Hi rewt! Thanks for your feedback, I really appreciate it. I had the same problem with my Masters dissertation (although it took me two months rather than two weeks--which is really impressive), I definitely tried to organize better for my Ph.D. thesis and well, it became a maze anyway.

I guess the fear of failure/perfectionism point is on spot. One of my two Ph.D supervisors advised me to do just that, write a whole imperfect draft first, and then edit it. I really get the point, but I struggle to do that as my outline is not clear enough (I guess). There's something very different to what we call "results" in different disciplines, and in arts/humanities it's not "hard" data, rather a mix of ideas, analysis and in my case it also includes feedback on a creative process. Anyway, I guess I just need to forget about the stress and take it one day at a time as we all need to do...

Hi everyone,

I'm a Ph.D. student in humanities in my 5th year, and my supervisors decided to set the date of my viva even though I still have several chapters to write (actually a little more than a half of my Ph.D.). To make a long story short I'm overdue and it doesn't look good to ask for one more year, not mentioning the fact that I've ran out of funds and will soon be short of money. I'm making slow progress and I'm really starting to panick, as the deadline is in 2 months and a half, and it has taken me so much time to write the first chapters. I'm even thinking about quitting, even though my supervisors said they were very happy with my work so far and that it even exceeded their expectations.

Aside from the fact that I feel the time I've got to complete the manuscript is way too short, I also lack motivation because although I'm passionate about the theoretical aspect of the research, I need to present a creative part which to me is a complete failure, I didn't have all the skills to develop the creative project properly and it really is a mess of tentative sketches. I appreciate many things about research and of course it would be a shame to stop now, but I've been super anxious throughout my Ph.D., have brooded a lot over not being able to work more efficiently, and then there's also the fact that I don't want to pursue a career in academia. I've got mixed feeling about my topic and I've thought about quitting a lot before, my supervisors know I'm feeling overwhelmed but seem to think there's no other choice than just getting it done as quickly as possible, and they claim I'm able to do it. I also have a supportive community of Ph.D. friends around, so I'm not isolated. I'm just going through a very tough time, I feel more paralyzed than challenged by the situation which I've described, and I find super hard to either make the decision to quit or find a strategy to finish, I'm going through some sort of denial. My fears are pushing me toward quitting but I feel it would be lame to give up now. I've known my main supervisor since my Masters, he's helped me getting a fund to do this Ph.D., and although at the end of the day it should be about me, quitting would really feel like a huge betrayal.

I'd have liked to know whether anyone could relate or think about a similar situation that could help me see things more clearly, thank you for reading my post.