Hi,

I'm new so thought I would introduce myself!

I'm Leanne and I'm in the 3rd year of my PhD in social psychology. I joined becuase I feel very isolated from the rest of the department and as friends have moved on with their work I'm feeling increasingly alone in my work. I'm really struggling at the moment to balance all the things I need to do - plus spend adequate time on my PhD. Any others finding this?

So thought I would sign up to chat to fellow PhDers! I couldn't work out from the posts if this site is mainly used by American or UK students?

L x

Hi Leanne

Welcome!! :-) Lots of people here find it difficult balancing studying and everything else, so you're not alone. You're also not alone in feeling alone! This is mainly a UK forum, although there's others (like me) who are not in the UK. I'm not even in that time zone, so when this lot is asleep, I'm working, alone again! Ahh well, this is a great forum and hopefully will be useful to you.

Hi,
Thanks for the reply - nice to know I'm not alone! :)
I hope it will be of use to me too!
x

hi and welcome,:-). As Sue said, we all get that isolation feeling from time to time, it's quite normal. Juggling is a fact of life. At the moment I'm on holiday from school (not a teacher by the way) and have so many things planned, some of which have already gone out the window and already I'm wondering how I will fit everything in. One of the problems is finding someone whose work is even close to your own, which gets increasingly difficult as you get further on, now even those with whom you started have diverged into their own particular niche, although here we have regular workshops, which keep us all in touch and with whom we can discuss the common elements, like how many words have you got in your lit review, and what have you included etc.. the only thing I can suggest is that you get yourself a plan so you can see where you have to go, and get some dates put on things, e.g. getting a chapter as finished as you can so you can put it aside and get on with the next. Doesn't matter if you don't keep to it exactly, but it does help to see where you are going, and you can cross off things which is always good.:$

Hi Joyce,
Thanks for the reply.
I'm normally not too bad at juggling, but have taken on an editing job which has turned out to be a nightmare so it is draining my time and my enthusiasm at the moment.  The deadline for the project is next week so things should get back on track after that. I hope to have a couple of analysis chapters knocked out by xmas so i think that will boost my confidence
Unfortunately there is no-one in my dept. who is working on anything even remotely similar - not even a methodology in common.  I have no comparison for lit. reviews or anything lilke that. My office is even in another building to the dept. so cannot even share office gossip or anything.  I can literally go days without seeing anyone. I do make an effort to meet people for lunch, but it's at times like this i just feel v. alone. 
I guess its just one of those bad patches!
Fingers crossed this forum will help!
x

I am also doing something that no-one else is doing, but there are meetings/ workshops etc. for PhD students, usually on a Saturday every couple of months and I try to get to as many as I can, this gets us together and provides somewhere where we can discuss all the little things, same as on here really. If there isn't anything like that at your place, perhaps you could suggest that something is set up? We have sessions about all sorts of things, speed reading, memory techniques, analysis etc. that are all quite general, so of use to all students, so quite a few usually come along. Feeling isolated is just one of those things, I suppose it is because there are only a few post grads at any one place- compared to undergrads - so you don't just bump into people with whom you can chat about what you are doing.

Hi,

The dept. is in the process of merging with another which means things are up in the air and everyone's still finding their feet so unfortunately i don't think it would be the right time to suggest anything. Also, with the merger (it's been very badly done!) i'm don't think there is anyone to suggest it to!! I'll have a word with my supervisor about it, but really don't think it'll come to anything.
We do have training workshops, but they are for the whole university and while i've made friends through them I have actually done all the courses now i'm in my 3rd year!!
I think it's just one of those things I am going to have to get used to unfortunately - at least it means I have no distractions from getting on with the very important job of writing up!!
x