Thanks for the tips!

I don't know why I'm feeling so nervous about it. I'm usually quite a socially confident person but don't know what to expect.

I will definitely scrub up for the occasion and see how things go on the day.

Hello all,

Thank you all so much for your very insightful and helpful answers. It's great to know I'm not alone. The other PhDs in my dept are lovely but seem SO confident and I just feel so unprepared/confused in comparison. I'm going to start writing as soon as I've finished reading a pile of literature I have, I think it'll give me some structure because my ideas are all over the place at the moment. I think 1000 words a day is a great target but perhaps a bit ambitious for me at the start. I hope to be at this stage in a few months though!

Hope all your plans are going well.

I've found myself sleeping 'til 11/12 and watching Loose Women...


Surely that's as low as it gets...

Hello!

What a relief to read this thread!

I'm 5 months in and starting to really worry about how little I feel I've done.

I've read LOADS but not started properly writing anything down yet. I still don't feel like I've gotten a grasp of my subject yet. Thankfully I'm finding it interesting but there's just SO much I feel I need to know. Maybe things will become more structured when I start writing things down.

Do any of you think you're missing some really important literature?? I'm worried what I've read so far is not enough, even though I've read alot.

Hope I still don't feel like this in 6 months?

I'm VERY VERY worried about not doing enough. I'm in my first year, only really started 5 months ago, and I haven't done any real writing yet. I'm not sure I've even written enough. I actually feel like I'm missing so much knowledge.

Is this normal???

When should I be writing? What is the normal timescale?

Hello all,

I'm in my first year of my PhD and I'm going to my first conference next week.

I know this probably sounds a bit silly but I was hoping that you could give me sound tips/advise on:

*What to take
*What to wear
*What to expect

etc.

I am not giving a paper at this conference but I still don't know what to expect and I would really appreciate some advise. One of my supervisors is also attending this conference and I don't know if I'm expected to sit with him and socialise with him afterwards? Are there any unwritten rules?

Please help!