I have had some great advice from this site and so thought I would drop back to say that things are going ok. I had my first supervisory meeting in a while today (because of Easter, illness, another hospital stay for my daughter and fieldtrips) and my sup was pleased with my level of work so far, I had been asked to email 'something written' and so I just wrote all my notes up from my reading so far, I also wrote about the ideas I had and the study areas which I thought I could use, it was a really rough document but its almost as if by writing it all down I have space in my head to think?
One thing which did throw me is that I have been told to have my empirical investigations written up by the end of next week, I'm not really sure exactly what level of detail they want - I have some very VERY rough ideas and not sure how to turn it into a form to go into my annual review. Would be very grateful for ideas on how to start thinking about this.......

I am doing this PhD with a young child and so hubby and I have been going on lots of picnics and fun days out - all in my study area! That way I can get to grips with the mosaic habitats I am researching. I try to do 3 days at my desk 8.45 - 5, then a day at a weekend which involves tidying files, making plans, writing lists and downloading data. I've also found getting back to the PGR office (we were relocated and I was in the library on my own for about 6 weeks and got hideously depressed) has helped my productivity and i'm realising that most other people are struggling with the exact same things that I am. In fact I am realising that I am at a great uni with plenty of support, I just have to learn to ask for it.

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Hiccup. I definitely agree with you. I had a horrible first 6 months of the PhD. I was left without funding, had to juggle a part-time job and a very demanding relationship and was a bit burnt out from going straight to the PhD only 3 weeks after the MA. It was a very unproductive period. I took a leave a of absence at the end for the first semester and officially started the PhD in the second semester which means that I will finish later. I was constantly worried of what my sup would think, but at the end he said he understood and even complemented my work on our last monthly meeting. I´ve finally met a few other PhD students and even though I have not made any friends I feel things are going much better. Overall, I guess soldering on is the way.
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