Hi, I am 1 1/2 years into my part time studies. I am finding very hard to gauge my progress. I have done some reading and a pilot study but have not really started doing any analysis. I am trying to set up the main experiments for my research but finding it slow going. I have not written any papers or come close to being prepared for one. My supervisor gives me very little feed back and when I ask he just says I am doing fine.
Should I be reading and writing constantly or how can I gauge the pace of a part time study?

hi phdforever
I am doing mine full time, even so I find it hard to organize myself and get going. Theres simply too much distraction, even simple things can be a bother.

We should all have some kind of plan, so maybe you can make (or you may already have done so) a gantt chart of your "estimated" progress, make one, stick it on the wall and see how you go from there. YOu'd have to estimate how long it would take you to do say data collection, data anlysis etc.etc. If you check the gant chart you made (from last year), you can actually gauge your progress. you can also shift around your schedule.

Yes we should all be reading and writing constantly. Do you also have friends who are part timers? You can plan together, support each other and then you won't feel lonely, though this forum is good for anonymity and there are really wonderful people here.

best of luck
love satchi

Hi Phdforever,

I am very much in the same boat as you, I started my Part-time PhD around the same time as you and I also work full-time.  I have also found It a struggle to read as much as I think I should, but about 10 months ago I attended a seminar at which the speaker suggested you should use "golden time" which you put aside each day at a set time and work on nothing but your PhD. I have started doing about 1.5-2hrs per day either reading or writing, and it has really worked for me.  Incidentally to gauge progress I was told at the start if I could commit about 12-14hrs per week that would be the ideal, I so far manage between ten and twelve hours per week.

In terms progress, I am about the same as you, my supervisor, who also completed his PhD part-time thinks this is strong progress so from what you are doing I don't think you should worry to much.

In terms of publications, everyone seems to have a different view on this, my supervisor for example has recommended aiming at one per year to report progress and seek feedback, which is about the norm for my discipline but I think it really depends on your area.

I was a part-time PhD student over 6 years, managing over the latter half on just 5 hours or so total a week, in 1 hour chunks in the evening spread throughout the week.

I didn't worry about progress so much until I got near the end and had an absolute university deadline for submission! Before then I just kept going, in my own way. My supervisor said I was making very good use of limited time, and doing far more than he would have expected.

I did my literature review in 3 months, so after then I started my research. I was a history student, so that involved spending time with archival material (either in archives, or dragged locally to me), transcribing and analysing it, and then writing up.

I didn't impose deadlines on myself until I started the writing up of the thesis, halfway through. Before then I just worked at my own pace. However I made sure that I kept track of my progress, using an Excel spreadsheet, and having a row for each month, noting what I'd done, what I'd written, any meetings etc. That way I got a good sense of progress.

And in my discipline it isn't normal to publish before completing a PhD. I did (2 journal papers), but that was unusual. Most people don't, and it isn't expected, or encouraged. We're told to focus on producing our theses.