I did

I am not as my husband puts it 'an iphone nobba' - but I do like my little iphone, this will probably be the only 'app' I use though!

hmm, yes my life seems identical to yours keenbean, minus the leg cast. What I have learnt about myself during the PhD is I can't say no to anyone, which leaves me with a load of work that although looks ok on a cv, usually doesn't even pay and takes loads of my time. I live 2-3 hours away from uni as well, so any little 1 hr meeting, actually takes 5-6 hours to attend.

I think, as this is my final year I am going to have to be super selfish and just block whole weeks out and not see anybody. For me, I think its the only way I can get things done. By mid-feb I should have all my teaching responsibilities over with so i can get on writing etc. It just hurts when I have for example this week, everyday I am doing non-PhD meetings, lectures, consultancy work etc. and the money barely covers my travel :-(

my tomatoes on the go! http://www.freshapps.com/pomodoro-technique/

I do admin on those days, and I suppose I do have a list of things that I have to do in terms of admin and usually non-Phd things. Its the writing and analysing data - the bigger tasks (and most important) that I find difficult to do unless I have an open stretch of time.

How do you work when you have things you have to do that get in the way of your day? e.g. meetings/lecturing etc.

I find that if I have a whole day free, I can really get on with some stuff. But if I have a meeting in the afternoon, I won't be able to focus or do anything ALL day, maybe because I feel I don't see the point, because I won't be able to get really into it. I've always been like this, all through undergrad etc.

Any tips on how to use all my half days?

I was an avid user of freemind in my first year, for plotting all my ideas etc. http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

this is 1st year blues. We've all been, or are going through it, trust me! The theories seem so huge and disjointed - you can't get your head around how you will possibly get there. Have faith! It will come together. 4 months in - I had pretty much worked out where my office was. The other PhDers are either doing much easier topics OR are bluffing like mad. I know when I tell people what I have done, they all seem impressed, but underneat I'm shouting "ITS ALL LIES, LIES!!!!!"

It comes across like you like the subject, the people around you and the PhD itself, this is just a confidence issue. It may help to start mapping out the theories like a mind map - slowly you will probably start finding how they are similar/dissimlar or where there are gaps that need to be explored. The PhD is actually a very specific project, so although you are reading about LOADS, realistically it will be very much scaled down by the end - your sup probably wants you to read all these theories, so you know where your research will sit. Often 7000 you write on a theory in your 1st year, will make up 2 scentences of your thesis in the end!

Don't panic, have faith and go about the reading logically. It will help you write little essays on each topic, so you know what its about, what are the limitations etc and how it relates to your potential research question.

I cannot use 'real paper' I use microsoft one note and that means I can scan stuff in, use screen prints and write notes - you can even write them in your own hand writing. If I took a picture of my home office floor you would see why, thousands of papers, all with muddy dog paw prints on (or just a muddy dog on) all out of order and in disarray!

hmm, this is a difficult one. my hubby does a PhD and although I'm not a sup, I know if I were I could literally tell him it was awful and it wouldn't affect our relationship, and hopefully would make his thesis better! So if you have a relationship with the spouse where you can be totally candid then that's fine - although, as teek says, perhaps a conflict of interest.

I would stay WELL AWAY from a friend - you will end up resenting them for it. You kind of need somone superior I would say, I think if your sup is too equal to you then it will cause issues.

its my eternal quest for finding things that will make my PhD easier (and also be an excuse for not doing PhD hehe)

hmm, interesting. I was thinking about having a go on the windows voice recognition thingy thats free to see if I could use it or not. I know its probably not as good, but it would hopefully give me an idea?

I know we have had a few questions about this in the past but anyhow...

Does anyone use dragon? and if so what for?

I am getting into my final months of my funding. I have nothing towards my thesis written (apart from chunks of writing that are very separate to each other). And I was thinking perhpas speaking what I want to say would just aid the whole writing process - speeding up my scentences. There have been so many times when I think of something AMAZING, and then by the time I have got my hands around the keyboard, its gone from my mind.

Do people find it annoying i.e. with the training of it, and can you train it to use specialist terms?

This comes after spending ALL MORNING redoing my computer, deleting everything and takin git back to factory settings :-s

how do you squash two tomatoes together?