I'm on such a go slow this week - I was whizzing through last week and then a weekend of socialising seems to have ground me to a hault and turned my brain to straw. Anyone else feeling like this? is it normal? how much meandering can a PhD stude get away with?

Totally! I just got out of a 8ish-year relationship a month ago. Things were going OK, then I went out on Friday and got completely hammered. I pretty much had 5 useless days follow. I kicked the slump the day that my supervisor gave me small menial, but totally achievable, tasks. Before that, I was doing a lot of sitting down in front of TV for 5 minutes...which turned into an hour.

======= Date Modified 14 Mar 2009 16:40:14 =======
me too! i am doing way too much procrastination and not enough studying. and today i feel totally depressed and i dont know why. i dont feel like doing anything. and i am feeling so depressed and stressed about my viva. i really cant remember a single thing i'm reading these days and have no clue what my thesis means. im a blank slate! and i am avoidnig contacting my supervisor because i dont want him to organise my viva because im not ready and i will never be ready!

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh

i gave myself a deadline of april 1st to contact my supervisor. now i only have 2 weeks left ! and i still have about 100 viva questions i havent forumated answers for :( sometimes i just think they should just fail me and get it over and done with and i can just wallow in a dark corner in my shadow
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EDIT

i just had abit of a breakdown luckily my best friend just called me and put things into perspective. she gave me sound advice and to tell me to just contact my sup and get it over and done with . and ask him for help and guidance and ask him when my viva is so i can properly prepare a timetable. right now i'm just sticking my head in the sand and living in limbo land. part of me doesnt want to have a viva because i feel if i dont have a viva, i neither pass nor fail. but thats no way to live. i feel like my life is on hold and i cant do anything or move on, until i get my viva done. so she's helped me compose an email and has told me to email it to him on monday and so that's what im going to do. im really scared about contacting my supervisor, but i gotta face my dragon. face the fear, i cant just hibernate and hide away hoping i never have a viva. thats no way to live. part of me just wants to be put out of my misery. she was so great, she told me it wouldnt be the end of the world if the worst thing happened and i failed. its like so what. life goes on. i was like im feeling very unhappy and deppressed and having suicidal thoughts not literary just feeling caved in.

so my plan for today. compose an email to my sup. and then make a list of the things i've done so far and a list of the papers i've read and make proper notes from papers i read so that it can help me with my revison. because i keep forgetting what i read so i just need to start making proper notes instead of just copying verbatim.

thanks for listening.