Which strategy do y'all find most efficient, helpful, and most of all, survivable?

1) Spending a few days a week or just a couple hours a day working on your research, or
2) Just sitting down and pounding it out day after day with maybe the weekend to rest.

Thanks

I can't pound it out day after day - I'm long-term seriously ill, with very few good hours a week. However I have managed to write up over the last couple of years on typically 5 good hours total a week, often no more than an hour a day. So it is possible to work in small bursts. I'm part-time, but I'm only allowed twice as long as a full-timer, so rather supposed to be half-time. Fat chance!

Hi Hulley

You probably need to experiment to see what works for you - try working in short bursts over consecutive days, or in a burst for a few days then rest. We're all different and have different working styles, in terms of hours, and where we work. Keep in mind tho, that a couple of hours a day is unlikely to get you there if you're a full-time student who plans to finish within, or close to, 3 years.

I pound it out, day after day, every day and have set times that I have off during the week. I find that I need to work on my thesis every day to maintain some kind of pace. Lots of people also treat their thesis like a job, and work 9-5, which I think is helpful, as it gets you into a routine.

Hulley22 - lurrve the Indiana Jones explorer hat on your avatar. I'm the latter of your two classifications. I'm a (very)moderately talented slogger, which means I just work and work and then work some more on my thesis. Being in the 3rd year with very limited money, I sacrifice a life at the weekends and very rarely take a break. I teach around 6 hours a week at the moment, and so have to learn all about the lovely rheumatic diseases, their pathologies and management for lectures coming up this week. As Sue says, if you want to get it done within a reasonable time frame and are not a clever clogs, you can't just spend a few hours everyday a week on it. I cannot wait until my thesis is over, but until then I shall just have to pound it out.
Of course, not to sound irrelevant, it helps if your brain is made of kitchen role cos then the information you read and assimilate tends to stick - personally, this is my only saving grace.

I agree with you Sue in terms of treating it as a 9-5.

But what would be the total hours spent actually writing during these hours?

Im not sure whether to work at it with mornings dedicated to reading/finding articles - general "research" - and then write up in the afternoon

- or -

Dedicate Mon to Wed "researching" and then use Thursday and Friday for writing up...

Pete, I think those 9-5 hours should be productive, so ideally, all of them apart from lunch, should be used to work. Of course tho, we all get bouts of procrastination, me as much as the next person. Especially this morning, where I've spent far too long on this forum!

In terms of structuring your week, I've found that it helps me to identify when my most productive working time is and write during those times. So, I write in the mornings, when I'm most alert and productive and can think really clearly, do more menial stuff after lunch when I'm tired, and then mid-range brain power stuff for the rest of the day. So, leaving 2 days a week aside to write might not work, as you'd be writing, which needs brain power, in your non-productive parts of those days too. 

i think a lot depends upon your subject and where you are in the process. The way I work depends on what else is going on, I work in a school and therefore have some of the holidays, and that is when I concentrate on parts that need several days together for example to get a structure or outline to a section and get some basic stuff written down. During school time I tend to read, write notes (forget where I've put them, spend ages hunting them down etc.etc. :$) and slot bits in when inspiration strikes, or I find a good ref.. the next holiday I rewrite the sections I've added notes to, and start on whatever bit I want to tackle next. Its a bit hit and miss, sometimes I can spend a whole weekend on this, sometimes other things intervene and its just a bit of reading or something. Best thins is to find out what is best for you, if you fret when you think you should be working when you are not, you may need something a bit more structured, if you are happy to work as inspiration strikes, and think that time spent reading or just thinking is OK then be a bit more flexible - don't however forget that time is shorter than you think and allow yourself too much time away from the coalface :-)

I really struggle to chop and change task lots- I prefer to have a whole day or at least a whole afternoon at a time to spend on my writing. I find it hard just to work on something for an hour or two if it's a piece of writing- it takes me a while just to get in the mindset for it and to get going, so I like to have a nice chunk of time to work on it. I'm finding it hard at the moment because I'm out visiting participants lots, and also my teaching commitments, although not that significant, break up two of my weekdays. I am trying to write my next paper but it's really hard to get going on it with so much else going on...hopefully my participants won't want to see me around Christmas and I will get a few weeks of time to do my writing! KB