hi i think many here would know me as the phd student who ran into a brickwall 4 months into her PhD program. I tried in vain to differentiate a cell line for 3 months without any success. My professor has agreed to let me buy a new cell line but it wont come until late january.

in the meantime i have come up with a side project that requires me to use 'normal' kind of cells, those that are not difficulty to deal with. And the techniques im using are generally microscopy imaging rather than those biochemical assays(western blot etc) and have been getting my first few data quite fast. My thesis advisory commitee is in 4 months time and my qualifying examination is in 14 months time.

i was thinking of clearing my leave for this year, for which i am entitled to 7 days. i cant bring forward to next year but at the same time i dont feel like i deserve a break and also im getting panicky and the thought of me presenting to my thesis advisors with not much data to show with is hunting me. Am i being too panicky. should i take leave?

Yes. Take a break. It's Christmas in a few weeks and most unis close anyway.

Use your remaining leave entitlement. Everyone can keep working but it can add to stress levels and anxiety. You sound like you know what you're doing now, have a working sample set and new cell line due in a few weeks. Take a break.

Down time is important to decompress and be able to get going again with a good outlook.

there's an argument to be made for either option. But from personal experience, if I actually take a good guilt free break, I'm twice as productive and motivated when I come back. This year I went to Algarve for 6 days and my phone broke the day before Ieft. No email/ no twitter and I didn't look at a book. It was a total change of scene and I was busy, so I actually surprised myself, by not thinking about my phd at all some days. It was a nice holiday, in a nice location, but it wasn't steller as holidays go; I got sick for a day or two/ my sister got sick. it was a bit too hot ect..... even still it did me the world of good. Really put things in perspective and I came back so much more motivated and have increased my output and quality of work.

I'm under pressure to finish up. But I'm taking a week off for Xmas,and I'm turning off my phone and not going near my laptop... I know for me, Ill work twice as well when I come back.