I am writing my current MSc dissertation up while working full-time. I will be starting a 1+3 MSc & PhD in October so there is much reason to stay on track time-wise.

Often I find that I don't see much progress with my reading and note-taking and writing (e.g. in a literature review), as I have this dreadful habit of initially trying to include everything in the world in the first draft. This stems from a fear that if I don't include everything that might be only tangentially related then I might miss out on an incredible link between two things. Therefore I often don't make decisions about relevance until at least the second draft. While I've always got very good marks academically, I sense very strongly that this is an inefficient way to go about things and increases my work burden and thus my life-work balance goes to s**t.

Lately, for mental health reasons, I've been working on using present-focused mindfulness and awareness to stay in the moment and I am finding it cuts my stress levels at my day job. I also do some half-arsed meditation. I am finding that my ability to make decisions about whether some information is relevant to my question is improving. What a relief! Using the pomodoro technique and scheduling fun events for my free time also helps this.

But being able to bring my attention to the fear I feel when I don't understand a bit of a paper, and being able to just notice the emotion but not let it dominate my actions is beginning to show great effects and hopefully lower my procrastination levels.

Has anyone else found such techniques or others useful? I am aware this sounds very esoteric, so apologies. Also I fear that my thread title will inspire spam from someone selling a spurious cognition-enhancing milkshake, so sorry about that also if it happens. :p

hi Ogriv
I think it wonderful that you're using these techniques to your advantage!!! Keep it up!!!
But dont call it half-arsed meditation, meditation IS meditation no matter how you do it :-) :-) :-)
its good work and it will go a long way

I like to use psychotherapy techniques; especially those developed by Phyllis Krystal.
Hers are very good and easy to follow. I sit for meditation morning and evening but not long.
I like to go for mass on sundays because the church is so near where I live, and the atmosphere is good for my physical body.
I was very ill a couple of days back (my supermarket-farting-encounter) and thankfully, I have not even farted in church once!!!

Keep up your techniques, all the best in your writing
love satchi

Hey Orgiv! If it works for you then stick with it! I never really knew much about meditation and mindfulness techniques, but there are quite a lot of mindfulness practitioners and researchers at my university, so I went on a 12- week mindfulness course last year, just to see what all the hype was about. Personally, it didn't do a lot for me- I tried really hard and did my hour of practice every day, but it actually caused my well-being to deteriorate for a while, just down to a long standing trauma issue I have which was excacerbated by the meditation. But there were about 20 people on the course and the vast majority really felt that they had benefited from it, whether it was stress levels, depression, chronic pain, or just getting a different perspective on life. And I myself did gain some benefits from it, even though it was recommended that I didn't continue, which I didn't. For me an hour's hard exercise works wonders! But more and more people are trying it and finding it really useful- one thing I would say is it's probably best to go on a course to get you started if you haven't already- I think it would be pretty difficult to learn from a book or a CD, and belonging to a group in itself has benefits! So if it helps, stick with it! Good luck, KB

Hi Ogriv,

Great post and I am sure that mindfulness will assist with the 'generalisation' bug as well-although if it's any consolation, i've just spent Saturday, weeding out some unnecessary comments and lit from my review that seemed 'oh so necessary' months ago and are now annoying my supervisor intensely. Hope the meditation works to eliminate at least some of that for you.

Can I ask an unrelated question that has had me wondering for some time? How is it that many of you can apply for and anticipate commencing your Phd in October when you are still writing Masters dissertation?

I'm asking as with the universities that I would have considered applying for, I absolutely have to have the Masters thesis done and marked before I can apply for the Phd. Or at least that is what is on the information and actually, last time I spoke to a course coordinator-he agreed.

Is it a bit different in the UK? Sorry to hijack your post but you mentioned your present status and it brought this question to mind again.

Hope the meditation and techniques continue to assist and the spammers stay away....

Well, Plju, I am not in a typical position, as I'll simply be starting a second MSc in October as my current one is not accredited by the PhD funders so I have to do another one that is. I find this OK though.

I think some people get accepted on PhDs based on what their current supervisor writes in their reference re: their expected Masters grades. Or am I wrong?

======= Date Modified 16 Aug 2010 12:42:58 =======
Just to answer Pjlu's question: it's common in the UK to apply for PhD December-June time, and yes, that includes current MA/MSc students who may have only completed half or so of their modules by this point (in my case however I had only one module left to complete by the time the uni considered applicants).

Success is usually based on strength of research proposal and prior grades (so distinctions at Masters level and a first at undergrad are v. useful for example). Since it takes a lot of time to write the research proposal/applications on top of coursework and exams for the Masters this is a very good indicator of whether a student can juggle tasks and accomplish top-notch results in both areas. I also had to submit an indicative bibilography for the PhD proposal, which isn't uncommon. This was 3-4 pages of texts I had already consulted or planned to consult (you had to indicate which) for the PhD which obviously was very time consuming to research. Hope that helps ;)

Thanks for that Ogriv and Helena, I have the grades in Masters course work units and research methods units for sure -and excellent undergrad results from initial degrees and professional diplomas and certs but have not completed an honours year (at the time, I needed to get a job to support my family).

However, maybe as I am not an known entity (0nline distance) at this uni and my supervisor is very much a 'one step at a time' sort well maybe this makes the difference. It could just be Australian universities as well...or at least the one's I am currently working with. Another difference in Oz is that honours is a separate year so that an honours degree becomes a four year degree rather than a three year one with the honours strand kicking in in the third year.

Anyhow, it doesn't matter so much now because I don't intend to go for a doctorate until I have finished this masters and worked in my job for a year or so at least...so I will have the masters if and when I apply in the future...it has just made me curious, thanks for responses.