My funding runs out in October and I'm expected to submit the thesis in August - I feel well and truly overwhelmed! Is anyone else in the same situation and how far along are you? :) Could do with some encouragement :D

I'm the same as you. Funding ends in October but I'm not planning to submit til December - anything else will just be unrealistic for me!

How many years funding did you get? I have three.

I haven't even started writing the thesis properly yet... I have a half written introduction and methods, and then I have analysed and concluded most of the data I have so far, but I still have loads more experiments to do (my PhD is molecular biology) and the introductions for each chapter... I've still got a lot to do.

Nice to know there's someone working to a similar timetable though!

Hi guys,

I too am in final year, funding runs out in October as well and I'm very glad to hear of other people in the same boat! Realistically I won't be able to submit until around March, I've got loads of experiments still to do and data to analyse from experiments that have been finished. I'll most likely be in the lab until the funding runs out, so I'm hoping to get bits written as I go.

I'm a bit ashamed to say this but I don't even have a complete literature review, just bits of writing here and there and draft figures of my results so far. How are you guys managing to juggle writing with data collection etc.? Or will you write up once the data is all ready to go? It's really good to hear from others at the same stage!

Tulip

Hi guys,

I'm too in a similar situation, I have funding for working half-time till September (the other half is busy with other projects, fund acquisition and teaching - I'm employed full-time). I used a different approach, and wrote up chapter-by-chapter as the data collection and analysis proceeded (I think how to organize the writing up depends a lot from the kind of project you have, my field is psychology of music and I have a mixed quantitative-qualitative study, that could be split in 2-3 parts to be written up / published separately).

But I still have a large qualitative analysis to do, and 2 more chapters to write (and one journal article to submit). And then also the 'what's next' chapter and conclusions. And of course revising the chapters I wrote already and updating the lit review (which was written one-and-a-half years ago!)...

I'm too overwhelmed, also because I'm supposed to really only invest about 4 hrs a day on the PhD, and I feel there is still so much to do! It's very nice to hear I'm not alone though!

Wanderingbit

Hi TreeofLife :) I got 3 years funding too - my supervisors are quite strict about me finishing on time or early - really feeling the pressure! Actually my motivation has nose dived lol. I need to do a plan of what I need to do on a weekly basis to have any chance of staying on target I think.



Hi Tulip :) Yes I thought it would be good to do a thread where people at a similar stage can get a little support - also it's so easy to eel like I'm the only one struggling at the stage I'm at, so it's reassuring to know there are others like me :)



Hi Wanderingbit :) I think 4 hours a day is the most I can manage before my brain get fried or I get depressed about it lol! Hopefully that should be enough for now, until April come round and the panic really sets in :)

Well this is good! Let's keep this thread as a motivator so we can keep track of our progress!

I've just been told I've got to submit an outline of a thesis plan and start thinking about what I can publish... so really need to get working. I've stayed at home today to do some writing because I just get too distracted by lab work and other people...

I think I will balance lab work and writing by taking one day off a week to write, if possible. My supervisor in the US thinks I should be at uni all the time but I'm not happy about that so... sorry supervisor! I think this is the only way I will realistically get stuff done.

I'm kind of lucky that when I started I had to do 2 4000 word literature reviews and I have done 2 annual reports as well, so that's why I've already done a lot of writing and data analysis. I had to severely cut down my lab work whilst I was doing the writing because that's the only way I can be productive (even though my UK supervisors told be that is unrealistic because I won't be able to do that in the future). It will still be a lot of work getting it all together in a thesis though.

Good morning everyone!

TreeofLife, your words lead me to a question: how many of you have already published parts of your theses? And how many and what types of publications do you have?
I managed so far one journal article, one book chapter and two conference proceedings (either published or in press). My supervisor is pushing, saying that I'd need at least one more journal article accepted before submitting the thesis. But there is so little time left..I'll try to submit a new paper in April/May, but get it accepted before end of Summer seems unrealistic.

What is your experience?

Wish you all a prolific working day!
wanderingbit

I don't have any publications and nothing in the pipeline either. My supervisors don't really encourage trying to get published before the end of the PhD. They want me to write papers inbetween submission and viva, which I think makes a lot of sense to be honest, since I wouldn't have time to concentrate on papers as well as generating results and writing the thesis.

Sounds like you have a lot of publications already! I think submitting another one should be fine, you shouldn't need to get it accepted straight away.

How is everyone here doing? Thought I'd pop back (during a moment of procrastination) and say hi.

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed today to say the least - I'm working on 5 different batches of experiments simultaneously because nothing is completely finished, and I'm struggling to feel like I'm making progress because while I inch forwards with one, the remaining four go on the back burner. But at the same time, I don't really have time to waste - anyway I don't mean to sound negative, just trying to figure out how to get on top of this mountain of work.

Hope everyone else's work is going better!

Tulip

I am! Hopefully before the summer. I'm part time and self funded, so it's been a long time coming!

At this point the finishing line seems so close but I can't quite believe it will ever arrive - I'm down to making final amendments and corrections on my thesis and my thoughts are turning to maybe getting some articles out of it.

Good luck everyone. :)

I found this thread a little late - I have just yesterday submitted my thesis! At the moment I'm feeling a little lost - everyone has told me to take some time off, but am not really sure what to do with myself. I think my first project is to get myself a job, hopefully one that will still give me time to research outside of office hours.

I also really need to get some publications done - I only have one book review. I get the impression the emphasis on 'publish or perish' is stronger in the sciences than in the arts/humanities, but we are still encouraged to publish one or two articles during our doctorates. I haven't really tried to get any parts of my thesis published, as I want to try to publish the whole thing as a monograph and I think having chapters published as articles might damage my chances. There are a couple of interesting things research-wise that I'd like to pursue, so I guess now is a good time to do that.

I would like to offer my encouragement to everyone who's posted in this thread and hoping to finish this year -good luck!

Just got the comments on my second year review meeting with internal assessors back...

Despite being told I was doing fine for my PhD during the meeting, and my supervisors constantly telling me I'm doing fine, the comments say: "At the moment there are perhaps not enough results for a PhD thesis.." and "the remainder of this year of her PhD is crucial for ensuring that she has sufficient discoveries to write about in her thesis".

Well what I am supposed to do?? I can't force my experiments to work!

They acknowledge I'm putting the effort in and taking the correct steps to get results, but still, I don't like these comments at all! Kind of worrying!

My counter comments will make it clear that I don't agree with their conclusions, since if I leave these comments as they are it might make it easier for them in the future to say I don't have enough results for a PhD, and have to downgrade to MPhil or something.

Guess I better get on with some work then!

Hi TreeofLife,

I am sure you 'll get results soon... I 've seen it happen in the lab often, but at the end it always works out. Seems like your supervisors don't have any concerns, so you 'll be fine.

Just hang in there.
xxx

Hey all!!

I'm hoping I will submit in 2014, too!!!

I'm part time, self funded, work full time, based in another country, studying in the UK and my native language is not English.

Finishing line or (as I prefer to call it) light at the end of the tunnel seems close.

I have to submit a first full draft of the thesis by the end of February. I have drafts of all chapters and I just need to pull them together and make a text that flows.

Fingers crossed its should not t ake me more that 10 days and then, after taking a few days off, I can re-read the whole thing and then send it to sups.....

Thanks DrJeckyll,

I hope that's the case. I know results-wise it can go either way: one minute you have nothing and then suddenly it works and you're fine. I hope this is what happens for me but I'm not sure it will to be honest! I just wonder why my assessors wrote this at all - maybe to motivate me to work more or maybe to cover themselves if it all goes wrong, I don't know.

I'll keep trying anyway, that's all I can do. I've been given some other projects now that are contributing to a larger project and these will definitely generate results so hopefully that will be ok.