I haven't had a similar experience to share, but I just wanted to share some ideas. Perhaps you could try to have a discussion with your supervisor about the supervision process and what you both expect from each other - maybe you could work out some ground rules together? If he is not willing to discuss that then it's up to you to decide who you think will offer you the best support for your project.

I suppose you also need to think about why your progress has not been that great and what you might be able to do to improve it. Everyone experiences doubts about their choices and their abilities during a PhD. Try to put these to one side and focus on your work. Sorry, I know that's not easy! I think you just have to try to think that everyone is in the same boat and all you can do is do your best. Try to concentrate on getting small tasks done rather than worrying about the bigger picture.

As I said, I haven't experienced your situation but I hope this is helpful and I hope things work out for you.

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I'm starting the third year of my PhD on 1st October. I am doing a qualitative study in sociology and my data is based on participant observation and interviews. I conducted observation for about 6 months during my 2nd year and I have nearly completed my interviews. I initially planned to finish conducting and transcribing my interviews and to start coding my data by the start of my 3rd year, but I'm making very slow progress on the transcription so I think I'll be lucky if that is finished by 1st Oct.

My worry is that I almost certainly won't start coding my data (which is only the very first stage of analysis) until the start of my 3rd year. Is this normal or should I have started the analysis by now? I'm not sure whether the 3rd year should include data analysis or just writing.

Can anyone advise?