I used pomodoro technique plus I got rid of the idea of having a "transcribing phase". I had to mix it up with other activities as it was sending me doolally!

Thanks

Hello. I am trying to sort out my references and embarrassingly, am still unsure what I should put in as place of publication when two or more cities are given. For example - is the place of publication here Aldershot or Burlington?

I am working in a language that is not my first language and I make mistakes (some of them really cringeworthy on my audio files!) I am writing about my experience of using different languages in a sort of "self-reflection" section in the conclusion. I think you should probably write somewhere about the challenges posed by the language and how you overcame them.

I am writing up at the moment. This isn't really helpful to you but I really want someone else to do the shopping and make dinner. In fact, if my husband is reading this - MAKE THE DINNER! Other than that, I think you have to take your cues from him.

Could you say that you took a career break to have your children and studied at the same time but it didn't work out - suitably vague!

You should definitely set up a system for saving files. I just sort of made mine up as I went along and so I now have loads of files with really vague names in strange locations that I can never put my finger on! Ditto for using reference software. I started off using Endnote but I had problems with it so swapped to Mendeley which (cross fingers) has been great.Also my supervisor always told me to write right from the start - wish I had followed that advice better!

Thanks. Just found this and thought it was quite helpful:

I am about to submit and don't have a title! Or rather I have a title but it was always provisional and I thought that along the way I would come up with something more intellectual-sounding, snappier, and generally sexier! Unfortunately that doesn't seem to have happened.... So how did you come up with your title? What is "in" in titles this year? And what makes your heart soar/sink?

I will actually have less than three months taking into account that it has to be read, rewritten and printed. However, like Tree of Life, my supervisors have already read most of it in separate chapters.

Three months for me - not that I have done it yet but it can't take longer than that or I am out of time (gulp!)

I wasn't complaining in my post -just musing! I am a mature student and I have a lot of family responsibilities (to children and elderly relatives) so any job that I do has to realistically be in this geographical area. I realise that this drastically reduces my chances of following an academic career but for now, my career comes second to my family. My husband does have a successful academic career - but he wisely did his PhD straight out of university when he was young, free and single!

Realistically I am going to carry on doing exactly the same job I am doing now (EFL teacher at a university). It is a good job but I would have liked to try for an academic career. The problem is that where I am there is not really a lot of chance of that happening and with three young children, I am not willing to move far from home at the moment. (Only just managed to leave a job with a long commute and it was awful). TBH I will just be glad to finish that at the moment, I really don't care if I never do anything academic ever again!! (Hopefully that feeling will pass though!)

That I don't actually finish writing it in time!

I have the first one - pm me your email address!