Hello all,

I feel like since I began my Phd since October, I have not been very serious with it. Is all lost? If I start from tonight onwards, can I make up for the lost time?
Thank you!

Nope you should quite now!!.... seriously though best bit of advice I ever got given was in my undergrad. I had loads of work to do, and was asking my friend if I could do it, or how much time he thought I could do this one section in. He just said "stop talking about it and do it". so its the same for everything people can tell you can catch up or even you are not that far behind as no-one gets that much done first few months. Ultimately though makes no difference, its just up to you, only you know how much you've got to do and if you get down to it, you will get it done

Agreed. It's not too late - you're only 4 months in! Get on with it :)

I found the first year to be the most relaxed, with a concentration on reading and prep lab work and experimental design. It felt like it was fairly straight forward and gave an ultimately false impression of how 'easy' it might be to get a PhD. Sure, you need to make such progress to pass the MPhil stage, but hey, you can still go and get soused on a Friday night! This doesn't last long, though. Enjoy it while you can, is my advice. However, the better prepared you are in the early days, the less stressful it becomes in the latter stages.

OK, I am going to tell you a story. (If you have a wealthy family to support you, don't read the story)

There is this little student, who is very lazy... one day the funding runs out, but he hasn't finished writing up! He had used all his savings during his PhD so he was skint.

He needs to get a job. The only job he can get is a minimum wage part-time job. After he finishes his shift, no matter how tired he feels, he needs to sit down and work on the PhD. He can only afford porridge for breakfast and canned soup for dinner. Rent is too expensive, so he lives in a brown bag with ten other flatmates.

The end.

DrJeckyll, your story is very amusing but alas also so true. And true for many students really,those who don't work, those who do work, undergrads, post grads all. Student life these days can be pretty tough for many alas...

Yes No. 29200 you do need to get serious with the Phd if you want it. But take heart, as others have pointed out, the first few months can seem like a lot of pfaffing about while you try to nail down your topic, get a handle on the literature and sort out ethics applications (if these apply), and data collection plans.

Then there comes a day when you sit at your computer, look at draft intros, draft lit reviews, mangled attempts at methods chapters, ever optimistic plans for trying to hook in participants, revised interview protocols and you think "do I really want this PhD?'. But, in most cases you do...and you just get right back into it for 2014.

One of my supervisors (very experienced senior one who I rarely see) said to me quite kindly before Christmas, "all this pfaffing about is necessary. It is a legitimate part of the process".

However, even as she said this a little voice in my head was thinking uneasily of my own swamps of lazy misery and unproductiveness 'yes, but there is pfaffing about and pfaffing about'. You do need to work harder if you want it.

Hi Hazy Jane, when I saw your post I was horrified. How did I get to make this mistake for so long without realising. I make many errors but usually am aware of them by now and even though some are now habitual, I usually correct once I see them in writing. So (as you do) I checked with google and found I am not alone: took these from wiktionary. I think you can have both forms actually. Now I really must stop pfaffing (or faffing) about and get back to doing some work. Cheers Pjlu

pfaffing
English
Verb

pfaffing

Present participle of pfaff.

Usage notes

Normally used in the form pfaffing around.

pfaff
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English
Verb

pfaff (third-person singular simple present pfaffs, present participle pfaffing, simple past and past participle pfaffed)

(UK, slang) Alternative spelling of faff.  [quotations ▼]

Categories:

English verbs
British English
English slang
English alternative forms

This one from urban dictionary:

Pfaff
(făf)

1. a cool or awesome person.

2. a fairly common name in Germany.

3. the name of a sewing machine company.

4. a word used to replace the word f#$%, to censor yourself
1. dude you got to get to know this kid he's a Pfaff.

2. hey do you know Mr. Pfaff?

3. Did you know Pfaff sewing machine are the Mercedes of sewing machines.

Thanks for your messages.

Do you know why I am being lazy? Because I am soooo confused! When I feel like I have no idea where I am going in my research, I put off work. 4 months in, and I still have just a very rough idea of what I want to do! I still can't work out how to analyse what I want to analyse, where to get the data from, and what literature to read!

I want to cry! I think I need a meeting with my supevisor, but then I will look like I need too much guidance!

There was no sarcasm in my post - I genuinely did learn the correct spelling from you! :)

I also learnt that Pfaffing is a municipality in Austria. I wonder if they ever get anything done there?

I also started in October and likewise seemed to waste a lot of time. I think it's an accepted part of the process, drifting around a bit and wondering exactly what it is you are supposed to be doing! I got the shock of my life around 4-5 weeks ago when I had to attend an informal meeting at university with all other new phd students, just to get an idea how everyone was coping. One girl had completed her draft lit review and I hadn't even typed a word! I've really got going now and am working on my literature review but it certainly took a while to fully get my head around the process and get started. I certainly don't think it's too late, you are only 4 months in and I don't think there is tremendous expectation to have achieved much at this stage

Hi:

@Hazy Jane, I wasn't worried about sarcasm-but I have a bad habit of always assuming I must have made an error-just a left over hang up from my youth. Even in my mature years, can't quite get over my defensive reactions from childhood. :) (rueful dismay smiley insert-only I don't know how to do rueful dismay smiley). So I thought you might have been gently letting me know. Anyway thanks for reply. Hope things are going well for you in your PhD journey.

@29000, please go and see your supervisor (unless they are a monster supervisor) they should be able to help you. It is in fact their job to do this at these sorts of times. You are only 4 months in. And calling yourself lazy is not helpful and just will make you feel worse about yourself. You may be procrastinating but most likely are doing this because you don't know what to do next. We all procrastinate when we get anxious about what we are doing.

If you have a rough idea of your topic, your question and/or and the general subtopics then look out for published PhD's and journal articles that explore these areas and see what sorts of data the authors collected, their methodologies etc. This will help you get an idea of what might work for you. Though ultimately yours will be different, so don't think this is cheating-it is simply seeing what others have done. Sort of like looking at a map before you go on your own journey.

Think of your topic and just brainstorm any questions that come up in a journal (or ipad or whatever tool you use) and keep doing this. Then look for articles that discuss these, take notes and keep references for your bibliography. Even if you dont use them ultimately in your lit review, they will help you get started.

Good luck and (as Dory said to Nemo) 'just keep swimming'.

Pjlu, I am worried because I wanted to use a particular method, but it is now looking like I won't be able to... Yet this is the method that my supervisor specialises in, and the reason why I chose him!

Hi 29200, I empathise with the methodology issue. I'm currently driving myself bananas with all the nuances of different phenomenological approaches and trying to work out which one it is I am doing, so I can tidy up my methods chapter draft. (The draft that is only an introductory draft 3 of what will probably take about 20 different versions by the time I have finished collecting the data and writing this chapter).

One of the things I've found about this PhD is that things change during the whole process. So at the start of mine (given officially I am about 13 months or so into mine-that's the full time equivalent anyway), I was much clearer about what my methods were and why I had chosen them than I am now. 6 months ago I seemed to have a much better grasp of phenomenology. Ironically I know that I know more about it now yet the more I know- the more confusing it is-and trying to work out what I am doing and why is even trickier at times.

I go to see my supervisor and something that was absolutely clear suddenly seems to be gobbledegook in our conversations. The worse thing is that she is a great supervisor but doesn't know much about my subject and has only some grasp of phenemenology. What she does understand is the process of doing a PhD-so she is very reassuring. At any rate, we are sort of stuck with one another now and muddling along together I suppose.

Don't over think it all too much just yet, and just keep reading and asking questions and making some plans. All the plans will be changed later but that's okay, that is just part of the process.

Hi,

I agree with Piju. Things evolve out of your control.

My advice is to write down what you want to do and why. Scripta manent. Writing is a more effective form of communication, your point goes through.

My supervisor is the best (no complaints really). But I gave him a draft of my methodology recently, where I stated the weakness of a specific method we used. He said " why didn't you tell me about these limitations beforehand?"
" I did"
"Where is the email?"
*I slam the door and go crying in the bathroom* Of course he doesn't remember, we had that conversation 2 years ago.
You get my point.