Hi rewt and pm133, I appreciate the responses.
Whew pm, talk about hitting hard. I think you might be right, I am feeling a bit disillusioned about academia and my future there. My faculty is embroiled in a lot of politics and I feel like my future is a bit uncertain, and I sometimes question what the point of it all is. I know that researchers contribute significantly to society, but I feel like there is so much bureaucracy, politics etc that it impedes some of that. But I don't feel like I can leave right now, so I have to stick it out for a while.
Rewt, I do think you're right to say I must just put something out there. And it's kinda nice to be reminded that even if something gets rejected, it doesn't mean it's not worthwhile improving or defending. I think I need to just set a deadline (with myself) to incorporate the set of comments I received from my colleague and send it off ASAP. I wish I had a supervisor who could push me like this, but in the absence of that, I just need to do it myself!

Hi all,
Just looking for some support/similar experiences. I finished my Ph.D. in 2015 (now I wonder how I managed it!) and then worked in my field in practice for 2 years. I am now back in academia as a research fellow. I am under a lot of pressure to publish, but I cannot seem to make it past the first draft stage with any of my projects. I write a chapter/paper/article and then send it to a colleague/co-worker for feedback. Typically I get very helpful feedback, but I guess always more than I was expecting. I then feel so overwhelmed/anxious/inferior and also uninterested in working more on the same project that I end up moving on to something else, making it harder and harder to return to that project. I know this is completely stupid and unproductive and ridiculous, and yet I find myself doing it time and again. Sometimes I half-heartedly start fixing the draft, but especially when the comments are very vague or will require a massive overhaul of the structure/argument/addition of lots of new material, I run out of motivation. Am I just a terrible academic? Did I lose my determination/perseverance while I was in practice? Has anyone else felt this way? How do you motivate yourself to keep working on projects that you lost interest in? Many thanks in advance.

I think I did about 20. Haha it is pretty fun but pressed for time. Hope that helps and good luck!

Thanks Rewt, I needed this today. I have a shoddy half-draft thing that is supposed to go to a fellow student for a round of review before I submit it formally for review, and the fear of not having time to get it to perfect has been hampering me big time. Now i"m just going to prioritise it and power through and get it to "as good as possible within the time available". I'll also give better time slots to it from tomorrow, instead of doing soul-destroying admin and emails and only getting to writing once I'm already tired and cranky.

Argh!!! Anyone else feels like other stuff just keeps being piled on your plate, cutting into your writing time? I'm so far behind schedule :(

Hi!

Not sure if you will find this useful but can you seek out any other academics who would be willing to look at a chapter or piece of work here or there? I got great critical feedback from a conference that I attended (especially in the discussions afterwards) and from someone that I asked to look at one specific chapter for me. This is not to say that you cannot ask for more critical or constructive feedback from your supervisors too!

Good luck!

Let's knock it out of the park this week!

Thanks, Kenziebob! Good idea - I have a draft table of contents for it, but I think I need to use your idea of bullet points in each section to help me structure the argument and flow. This is actually just the tip I needed today, thanks so much.

Good luck with the transcribing today! (A viva would have sidetracked anyone! Congratulations!)

Hey Kenziebob, it sure does! :) Transcribing is hard (and tedious!) work, and I too would need to keep myself motivated for that, so welcome!
Well done on being halfway - how long have you been working on it?
I've done all the research for my chapter, but have written only about 350 words (shameful, I know). I'm a slow writer so I need to get going. My goal (completely arbitrary because I've never really motivated myself by using word count) is to have a 1000 words (edited) added to that by Friday afternoon.

HI Cad, just a shoutout saying I feel that way right now too, so sending some digital support. Just me staring at my screen, day in day out, with no real idea of whether I'm achieving enough or not. I still love my project, but it is really hard and isolating. You've received some good ideas from the other posters, but I just wanted to say I think feelings like that can be pretty normal (of course it doesn't mean you shouldn't try and do something about it). Reach out to this community if you feel like you can't turn elsewhere for more support. Maybe go write in a library or someplace that you find inspiring for a day a week. Find a discussion or feedback group (I'm looking for writing buddies right now!) Maybe find a conference to go to early in 2019 to help motivate you?
Take a realistic look at your planning of when you would like to submit and then work backwards - is it achievable?
All the best!

Hey Dr Crabby, how are those deadlines looking? And your word counts? How do you decide how many words you need to write per day, by the way?
Happy to report I submitted my article.
Now on to a chapter that is due on 15 September... argh!!

Hi!
Well, this could be a little bit like that. For example, I should hang my head in shame for not yet having finished up that article I mentioned above, despite wanting to have finished it off last week. My deadline is tomorrow, no matter what! :) I'll let you know if I have submitted it! But you can also use word count, or whatever tracking measure you find helpful.
Just as an aside, and for what it's worth - expecting any "handholding" from a supervisor is usually a long shot. I think very few of them will be willing to hound you down to submit work or even ask you for it - you should be sending it to them as agreed, no prompt needed. Haha in fact, in my experience, it's the other way around - you submit something and then have to hound them to read it!! But all this depends on your arrangement with your supervisor, I guess.
Let me know one of your goals/deadlines, and I'll happily badger you!
Wish me luck for tomorrow - it will be such a huge weight off my shoulders to get this article in!

Hey all,

I am looking for any interested folks (masters students, PhDs, postdocs, anyone welcome!) who would like to buddy up to meet upcoming writing deadlines. I have a chapter due on 5 September, as well as final revisions on an article that has to be submitted asap but needs a lot of substantial work before submission.

I always think I'm going to get a ton of work done in the summer, but then... so much procrastination!!!!

Let me know if you would be interested in joining, what your goals are, what your plans and schedule are, and let's see if we can boost productivity.

Thanks.

PS This topic doesn't really fit in with any of the formal topics listed below, I chose PhD advice/support but this is not meant to be limited to PhD students only.