My husband bought me a book of photos of cute baby animals to cheer me up. Scarily it works incredibly well! Sometimes when I come home from the office stressed he just gives me a big hug and hands me the book or opens up the daily puppy website on the computer. Otherwise music, dancing, crafts, baking fun things and getting outdoors usually cheer me up. Oh and completely different random experiences.

Everything I write always starts with a first (and usually second) draft on paper and then gets re-drafted as I type it in. Then printed out and notes scribbled on it and edited to match. Possibly related to the mathematical nature of what I do but I will handwrite everything even paragraphs, discussions etc. It takes an awful long time to get anything from idea to report though and I think my supervisor would prefer if it didn't.

Definately go for LaTeX, when you get into equations it's worth learning it just for that. It will give you prefessional consistent typesetting in a way that word simply can't. Try some basic tutorials and see what you think. Lets us know how you get on!

I'm more of a carrot than a stick person. So rewards are the key :) Sometimes even the prospect of a reward AFTER I finish a dull task isn't even enough so I've started finding rewards 'during' the task. Like promising myself a cup of tea to accompany re-reading a horrible paper. Or mix it up a little: try wearing something different like formal wear or sitting underneath the kitchen table :)

Well done florence, that you stuck with it at all to get that much done is a really great sign of perseverance and determination.
My goal for today is to get up to date with the work I was doing before christmas, have to present in two weeks and there's lots of unfinished parts. Hoping to have a good days work done early so i can go to the cinema later.

Woo! Abstract finally sent off, only two drafts so I'm sure it's dire but it'll have to do.

What a juxtaposition! Well done star-shaped and hugs for Florence. If you've not slept well and things aren't going well just let go. It's ok not to do any more work today. Really! Once you've accepted that you might feel relaxed enough to try a little work, nothing strenuous. If you get into it, great, and if not then just do the little bit and take the evening off. Lots of hugs for you.

Still no abstract over here. Have a sentence or two that might become one soon I hope!

I think this is amazing. I've done things like that in the past but now feel I'd have to sit down with my husband for putting some of the things on the list :) I still have my personal ones though I'm finding the phd-life is making me much less ambitious! Thanks for re-invigorating my list (up)

I think it would be mad to put yourself under more stress while doing phd. Also the work level and stress of the phd wouldn't lead to very healthy body for a baby to be growing in. Also if it comes close to your planned finish date and you realise you need an extra month to include some new research or re-run tests or even write up results it could be disastrous if you had to disrupt your work-train for any reason. I'm really looking forward to that new stage of life myself but will begin with spending the next 6-12 months getting my body fit and healthy to improve the chances of healthy baby in the future. Really looking forward to having some freedom before such things once the phd ends though!!

Could really do with a bit of a kick today so thought I'd post on here to make sure I get my one goal done.
Goal: Write 1 abstract.

Seems so tiny and simple, why can't I get down to it?
*grits teeth and puts on determined face*
right lets do it!

I must say I never had that problem with texnic-center, though there are lots of little things it does a bit strange. With pdfs it's really important to close the previous version of the pdf before re-compiling or it gets very confused! I eventually forked out the 20 dollars for winedt latex version. Now I'm using texmaker which isn't quite as good. Oh and (just in case) try saving all changes before recompiling, check your compile paths. Sorry this was more of a sympathy post, you're not alone with the quirks of latex :)

Glad to hear things are settling down Teek and things are looking up. Been thinking of you and really hope life just gets better and better for you.

Wow soon you'll be free and it'll be wonderful. Best of luck and as the saying goes 'just do it!' and keep doing it til it's done!

My goal for today is to write an abstract. Well to write, rewrite, rewrite and rewrite until it is good enough to send off!

Ok end the slacking all :) My phd has been on pause since the last time I posted so I'm exactly where I was two weeks ago. Hoping to catch up this week and so far pretty excited about the prospect. I think I actually missed it while life got in the way, amazing! :)