September is fast apporoaching which marks the end of my end of offical registration time.

Is anyone else in the same position as me who is also bored of their thesis?

I'm tired of doing things, working really hard on things only to be told that I've gone into too much detail or provided too much work into something (so I have to cut it down or delete it) and been told that I'll have to redo everything.

By September I would like to have a complete draft of my thesis leaving a few months for supervisors to get back to me regarding corrections etc. I'm really struggling to stay motivated today- not sure why?! i'm tired of going through these periods of motivated concentrated work to slumps where my motivation is low and I'm doing very little in terms of productive work :( (yet I force myself to work in the office everyday)

I wonder am I on my lonesome with this regard?

I think that when you can see the finish line so close ahead of you it is hard to concentrate on the now and what you are doing. Some days it feels so close it's distracting, other days it feels depressingly far away. Also with a thesis, by the time you get to writing up you have spent so long with your topic that you know it inside out and can't wait to follow new avenues and thoughts. Staying with something you've fully investigated can be difficult. Not to mention the pressure and long-term fatigue that have built up. Be especially careful to take time out and look after your health on a regular basis.

Hoping you get to make the best of your opportunity to shine.

Also, try remember what you found interesting about the subject in the beginning, your work will help others feel this - what an exciting thought!

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Hi *Pineapple*. I am in the same situation, but I know I will not be able to finish by September, and yes, I am also getting bored with the thesis.. In principle I am still very much interested in the field, but not just the particulars of what I am working on... At the moment I am working on something that is still a bit fresh, so it's all good at the mo but I definitely had a massive low when I was reworking a paper again and again (because I had made errors in my analysis). It was hard. I think it is normal to go through the phases of intense work (and motivation) and then just a bit later all running on empty.. I am trying to break up bits of work and focus on finishing off (even if it's not the final thesis version vetted by sups).. and working towards a conference/holiday break in September :-) Then hopefully after that I will be "ready" to for the home straight (lasting a few months, no doubt).

You are not the only one... and I have heard the biggest motivator at the end is just to end it all.. and I can see why that would be.

If I'm not mistaken it's good to be bored with a thesis, even hate it - it shows you've spent time on it and now need to move on. I'm definitely bored with mine - so *hopefully* I'll pass!

I suppose it's like preparing for a presentation...when you become bored to tears with prep and practice, you know you'll nail it.

I'm not there yet but I'm sure it's a very common feeling. In fact, I can think of a number of other times when I've experienced the same sort of thing leading up to big deadlines. To take a minor example, I have a vivid memory of the day before my final A-level exam completely lacking any motivation whatsoever to even glance at my notes. I knew I only had one more day of revision misery to go and yet every fibre of my being rebelled against doing any more! The only way I got through was by allowing myself quite long breaks doing really nice things, interspersed with short intense periods of concentration.
Now this may not exactly be possible for someone writing up a PhD but I do think it's probably more important than ever at this time to block in periods of time when you are going to do something non-thesis related that you really enjoy. This isn't just a reward system for your hardwork, it's actively contributing to the thesis by making sure your mind is rested enough to tackle the really tough stuff and perform at its best when you need it to.
So, my advice, take essential, mandatory, incredibly necessary to the success of the whole thing, guilt-free breaks and see if that helps your motivation.
Good luck with it.:-)

I'm not bored as such, but want it out of the way. I think it's become tiresome, and now that the finishing line is in sight (less than a year to go before my 6-year part-time registration runs out) I'd rather have it out of the way than spend any longer than necessary on it. This is quite a new feeling for me. Until quite recently I was thinking I'd probably get an extension, which would be easy for me to get on medical grounds (long-term seriously ill, and have lost a lot of time during the official registration period), and that I'd need that time. But now I can see that it would be possible to submit I would much rather do that, and get it out of the way.

But I have to keep pushing on. I have quite a substantial piece of research to finish and plug in to add another 5,000 words. Finding the transcribing portion of it very tedious, and it doesn't help that the ink in the documents is incredibly faint. But thinking positive, maybe this time next year I'll have submitted and it will all be out of the way!

I am completely bored with mine. I'm on the final corrections stage so you'd think I'd just get on with it, but no :$ I hate working on it because it no longer interests me at all. There is so much other research that I'm itching to get on with but I can't until the thesis is finally done. I need to get the final corrections to my examiners by the end of next week so I need to get my finger out but I'm using any excuse not to work - hence my post!!

I'm happy to find people going through exactly the same thing as I am, although it doesn't make it any more fun... I too lack motivation to walk those final 100 meters of the marathon and rather sit down and give up. Utterly bored with the exercise. I was afraid that this would be a bad sign for my future in research....Now that I think of it: I'm actually still afraid it is :-( ...sulk...

It's like watching paint dry and halfway thro' realising you've used the wrong colour ... Arrrrgggghhhh!!!!

End of three years in Oct., and due to a whole load of setbacks, only now hitting the crux of research. Have decided that irrespective of what the supervisor says, I am taking the line of research I want - after all, as scary as it sounds, I am the local expert:p

same here. i cannot motivate myself at all. had a paper deadline yesterday, that was ok, but now that i have to go back to writing up the thesis .... i am surfing the web, having coffee breaks, dreaming away .... i cannot stand reading over my chapters again. especially the early ones - i now think they are complete rubbish, but no time to change. submission is coming faaaaaaaast.

Hi Pineapple

I see we're at the same stage again (thinking back to your first upgrade...)... and, yes, I'm bored with my thesis and just want it out of the way. Same like you... I want to have a complete draft by the end of summer (for first reading, and mock viva) and to have it submitted by end Nov... ready for Viva in early Jan. Actually, I was bored and frustrated... until yesterday when I made a sort of a new commitment to the work and decided just to accept that for the next six months me and my thesis are going to have to have a very close, intimate and single-minded relationship. LOL ;-) I'm not funded, so I've spent a lot of time juggling finances this last year... and whilst I did have a lot of research opportunities and started working as a researcher ... not on my PhD work... it felt like my thesis got side-lined a lot and so I didn't make as much progress as I wanted to. Had a wake-up call supervision this week and so decided to put the horse back before the cart... *chuckle* instead of having the horse (PhD) push the cart (paid research work). So I've reduced down the workload, told everyone to stop offering me work and generally made myself more unavailable. We'll see how things go. I do know I feel a whole lot beter today, having made a decision and a commitment, than I did earlier this week (during supervision)... :-) Relieved actually. Feel like I've managed to clear the decks again... and that's made the thesis more interesting again.

Hi Pineapple, I'm on the same boat as you on being bored as well as trying to finish a first draft of thesis by sep. The outlook is not good as it doesn't look like I'm going to make it or maybe just about. BUT I want to get this over with and move on with my life so I keep telling myself-'I need to do this' every minute. The strategy I will use is dividing tasks into smaller tasks so I wont feel overwhelmed. Just doing few pages editing or writing at least a page on a day. I will update on how things go and keep in mind that sooner its done the better your life will be.(up)

Lads and ladies,
If bored, head off for the cinema and catch "The Hangover" ... a good laugh is what we all need to remind ourselves that there is more to life than those three letters - P, h and d!