Hi All am a newbie.

Am studying a business related phd in the North East of England and have been for 18months so am half way through (3years). Methodologically I am using mainly ethnographic methods.

I have a contract with an organisation to deliver a project for them too as they sponsor the phd so time is tight!

I really want to finish this though it has really got me down and have had 7 house moves, parents breaking up, long period of sever depression - lots of things going wrong throughout it!

I have a few questions I'd love to get some views on:
1) whenever im at a conference and meet fellow students they're able to come out with a few key names and I just sink thinking do I know everyone that well - i'm good with content but not names which makes me feel I don't know my stuff. Anyone else have this
2) I am required to produce an 80000word thesis - and am thinking analysis is going to have to be big - any ideas on word count?
3) As I am doing ethnography the research is extremely inductive - as such I have been doing my research from early on and THEN do the literature review. This means that other phd'ers starting at the same time as me seem to have got lots of their lit review done and I just panic at that. Anyone else found the same with ethnography?
4) Does anyone else seem to use their phd as an excuse to live life or is that how it should be? for example the weather was lovely yesterday and the great outdoors were calling but oh no 'i have to get on with my phd' came bumbling out my mouth, same excuse for exercising!

So hey just the usual panic we all get. Great to hear from anyone.

For the word count and chapters etc. read Dunleavy's 'Authoring a PhD' it will help with this, I use it quite a lot just to make sure I'm doing things right.
It doesn't seem to matter which order you do things in, I think it is just traditional to start with a lit review, I'm not starting with that, I'm getting other chapters sorted first, but that doesn't mean I'm not putting bits aside for the lit, just as I am for other chapters, but it isn't my focus at the moment.
Ref getting out and about, you can do both! often the inspiration comes when you least expect it, and you can enjoy the great outdoors and be subconsciously thinking about your research at the same time. Anyway you can work when it isn't so nice, you need a bit of a break sometimes and can come back refreshed and ready to go!