Well, after a day of feeling worried about finances and the state of the US economy and the dollar, I decided to rein in my lean budget even further...so headed to the marketplace, I planned to look for all the bargains I could. The most costly item I would have to find was skin moisturizer, something I am in desperate need of having run out a few days ago. So I was stopped by someone who wanted to know if I would take a survey. Being curious, as I am interested in qualitative methods, I said yes.

It was a survey about cheese. I love cheese! And for doing the survey, I was given some cheese AND some coupons to Boots--that more than paid for my skin lotions!!! Just a silly little thing but it made my day!

I expect cheese is moisturising too... from the inside out...

Olivia - I'm a mature undergrad lurking on this forum while doing my final project and contemplating a PhD. We recently communicated about being ENFP. I must say your messages are always amusing and your work regime inspirational!

Ogriv

Thanks Ogriv for your kind words! I hope your studies are going well!! ENFPs CAN do PhDs!

ENFP means? Is it Extremely Nice Foreign Person?

ENFP is one of I think 16 measures of a person's personality traits, based on a measure and description invented by Briggs and Meyers. It gives fairly detailed descriptors of a person's personality and how they act within certain environments, ie learning style. If you google this I think you can find some good information on it, if you are interested.

ENFP stands for--Extroverted, iNutitive, Feeling, Perception--which describe different personality facets.

You sound very disciplined, Olivia. And you don't sound like the sort of person to ruminate too much on how difficult things are - you just get on with it. Do you keep to fairly normal working hours with the PhD? And do you find that you've kept variety in your non-research time? e.g. friends, hobbies and the like?

I do try to just get on with things. Part of that probably comes from when I was working and doing the PhD--it was hard to find time for everything, and there was NO time to worry about getting on with it, I just had to. As for past habits, since I have just moved to another country, all is new. I am slowly making new friends in my new environment, but I think that takes time and the isolation of the PhD is no help. On the other hand, my focus on being in the UK to finish the PhD is just that and my priority is to work on it as much as I can so I finish in the best possible way!