i've been looking for non-academic jobs that i want to apply to this summer to start when am done and i found that that really gave me motivation to get up and get on with it so am done in time to start this job. what motivates you?

hmmm... funds ending! that's not a positive motivation, but some sort of motivation at least

The "Dr." title... i know it's shallow

Nothing motivated me. I turned writing up into the most protracted and excruciating experience possible. In hindsight, I wish I hadn't done that. Waste of 6 months really.

Piglet, that sounds exactly like me. I'm trying to find the answer to my 'motivation problem' but like a true academic I'm analysing it and wanting tips but as my supervisor says I should just sit down and write it! I wish it was that easy or maybe it is??

1)hope that after I finish I will be able to do so many things that have been put on hold because of PhD and writing up:)
2)similarly to others- end of funding (with no hope to get any financial asisstance from anywhere)

Hi Jojo,

I like the writing, it forces me to think and put a structure to what I am thinking. It's also nice to start with a blank piece of paper and then to create a coherent text. The feeling of having achieved / finished something feels great. I like achieving.
To reverse the question: what really puts me of is the draining process of having to wait for feedback, everything taking ages and then getting feedback which does not make sense, is unfunded or which showes that the supervisor has not read what your wrote, as a result having to restart completely and having feeling that things go in circles. I do not like having to work with people who do seem to be interested, yet relying on them.

I was so happy writing about my PhD in the past tense preparing a job application. Shame I have to go into today and look at my thesis again after a week off.

to be honest, I don't have a motivation strong enough to keep me focusing on the thesis, and I suppose that's why I write so slow.

My new found motivation is the university 4 year deadline. I'm not very good at setting my own deadlines. Unfortunately funding running out didn't seem to motivate me (I've just gone into debt). But also the motivation is for finishing, and having some semblance of a life back, be easier to live with, have a holiday, earn some money... and feeling like I've achieved something after all that time. I guess what drove the initial part of my writing up was being interested in finding answers to my research questions - it absorbed me so much I got sidetracked into spending too much time and a chapter that should have taken a few months took nearly a year. Now the motivation is less the research, more just finishing.
Oh and being able to tell non-PhD friends that I've finally finished!

Hi.

I'm in the same position, and I'm finding the writing-up process excrutiating. Same as piglet I feel like I've wasted at least 3-6 months through procrastination and not working 'smarter', whatever that means. I understand I'm wasting time, I just can't help myself.

It's stupid this close to the end too... If something helps to motivate me I'll keep you all posted.

'Surely it shouldn't be this hard...'

Doh, looks like I mistyped during registration. One of the nation's finest eh?

Almost IT-PhD

Just wonder, how you guys cope with the feeling that the more you read the more you understand that you dont know and the more you need to read, not write? I write 2 paragraphs a day because I feel that I must read any cross-referece I come across.....:(

Yep, I have that problem. But I'm finding that the trail of references is NOT endless - you get to a point where the papers you're reading are referencing pretty much the same things.
I feel that this HAS to be done - I don't feel happy writing about something until it's totally clear in my head. Sometimes that happens sooner, sometimes later. I guess I just try to read FASTER!

Hello from Australia. Thanks everyone from the bottom of my heart! I am finding this soooo bad! I have to force my self some days to even look at it....it can take me hours to actually start, to stop roaming around online, I get lost in an article, fight with myself to write and then some days it just goes....I am working from home now and there are hours I am actually enjoying it. But it is the starting....sometimes it takes me a day to get going and then at 6.00pm or so i suddenly go well for 2 hours...i take a break and it will take hours agian to start...The word Excruciating (capital E) is so apt.

yes I also read all cross references..and can identify with that. I am doing entrepreneurship and two other related business streams, but we cannot know everything...