Well done, Lara!
Enjoy your break and have fun!

Hello Lara and Celesmai,

Glad to hear that you're doing great!

I had the take the weekend off because of prior commitments (was 4th of July weekend here) with my family.

Now back to work! My aim today is to complete the first rough draft of introduction chapter so I can share it with my supervisor this week. Although I took a couple of days off, I feel like I am back on track. No more taking days off for a couple of months now.

CJ

Today, I will review my advisor's comments and start addressing them. My aim for today is to prepare a list to address his concerns and itentify and download all the papers I will need to read and use for my theory development.

Hello everyone,

Hope you all are doing great.

The meeting with my advisor went well. He was a bit disappointed of the amount of work I gave to him; but he was happy that I am showing some progress. He also sent my rough draft back today with encouraging comments. What matters now is to NOT stop and keep working the way I did during the last couple of days. I was amazed to see how much work can be done even in such a short period. I agree with the 15 minute rule: The key is to sit and do something about the dissertation every day - even if it's just for a little while.

Lara-- everyday is not the same and will never be. You might have a relatively unproductive day but still you seem to have managed to get some work done. Not bad at all!

It sounds like one problems I've had. It always scared me to sit and get some work done because I didn't know where to start and how to organize all my thoughts and hand-written drafts.

Today, after a very long time, thanks to folks here, I sat down and got a lot of work done today. You can try what I did: Set yourself achievable goals and instead of jumping from one idea or section to another, start from whichever section you'd like to. That'll keep you focused and prevent you from drifting away frequently. Hope this helps!

Sorry to hear that. Wish you a speedy recovery!

Hello again,

Wow, it really feels good to get back to work.

I couldn't achieve all of my goals but I wrote my introduction section and summarized the theorizes I will adapt. Research model and hypotheses are a little messier than I initally thought. So, for tomorrow's meeting with my advisor (yes, I am 6 hours behind in the US!), I have some work to show him my good intentions, but it could have been better if I sorted all my hypotheses out and designed my experiment.

It's only midnight here. So, maybe I can do a little more in the next few hours before I go to bed.

Lara, don't worry about your PC as long as you have another one doing the job. I think you mentioned a laptop somewhere in the forum. Achieve your daily goals and when you're resting, try to fix your PC without much stress.

Getting back to work feels good for me so far..

Hi everyone!

I have read these forums and I am so happy to see everyone supporting and helping each other. I hope you have some room for another dissertation write like me.

Tomorrow, I will have a meeting with my advisor and here's a list of what I aim to accomplish today:

1. Write a short introduction that clarifies the motivation, research purpose and objectives and potential implications of the study.
2. Briefly explain the rough research model and experimental design (although this will be really rough).
3. After completing these tasks, shorten a journal paper that's been accepted for publication.

I am looking forward to getting to know all of you, and I hope I can help and support you with as well!

Lara.

I can't appreciate your support enough. Yes, I will definitely be joining the club now!

CJ

Yes, I have been revising a couple of papers that are close to being accepted to solid journals. But still, I should have done more about the dissertation.

Fortunately, I have some work to show to him though it's not as much as he might be expecting. He wanted me to make sure that all of my hypotheses and experimental design and procedures are ready. I have some doubts about what I've done so far.

What's more important is I understood that I really really want to write this dissertation even though I was so afraid of facing it for a long time. I will be show my advisor a little progress, be honest, and get more disciplined!

What a great forum! Thank you!

Alicepalace and Sheena,
Thanks a lot for your suggestions.

Hi everyone,

I guess I'm in trouble with my dissertation and wanted to share my experiences with you.

I've been trying to write my dissertation for the last 6 months or so, but I've spent most of time being lazy, hiding from my advisor, and finding excuses. Finally, my advisor called me in for a meeting on Wednesday, adding that he hopes that there is substantial progress on my dissertation or he will stop asking me about it.

I know about my mistakes and I know I should have worked on the dissertation. However, I really want to get back on track and earn my PhD. The problem is I have only a little more than a day and I don't think I will be able to show him a "substantial" progress- I really will hate to see my advisor slowly giving up on me.

I feel like I need some advice about how to handle this meeting. I also want to get back on track with my dissertation and complete my proposal by the end of September, and the whole thing by the end of May. I really hope I can achieve these goals.

Thanks in advance to everyone!