that you can do about the speed - especially if you are working at the same time.

No-one in my dept - but I had a good friend in another dept with a witch of a supervisor who was of this style. And some people I know have had lab projects which, by bad luck, have just turned out to need a lot of hours.

In my dept people definitely work a lot of evenings and weekends but it's definitely not all work and no play.

I really doubt this will be a problem. I only applied for one place and neither of the funding bodies I applied to (got one) asked anything about other applications. They DID ask if I had applied for all possible types of funding - but not other places of study.

A lot of funding bodies will only support an application for one project at one particular institution so you can affectively only apply to one place anyway. If you apply to another, then you have to try a different funding body. That was my situation so there was no point in applying anywhere else.

That sounds sensible Dan. I don't really get the whole 24/7/no social life thing. Some supervisors are unreasonable and do drive their students too hard - but other than that, it shouldn't be that bad except maybe in the last few months.

I did follow the advice to not put anything on hold - if you want both - go after both. To cut the story short - I couldn't have had my daughter at any other time. If I had had her first, I probably wouldn't have gone ahead with the PhD so in some ways it was better that it happened this way round - it's the only way I would have done both.

Well I have found it hard. I feel as though I can't really do either thing properly - look after my daughter or do my PhD. I swing between wanting to spend more time with my daughter and wanting to spend more time on my project. I have been very uncomfortable with using daycare - especially when she was under 1 and still don't use it full-time. A lot of guilt and stress but I don't think it has to be like that - I just have too much baggage.

I think the fundamental problem is trying to do anything at the same time - afterall - an academic job would be just as demanding and probably less flexible. I really don't want to be at home 24/7 - the problem is that I know my daughter would prefer it.

Having the baby after submission would be a lot more sensible - but wait and see how you feel after that before committing to anything. And definitely talk to your partner first!

Unless you are over 30, 3 more years should not be a big deal.

Hi Oz and congratulatins. I had a baby at the end of my second year, took 2 years out and now I'm in my final year. I did do some writing and data collection during my time 'off' hoping that would allow me to make do with 3 days/week childcare this year. Can't say it really went to plan though.

I didn't plan to have my daughter and do the PhD at the same time and I can't say it's how I would choose to do it in an ideal world but here we are - and I'm just trying to get through to the finishing line. How far along are you - in both senses?

This happens to me and I find I need to break my task list down into much smaller items, prioritise them, and set deadlines even by the hour if necessary with short rewards when items or groups of items get done.

Library chairs will do that and you just have to break up your time there as much as possible. When I had to do historical research I got a very bad back and bought a good chair for my home office.

What works for me is to do both - whine about it AND do the best I can

That's different if you're both working at home. My husband works at home many evenings - but I work on a Saturday and it works best if he and my daughter go out.

I do get cranky if I've been at home too much - especially when he's travelling a lot.

Do you have any particular constraints on your novel form - any particular literary styles, themes - or is it completely open? Very interesting project.

My first year seems so long ago I've almost forgotten. But for various reasons I did not get much done - and all I did could have easily been done in 6 solid weeks.

The battery has died in my scales and I'm pretending i don't know where to buy a new one.

I cycle into my dept - but I only go in about 1-2 days/week. Helps keep me fit rather than slim. I got pregnant during PhD - totally doomed!

You may find it plateaus - I think I'm on a long-term plateau but maybe submission stress will bring me down a bit.

I have a home office and I can get pretty irritated if my husband wanders in while I'm working. I definitely wouldn't go over and work at my partner's house if I weren't actually living there.