Is anyone else out there in their final year and feeling very overwhelmed and feeling like everyone else is ahead!?!

I've got people on facebook etc pointing out how much they've finished, ie completed chapters, supervisors happy with their work etc etc and it's making me feel really down! In comparision I feel like a crap student! (although this might be my own biases coming into play here!

Although by the end of May I will have conducted all of my fieldwork,, I still need to finish a small part of my quantitative analysis (hoping to get the qualitative analysis stuff done by the end of June) and will need to cut my literature reviews and methodology chapters by more than half (over 80,000 words in total). I thought I was doing ok! I seem to suffer from the problem of comparing myself to others quite a lot.

Although I'm getting on with my work relatively ok and trying to take a day as it comes, finding out that people are so close to the finish line (and they started the same time as me) is making me feel a bit rubbish!

Anyone else who is in their final year experiencing anything similar?

I feel exactly the same and I wonder what I have been doing for the past two years! I think if you have fieldwork to do the stages of work are sometimes different to those who don't. Most of my colleagues are looking at texts so all their evidence is already there and they seem to have written loads. But like you I had fieldwork to do to collect my evidence. It's only now that I am analysing it all and this is going to take ages. I don't seem to have written much - a lit review that will need completely changing, some bits of the methodology chapter, and one of the main chapters. But it's all in my head so it is just a case of getting on with it. Even though people I know seem to have written a lot earlier than I have they are still taking four years to submit, or a bit longer in some cases. Do you have to submit in three years (I take it that by your final year you mean third?) I'm actually hoping to go part time in July to finish off so I have some breathing space but I still think I will take the extra time allowed for writing up.
I think taking each day as it comes and getting on with it is a good strategy. And as I'm sure others will point out, comparing yourself to other PhD students is fatal! Every PhD is individual. If your supervisor is happy with you, then don't worry.

I feel the same as you. I am in my third year and I did very little till now and all the others are ahead. I am sure I won't be able to finish in three years. You seem better position them me though.

Hey many thanks for your responses. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one having these thoughts!

I'm just going to try and focus on my stuff and ignore other peoples remarks about how well their supervisors think their doing etc etc and comparing myself to others. My supervisors seem to be ok with my work (I will have finished most of my fieldwork in the next 2/3 weeks) so I guess that's the main thing- although they don't think I'll get everything finished before September. :( Well I'm going to try and get most of it done by then!!

same here. i have to submit my thesis in september/october, and everybody around here is asking me if i already have finished my first draft ... but i am still EXPERIMENTING to get enough data to make a fourth chapter. no literature review (well, i have written papers, but the lit. review in the thesis must be longer) yet, no introduction, no conclusions. just three content chapters. i am feeling like crap too, especially when i see how many publications other people have and how little i have. but i guess nothing can be done at this stage anyway, just do your best and hope it is enough. i am trying to keep my spirits up, but as for you, facebook people telling me how far ahead they are, are not helping at all!