I started a part time RA role with my supervisor in november. Since then I've done nothing on my PhD. I only do the PT role 3 days a week, but she's actually asking more like 4 and a half days of work from me and won't accept 'well I've done my hours' as an answer - she wants results.

She hasn't spoken to me about my PhD for months and now she suddenly wants to know when my submission date is - erm hello, I have no date! I'm nowhere near finished, I need to write the whole thesis!

So I'm really tired when I finish my RA work, lost on my PhD work. every time I have an 'output' for my PhD it gets left on her desk for months without feedback, so I haven't got any section finished or even drafted well which is so demoralising.

Gah!

Sorry for the rant :-(

has anyone got any tips for actually just getting on and writing sections, I feel so lost at the mo.

I think you really need to stick your foot down with your supervisor. If she wants you to do more hours on the RA work she's going to have to pay you to do more hours, and accept you don't have time to do your PhD properly.

Early on in my PhD I was working half-time as a RA (paid, separate contract), along with doing my part-time PhD. And my RA boss was my PhD supervisor. But he was very good at keeping the two separate, and making sure that they didn't cause problems for each other.

As for writing sections, do you have a plan? By that I mean a large structure that you can work within in. If not, don't worry. An alternative approach is to start with writing whatever looks most appealing (or least unappealing!). I also found it very helpful to draw up to-do lists.

I managed my thesis writing on tiny opportunities, snatching an hour here and there, and having no more than 5 hours a week near the end. So it can be done. But you need to get moving.

Good luck!

I agree with Bilbo that you need to put your foot down with your supervisor. Does she know how much you are struggling?

As for just getting on and writing I think (and my main supervisor agrees) that if you give yourself a certain amount of time to do something, that is exactly how long it'll take. So I have set myself deadlines for each chapter and make myself meet them.Both of my supervisors are really disorganised so I set the deadlines myself and made myself accountable by sending them both a copy of my timetable. Actually getting stuff written often means starting off writing complete crap and I'm currently on version 6 of the chapter I'm working on at the moment.
But of course if you have other commitments such as your RA work getting in the way this isn't really going to be possible, so you need to put your foot down.

Thanks for the suggestions. I know I need to start setting myself deadlines. I was thinking back to my MSc and how much work you *can* do if you have a deadline!

In terms of structure - I'm a bit stuck. I need to get my 3rd study written up before I start the lit review IMO (I;ve got a load of literature written, but I need to restructure so it argues a point, rather than just blocks of writing) so I know where the story is going. But the third study has got stalled - I gave my intro, method and results to sup, but she hasn't bothered to read it.

I'm getting on wiht the method (as in the overall methods chapter), but I'm getting so sick of having bits here and bits there and no wad of paper to say 'that's done'.

I'm using 3 days a week to do the RA work with sup - so I'm not really doing that much over, its just taking it out of me - it is a lot of work, so I'm working 3 long days and its all data stuff at the mo so I'm sitting here with a headache from looking at SPSS all day mon-weds this week.

I suppose I need to sit down and draw up a mahoosive list of things to do and proposed deadlines.

has anyone got any idea of any software I can use to plan out multiple timescales/goals?

Microsoft project manager is good for doing gant charts and timescale thingies.

I wrote my literature review within 3 months of starting a 6-year part-time PhD.

You can write it quite quickly. It doesn't need to argue a point (that's the job of later chapters). And it can be rewritten later if need be.

But you need to get on with it. I'd recommend doing that first.

its tricky - I have a lot of literature and some needs to be scrapped - it all depends on what my final study argues as to what I include - it could go 1 of 3 (or more ways) and it can't all be included. It all comes down to being consistent with the theoretical approach I'm taking and the stance I'm using. If I wander into other stances then it will mean another 20k+ of lit review (there is A LOT out there!).

I'm making a plan today and structure it all around some deadlines. It seems so huge!

Ah right. Does indeed sound tricky! Good luck anyway. I wasn't blessed with a mass of relevant literature. Mine was a very under-researched area, which was good for me :p

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hey wal, thanks for the offer, I was a bit scared it might mess my office 2010 licence though. I have instead created a beautiful :-x excel gannt chart - you should see the colours! :-x

Anyway, I've forced myself to do the work I put down for today on the chart -and I've just finished it! I'm so pleased with myself :-) :-)

Only another month of freaky work craziness to do and apparently according to 'the chart' I'll have a draft thesis! I'm sure it will all go out the window at some point but feels good at this current moment to have actually finished 2000 words towards my thesis :-)