I'm currently heading towards the end of a first draft, but everything takes about 5 times longer than I plan for and there are never enough hours in the day. I was planning to submit early Feb so I'm already 'overdue' although my official deadline (the 4 year mark) is October. I revised my submission date to April, then May and now it's looking like the end of June (that'll probably go out the window too).

The main problem is that I've been in my first full time lecturing position for several months, and can't seem to balance my time. How can you put aside time for writing when you have to give a lecture the next day that needs to be written?!

When I have gaps in teaching I make some progress, but never enough, and usually something else pops up (e.g. a journal article comes back wanting revisions). I can't seem to work beyond 11pm and I'm terrible at getting up early.

I just feel like such a failure as I never hit any deadline :( I sense my supervisors are getting a frustrated although they are supportive (if a bit too laid back), and there are pressures from my employer to finish and start hitting some top journals with the PhD data.

I've never really had this problem before, it's such a drain. I feel like my 'spark' has been sucked out of me. I normally love writing papers, but I'm not enjoying writing the thesis at all :(

P.S. when I say I'm terrible at getting up early, I mean getting up super early to do a couple of hours writing before my other work (not that I lie in bed til noon, or something!)

I could have written this. My thesis timeline is the same as yours and I'm working as hard as I can. I don't know what the solution is.

If you have a full time lecturing position then IMHO you should have switched to part time PhD registration when it started, if not in that already (the 4 years reference suggests not), which would have given you more time to complete, with a longer submission deadline. You can't study full time now, so your time to complete the PhD should reflect the time you have each week, and be realistic. Would it be worth changing now? It might buy you some valuable extra months, without getting an official extension.

As for getting it done, well many part time PhD students juggle PhD research and writing alongside full time jobs. It's very difficult. You need to be brutal in terms of what you can do, and when. The important thing is to find a routine that works, week in, week out. For example are you using your weekends productively for PhD writing? That might be some of the most valuable time you have.

Good luck!

I didn't realise you could change to PT after your third year Bilbo? My university made me go into 'writing up' phase and that basically said they have little to do with me from now until I submit.

I'm in the same boat SL, my original hand in date was March, then May, now August (as I currently work part time and start a full-time training course in June) and everything is taking so much longer than I want it to. I still have a data-chapter to start from scratch and not even thought about conclusions yet...eek!

I hear a lot of post-phd's say they felt that it would never end but it does, and you always feel more behind than you actually are...hopefully! Good luck to everyone writing =)

You can change in that period at my university. A friend recently changed from FT to PT. it should just be a matter of contacting the relevant people (especially Registry, your supervisor and school/departmental postgrad secretary) and getting the necessary change approved. Shouldn't be a big issue.

Changing from full time to part time during writing up is very university dependent. I haven't been allowed to :-(

Working full time as a lecturer while trying to finish is really hard. I'm doing the same, but my job is just a teaching fellow so I don't get ANY research time built in and have a ridiculous amount of teaching. It's okay, because I love it. But goddammit, it's difficult.

I'm about to go full time on a research contract for 3 months before starting a new full time teaching post. It's madness, frankly.

But, at least you're in a job that understands and, if you do have time free during the day it's okay to work on your thesis. If you're in a job outside of academia then they just don't care. Source: I have friends working for big software firms who couldn't give a crap if they finish their thesis or not. One, had to BEG to get a day off to attend his Viva (examiners could only do that particular day).

For me, the best approach is just to get something submittable by your deadline. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to convince your examiners that there is enough work for a PhD. I'm at the stage where I'm basically planning to submit something which the examiners will deem is PhD-worthy with a year of extra work - i.e. Major Revisions (or Revise and Resubmit) is my end game. It's very unlikely that I'll get a thesis worthy of minor corrections by my deadline, but that's okay because I'm working my butt off and making career progress.

It's not ideal, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. But, as I say to my friends who are trying to make me take 3 months off between jobs instead of taking a short term research post, a girl has got to eat and sleep. Food and shelter costs money.

Sounds tough IntoTheSpiral! I'm working two part-time jobs, and start full-time at the end of June and still trying to work on my PhD full-time and it's tough. My uni supervisor told me that I shouldn't work and just go live with my parents to write up as that's what he did...I was like...eh they live 500 miles away in separate 1 bed flats and I haven't lived at home for 10 years...plus I have a partner with a job here...he really didn't understand! So yes I agree we need to eat and live. It goes into the argument that all academics know 90% of PhD's will take the full 4 years but no one wants to fund that final year due to this silly tradition of 'writing up at your parents'...but that's another issue! Good luck to you and everyone else writing up!

So true Caro!

Thanks everyone for your responses - it's reassuring to know I'm not the only one in this situation :)

I transferred to 'writing up' stage in January so I don't know if I can go part time. Even if the Uni's deadline goes back, my current employed will not be happy if I haven't finished by the end of the Summer!

I now have an (almost) complete first draft - I need to finish the discussion and conclusion and then I'm sending to my supervisors. Although it doesn't feel 'good enough' to me.

I just feel constantly guilty- if I work on my PhD I feel bad that I'm neglecting my students, and when I work on my teaching I feel bad that I'm neglecting my PhD. Argh!

I have less teaching from July onward so hopefully I can finish over the summer and get it over and done with.Good luck everyone!

I couldn't easily go and live with my parents either - they would have had me if I was desperate, but they live on the South coast of the UK, I live in the North so it just isn't really feasible. Plus, life still costs money even if you're living at home.

My PhD supervisor has always been really understanding. But some of my colleagues less so. I had a conversation with someone last week where I explained that if I didn't get a job I would have to survive on beans on toast and super noodles for the next 3 months and also start selling my possessions to afford rent and bills. The alternative, is working full time in retail because I can't get any admin/temp work (and I've tried) and that would be fine, but it's a fairly low paid full time position, and most places aren't going to hire someone for just 3 months. At that point, I think it hit home why I've accepted this full time research post in between teaching jobs.

Anyways, I wish you the best of luck SL1990 and Caro. The next few months are going to be tough, but imagine how amazing our CVs are going to look afterwards. That first academic job after PhD is so hard to get, and so many other posts on this forum discuss the "I've got my PhD but can't get a job" frustration - and quite rightly so. But you and I are the lucky ones. We've climbed that hurdle. Just got to get the dam thesis submitted.

That sounds as though it really shouldn't take you that long to finish up and submit. I wouldn't expect it should take the whole summer for example. Yes you've got to write the conclusions/discussion finish, but focus in that on "So what?" as my supervisor always said. What's the point of your research? Why is it significant? What have you found out? Honestly you should be able to type that up quite quickly, after a bit of pondering.

So I think you're really near the end. Don't be a perfectionist about it. You said that you are always feeling guilty, and that got me wondering if you might be a perfectionist in your writing, as well as your 'good enough' comment. It doesn't have to perfect. It just has to be good enough. And you can always tweak post viva, if need be.

Good luck!

Drat re the first bit above! And thumbs up re the second paragraph quoted. That sounds like a very good strategy to me, and very pragmatic, given your circumstances.

Good luck!

So... I'm submitting in a week.

I feel there's a lot more I can do, but the supervisors think I'm stalling and being a perfectionist so I'm going to bite the bullet and submit next Tuesday which was my revised deadline. Do to the need to print and bind and travel across the UK to submit, plus personal commitments on the weekend I actually only have until this Friday!!!

Does anyone have any advice re. the final steps? I'm really worried about binding and whether my document is consistent with the Uni specifications.

I've asked friends to read, and every one has spotted a load of different typos, plus I found loads more while I was correcting.

I'm also having last minute doubts as to whether it's a good enough quality :(

That's very exciting news!

I don't really have any advice because I'm not there myself yet... But if your supervisors think you're stalling and being too perfectionist then I'd probably try to trust them and just submit. You can fix the teeny problems in minor corrections afterwards :-)

It sounds like they think your work is of good enough quality, so it's time to let go of the reigns a bit and just submit the thing. Well done!

Next weekend is going to be awesome knowing it's all submitted and out of your hands :-)