I know that there is some debate about whether you are a 'night owl' or a 'lark'.
Of late I have become a bit of an owl as a result of trying to balance a PT PhD and a FT teaching job.
Traditionally, I have used coffee and Red Bull to keep my mind in the game, but I have always been looking for other ways of maintaining my alertness during the small hours.
It is in this quest that I have discovered the magic of the Daylight Bulb. This has been a bit of a revelation to me.
I bought a full spectrum daylight bulb for my desk lamp a couple of months back and I can say with all honestly that the light that it gives off is the same kind of light that you get sitting outside on a sunny day. It seems to trick my brain into thinking that it is NOT time for bed and that it doesn't need to shut down.
As a result I have been far more productive and have clearer thought processes while I am working.
Sorry, if this is old news and you are all already doing this, but I thought that I would share it with the community as I know that if you can even squeeze an extra hour's quality work into each day then that has to be a good thing, right?
I have also started to use the Pomodoro Technique to structure my writing and reading sessions. Does anyone else use this?
What other techniques to you use?

I am interested to know what experiences PhD students have of the MPhil/PhD upgrade process.
Talking to colleagues it appears that there are vast differences in how this process is managed in other Universities.
I have very recently passed this particular milestone and, although it was far from easy, it was a huge test of my intellectual and mental strength. My particular institution takes it very seriously. The provision of a report (mine went to about 13,000 words) describing the study in depth and current progress was required. In addition to this, I had to give a presentation and had to undergo a 1.5 hour 'defence' of my study. I was told that this was necessary to reassure the examiners that my study was sufficient for the level of PhD study and that I was capable of delivering it.
However, PhD students from other institutions describe a process which is more like a discussion and a rather laid-back affair.
I'd be interested to hear other's experiences of this.

I feel your pain!
Talking to other postgrads, this seems to be really common. I am in the 3rd year of a part-time PhD and I can honestly say that it has only been in the last few months that I have really found my feet and identified my 'gap' in the knowledge.
I was always trying to find a research topic that was totally unique; I am exploring a topic in a well researched field, but I just knew that somewhere in there was MY place. After a lot of reading (and even more thinking) I found it!
Don't get disheartened. Even if someone else has already explored the topic that you wish to explore, keep looking. There will be a gap in the knowledge in there somewhere.
Good luck and don't give up

I am easily distracted so usually I don't have music when I really need to concentrate. However, there are times when I am writing up something that I need to have some music playing.
I recently wrote up a large report over several days and worked through Wagner's Ring Cycle. I used the acts of the operas to indicate breaks (each act is approximately 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes).
I like to listen to Beethoven's 9 symphonies when reading (40 minutes to an hour each).

A suit is good but, some people are not comfortable in a suit. I personally think that smart and comfortable is best.
It does depend on the culture, as others have suggested.

Why God doesn't have a PhD:
1) He had only one major publication.
2) It was in Hebrew.
3) It had no references.
4) It wasn't published in a referreed journal.
5) Some even doubt he wrote it by himself.
6) It may be true that he created the world, but what has he done since then?
7) His cooperative efforts have been quite limited.
8) The scientific community has had a hard time replicating his results.
9) He never applied to the ethics board for permission to use human subjects.
10) When one experiment went awry he tried to cover it up by drowning his
subjects.
11) When subjects didn't behave as predicted, he deleted them from the sample.
12) Some say he had his son teach the class.
13) He expelled his first two students for learning.
14) He rarely came to class, and he just told students to read the book.
15) Although there were only 10 requirements, most of his students failed his
tests.
16) His office hours were infrequent and usually held on a mountaintop.

I am lucky in that I have 2 supervisors. My primary supervisor is the director of a national research unit and as such she is a very busy lady! My other supervisor is probably the person that I have slightly more contact with.
Where possible we have supervision all together which is great. I will usually have monthly supervision but at other times (i.e the run-up to my upgrade yesterday) we had more frequent supervisions with one or the other, or both.
Now that upgrade is finally behind me we will go back to monthly supervisions.
However, something that my primary supervisor has said to me lately is that I need to 'manage' them and be more demanding about when, and how often we meet. Which feels odd to me, as they are the experts and have many other commitments. But apparently it is expected that PhD students be demanding. Good luck and I hope that it all works out for you.

Hi
I contacted my supervisor before applying. It was actually a 'deal-breaker' for me if she had been unable to take me on as her reputation and expertise was what I really needed. I had a couple of preliminary meetings where I told her of my plans and how it related to her own work. I am not sure if my application would have been refused if I hadn't contacted her first but I do think that by us both knowing a bit about each other and our respective interests helped.
Once my application was approved I felt like we hit the ground running.
Good luck!