Oh, it's not just me then. I hate those meetings where I might have well have taped myself saying ...

"I'm sorry, that's not done yet, but I'm getting to it when I can"

....so I can put it on repeat :)

I was going to read and type up notes on 5 papers today.
I'm running out of steam at one and a half!

It doesn't help that it's a beautiful bank holiday Monday and all I want to do is lounge around reading fiction in the sun..

At the rate of two papers per day, before I've even written anything, how on earth am I going to get this done in 2 weeks? Gah!

I will try and find the movie. That would be a good thread to start "Movies to inspire/motive/prevent self harm in PhD students"!

Did I mention that the work was an exercise in sheer tedium? :) Nice to hear it's happened to you too. Smilodon, are you doing a sciencey PhD? Does it still happen when you're further in?

:) *chuckles*
Five days this time.

Hi Everyone,

I'm running the risk of breaking my computer during a tantrum...... (!)

I've been tidying up data collected from a bunch of papers, trying to normalise it into formats I can use for my own purposes. I've done it before a few months ago but I wanted to re-do it now that I know more than I did then...

...But I've ended up spending the last 5 days redoing bits here, filling in discrepancies, looking up missing data in this-and-that database. Checking, rechecking yada yada yada.

I've just done another summary of what I've got and I'm pretty much where I started, proportionally. In my summary I've found more stuff that's missing, more stuff that I need to tidy. I can't quite believe it (nor do i understand what's happened).

All I know is that I'm cutting my losses and realising that it's been a remarkable waste of 5 days of my time (It's not like I don't have a million other things to do).

Not sure whether to laugh or cry. Feeling like a colossal looser :)

Please tell me you all have this "running around in circles wasting your own time" thing.


-InaPickle

No, I think I am probably not as organised, hence the need for software.

My program doesn't do any planning for us! I think that would be a disaster!

All my mastermixes are excel tables too, and I print out a record for exactly what I did on a certain date (with gel picks stuck on etc), but I don't want to have a load of print outs stuck in my lab book (I don't find it at all user friendly, I like stuff for single projects filed together), so I end up with files of notes in folders. Keeping a labbook on top of this turns out to be duplication. My To do list is in another notebook (because only half of the items ever get done - I am too optimisitc)

With an ELN my supervisors would be able to 'log in' to my lab book and take a look at what was done, how it went etc.

I think it is the future for organisationally challenged individuals like me. :)

I know people get on very well with paper lab notebooks, however, personally I find that typing out my protocols, calculating solution concentrations, calculating PCR mastermix volumes, making 96 or 384 well layout and analysing data on a computer a lot easier (or indeed absolutely necessary). It seems ridiculous to then have to print out the documents and stick them into a paper book.

Also, if you have many small projects running concurrently, it is a collosal pain in the backside to have to flip through each page of your lab book and connect the different stages of a single project when there is info from everything else you've been doing in-between.

Can anyone recommend a good cheap/free ELN? I have been playing with http://mekentosj.com/labassistant/, but I'm not overly impressed with the 'logbook function'.

Any ideas? I'm using OSX leopard.

A month and a half ago, I had everything nailed. I was motivated, breezing through and making progress.
These days I'm just coasting through weeks. I start something new, leave it for a while and have to start from scratch when I go again. I can easily fill my day with mundane admin or general lab maintenance tasks. I get distracted very easily.

How can I cure this procrastination spell? It seems to be a downward spiral!
Help!

eddi, I too only started recently and I feel like this every other day. I'm sure it is normal in some respects, but I don't know to what extent. I feel like I am in everyday, and working for most of it but despite this I'm not entirely sure what I have done after three months, certainly nothing concrete. It scares me.

Maybe try to write down what you think was wrong with the talk and then think about how you can take action to address where you went wrong for next time. You can always say to your supervisor, "i thought that maybe my talk had *this problem* and I'd like to improve my presentation skills for next time. It's a way of being positive and not just fishing for compliments.

I am often the last person to follow my own advice but you have to forget about it or improve from it otherwise (I know from experience) you will stagnate in your negativity and insecurities. It's just not productive and you owe yourself more.

Can you go on a presentations skills course? We've all had presentations that didn't go as well as we hoped (or worse) and have lived to tell the tale. Good luck and feel better soon

Try mapping out some concrete targets for the next three months and then writing a list of what you need to do to achieve them. Then start doing them.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18124356.500-anoraks-need-not-apply.html

"YOU have sat through the lectures, slaved over the essays, slogged through the lab work and swotted for the exams. Now you are within sight of graduation and your escape into the "real" world. Why would you want to stay a student for another three years?

The answer is simple. Doing a PhD is a million miles from the constraints of a first degree, and it's a guaranteed way of getting stuck into some real science. You will be in charge of your own research project on a topic of your choice, perhaps gaining valuable experience by working with industry, and you will manage your own time..." see link for more

Where and when do you find you do your most productive reading? I find reading papers on the train very hit or miss, sometimes I'm on top form but if I'm slightly tired I can' take anything in. The office is a no-no (too much distraction) so right now I do most of mine at evenings and weekends, which is a shame 'cos I'm not the fastest.

Also, I wonder if journal editors take on board the competitive factor when they select reviewers for submitted papers. I don't think single reviewers are ever a good idea, they should find three for a balanced opinion and true 'peer review'.