I had an initial deadline of 31st August to submit so I can graduate this year, well I have done nothing, I just cant seem to be bothered, plus I still have a bit of lab work to do... Anyways, I think the dairy would do me a world of good and help me get my act together....Plus really need to finish, cos I am expecting a baby before the end of the year, if I dont complete by January I will have to pay a £1000 fine and finally, I really need to get a proper job as my stipend finished in April.....

So here it goes:
June 21 - completed thesis chapter outline - needs approval from PhD supervisor, have the meeting this wednesday

So you are running a dairy as well as doing a PhD.

Thats going to be tough, with the cows, milking and cheesemaking on top of your research.

LOL, meant diary.....

welcome!! i am so happy to see another Diary blogger!! fantastic!!

and lol at dairy. i hadn't even noticed. i think that sounds cute, made me smile .

ouch £1000 fine.thats harsh!

sounds like you are already on a roll with having a plan done! well done and kudos to you, for making a positive step forward in making this diary, it will help to monitor your progress and give you the motivation to work on your thesis everyday. even if it's just abit...

having experiments left to do, that cannot be easy as well as writing.

but you can do it!! nothing like a deadline to concentrate the mind. trust me, i've heard plenty of cases where people have managed to write their thesis in a couple of months, so you can totally do it!

there was this one person who said that after he had finished his thesis, he noticed all it really took for him to finally finish was to work 2 weeks on it full time, non stop.

and Joan Bolker in her book speaks about how if it's your last month or so, you will be amazed at what can be accomplished!

I look forward to hearing your progress. welcome to the september club! "people who have to submit their thesis in september" :)

lol at badhaircut's comment, lol !! that was funny :)

Thanks Lara for the comments and encouragement. Really need to hear success stories of those who have written their thesis with short deadlines.... wow at the two weeks full time writing. I agree that somehow if the deadline is very close, then somehow it just happens and one finds amazing energy to work really hard to finish... will keep you posted once I have my meeting on Wednesday...

hey whens the baby due? I'm due in sept so trying to write like a mad thing and get as much of it done as possible. Stipend ends in Sept- so still have a year to finish off but no money! So aim is as much before baby as possible then part time after! All the best with your meeting- or have you had it by now?

you're welcome Lady D :)

good luck with the meeting tommorow! and i wish you the best with your online writing diary

Celesmai glad to hear someone else is trying to finish whilst pregnant , all the very best, wow, due Sept, u must be struggling to reach the keyboard easily by now (LOL), thanks to PhD colleagues they reminded me that I might need to buy a special corner table to be able to fit the bump whilst writing especially if I leave finishing to past 6-7 months….. I still have a good few months left around 5 I think (I try not to think about the due date too much, makes me nervous – LOL). My stipend ended earlier this year, so now I am doing my PhD without much money…

Had the meeting with my supervisor and he has accepted my suggested chapters’ layout... His advise, just keep writing, it doesn’t have to make sense, just write... the initial writing will not be the final draft...

So now plan is to start with the chapters I have manuscripts written for already, that is only 1.5 of the 4 results chapters. I am still trying to get results for the one chapter....

So considering that I still want to meet my mad deadline of end of August, will need to (oh my goodness just looked at the calendar, I only have 8 weeks) so I cant even say 2 weeks per chapter comfortably...I am glad I am doing this diary (not dairy - LOL). Really makes me think and focus...

Ok back to the plan: supervisor says write introduction last, things will be much clearer once i have results chapters done and since my writing skills will be better, it would be good to take advantage of that then.

Still back to the plan, here we go:
Chapter 2 (1st results chapter) - 14th July
Chapter 3 (2nd results chapter) - 28th July
Chapter 5 (3rd results chapter) - 11th August
Chapter 4 (still collecting data) - don’t know... LOL
Chapter 1 (Introduction) - 25th August
Hmm, I am going to have to try and beat these dates if I really want to submit by end of August, God help me....

Anyone else got crazy/ambitious deadlines? Pls share how you are managing it....

That is impressive ambition!! I would love to hear how you get on with it, and congrats on your pregnancy! Does it make you super tired or are you a-ok? I may be in a similar state when I get to official write-up status so am very interested...!!

I do wish you had a real dairy... That would be great.

Been a few days and I havent even been able to write a thing, few reasons, still in the lab... and yesterday saw my supervisor who suddenly remembered some work I had started last year but abandoned... by the way I have enough results chapters as it stands I think 4 already and he wants me to do this work too... To be fair, he gives good reasons why etc and that my overall aim should not just be to finish the PhD, but right now thats all I can think of

*they* always do. but i think finishing your phd *should* be your main aim and priority.

i've heard many cases of supervisors using students to do other work and making it sound like a *good* idea. until crunch time the student gets a letter from the university telling them they MUST submit their phd thesis or else!

a friend of mine got such a letter about a month ago and she has to submit by august, or fail. and her supervisor is *STILL* insisting on her writing papers and doing a bunch of other stuff!!

no one but you will consider your phd your priority, i've learnt that myself. its your phd, so you gotta be selfish and say no. i have to concentrate on my phd..