Hi guys,

I realise this has probably been covered a million times before, so please bear with me. I just need to hear some reassuring voices, or alternately get a sharp kick back into reality : )
I've been doing my PhD since October and basically in the past few weeks my motivation has disappeared down a rabbit hole. I'm struggling to concentrate for more than a couple of hours a day, even though I have lots of work I could be getting on with (I've written a very tentative 'chapter'- I know I probably won't end up keeping it- and am in the process of editing it and also preparing a paper for a conference in June, aswell as general reading).
I still love my subject and want to do well but I just cannot summon up any enthusiasm at the minute. I read books on my subject and my eyes glaze over, my mind wanders and I realise time has passed and I've done nothing, again. I've tried keeping a diary of my schedule to reflect on what's going wrong and keeping my schedule varied so I don't get stuck doing one thing for hours but I've still ended up in the same position.
I'm wondering if working in the office every day for the same hours might be de-motivating me. I sit down at my desk and its like my brain says 'right, time to switch off now.'
Reading the thread about people's daily work routines depressed me. I wish I could 'work through' from 9 to 5, but my ideas and my motivation seem so sporadic.
I was just wondering how people cope if and when they find themselves stuck like this : (
Thanks for reading.

if i could draw a graph of my motivation throughout the week/month, it would be pretty much a straight line across at zero for the majority of the time! then i have a supervision meeting and it soars, and the next few days are a flurry of activity where i feel really inspired and get loads done. then that task is over with and i slump again, and i have had entire weeks go by where i have sat at my desk every day for 7 or 8 hours and achieved absolutely nothing (apart from maybe a lot of facebooking/checking my emails, which i don't think counts ;) )

like you i seem to be motivated rather sporadically and worry that i will never feel enthusiastic enough to get through this phd. i really like my project but sometimes feel that i am just inherently lazy :$ i find that setting myself short-term goals (i.e by the end of the day i will have done this task, by the end of the week i will have read x amount of papers) helps a little, as does having more regular meetings with my supervisor, as i am shamed into making myself do some work or risk being found out! at the moment we are meeting almost weekly, and although this doesn't suit everyone it is perfect for me as it keeps me focused. i have also been preparing some slides as i know that my dept are likely to randomly ask me to present my work at short notice, and i find that keeping these updated as i go along also helps me as it is a way of keeping track of my progress. sometimes i look at the slides and realise i haven't added anything new in weeks, and again that forces me to take a look at my work and see where i need to get a move on!

but don't get too disheartened - remember the phd is a marathon not a sprint! some people will work consistently at the same level throughout, whereas others will go in phases of high and low activity. so don't beat yourself up about it, it may be that you just need to get away from your phd for a few days and come back feeling refreshed. you may well find that in a few days you suddenly feel motivated again, so stick with it and it'll work out alright in the end :-)

I started in October too. I said my daily routine was 9-6 but I'm not going to pretend that always works; also I know plenty of people who don't work that many hours and certainly don't work that sort of rigid 'office day'. Some days other things happen and I take some time off. At the moment I feel I can generally afford to do that, although that may not be the case next year. I've definitely had time when I lost enthusiasm and it's hard to get out of the pattern of struggling to get things done as it just gets more demotivating. I would say it won't help to keep sitting at your desk for hours, knowing you should be doing something. One thing I've found is that you have to remember you're allowed to take holiday! I didn't take very much time off over Christmas as I had a big piece of writing to do, so after that was in I took a few days off and had some 'me time'. Didn't go away or anything, just got on with other non-work things. I came back to my work refreshed and having had lots of ideas about where I might go next. If you don't feel you can take a couple of days, I'd definitely cut back your hours in the office for a bit. Decide how long you can stay focussed for, choose an interesting or important bit which will take that amount of time, and just focus on getting that done. Then hopefully you'll work your way back in. Sitting at your desk not getting things done won't add to your motivation, it will just make it worse!

Thanks guys :-)
I was a bit worried when I posted this that somebody was going to pop up and tell me I obviously shouldn't be doing a PhD if I'm not brimming over with enthusiasm and passion everyday. Smoobles your 'motivation graph' made me laugh! It's strange because I'd imagine that most people who enjoy their jobs don't feel so sceptical about this enjoyment every day. Yet I would never say that I don't enjoy my PhD and there's nothing else I can imagine wanting to do.
Megara, I think you're right in that working less hours might actually help. Like you say, picking a set number of jobs and getting on with it is likely to work better than waiting around hoping for my motivation to come back. It just means being honest with myself in that I might not work for eight hours a day. I might do four or five and more when needed. At the minute I can afford to do this and it might help set me up for when the real slog begins.
I too am inherently lazy Smoobles! Its a strange thing isnt it? I'm probably one of the most determined people I know, and when I actually had the chance to hang around for a year or two after my degree and take things easy the thought terrified me!
And so, I plod on...And hope!