Congratulations!!

I am struggling to do a full time job and a full time Ph.D, how on earth did you manage to do a Ph.D and have two kids in between. Fair play to you. Your new title is well deserved.

I hate to tell you this but that feeling doesn't stray too far when you've been accepted for a PhD either. A lot of people doing a PhD (including myself) feel like they are losing their mind at some point or another. Like others have said don't let this feeling break you!!

Joan - show this potential supervisor that you're passionate about the research, have an idea in mind of what practical implications your research could have when it's complete and try not to show that you've already lost your mind before you've started ;) Good luck

Hi HuntAnthem

Thanks for that advice. I was the same with my masters, doing both full time and it was hard going. I don't know about you but I found that a lot easier because of the set deadlines for assignments, I didn't have the choice to skive because I would have missed my deadlines and failed.

I have tried to set myself deadlines for different aspects of my research but it doesn't work because I know they are my own and nobody knows if I miss them. My supervisor is aware that I'm struggling a bit with my job taking up so much time at the minute, she has been quite flexible and allowed me some breathing space which I'm grateful for but if I'm honest that hasn't helped. She keeps saying she trusts that I'll get it done but at the minute I need that extra push, I don't know where her faith in me comes from because I haven't wrote a single word yet and I'm due to start my 3rd year in 3 weeks.

I passed my second year viva last month and I didn't exaggerate what I've done so far but I feel as if I'm conning people into thinking I'm better than I actually am and I'm not usually that type of person.

I feel like a bit of an idiot for even thinking I can do both full time. I'm hoping it's just the second year blues that people talk about.

I think the thought of been so behind and having so much to do is what is overwhelming me into not doing anything at all. I know that sounds so back to front. I've got the next 2 days off work so I'm going to try push myself to work through some of it, even if I can make a small dent in my to do list it will be a start.

Hi Pjlu

I have probably not explained this very well. It's not a fully funded PhD, I am a fee waiver student which basically means I have my fees waivered on the condition I do some unpaid work for the university. I dont actually receive any funding so full time work is necessary to keep my house and pay my bills, etc. If I could afford to go part time at work I would but it's just not an option at the moment.

However, if I decided to go part time with the PhD I would have to pay back the fees waivered and the fees for the time it takes to complete it which would probably mean working extra hours to afford it and totally defeat the purpose.

Up to now I have been doing ok working my studies around my work and unfortunately I'm not in a job related to my research so thats a bit of a bummer too. It just all seems unreachable at the moment but I know it is if I just get stuck in.

Hi all,

I am a full time second year PhD student, start my 3rd year in January. I don't know what's happened in recent months, I seem to have lost all interest in my PhD. Since August I have been so bogged down with my full time job that I have done next to nothing on my PhD and I have got so behind. My job has recently calmed down a bit and I'm able to find more time for my research but I have entirely lost all motivation, I can't seem to get my head back in the game. I have literally done no writing at all and I'm heading into my 3rd year. My data collection stage is nearly complete and my supervisor has asked for a first draft of my introduction chapter and my methods chapter by January, I have spoken to her about my job and she has been a little lenient but has now kind of said, enough is enough you need to get your finger out which is fair enough. I just have no idea how to get motivated again and start to get caught up.

I did look into going part time but my supervisor has said that is not an option as I would lose my funding and have to pay all my fees back.

Any advice or a kick up the arse would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Redtrooper

I've tried quite a few times to access your survey but I can't get onto it. Is that the right link?

Thanks DocInsanity. What is your research area?

Thank you Eds and redtrooper. I will complete your survey tomorrow if that's ok redtrooper.

VKT - I know the survey is very long but it was thinned down a lot from the original draft. It is definitely a limitation. What is 'avail research help'?

I agree, sometimes it's good to grumble, any advice on how to not need sleep ever. I would be able to get loads of work done if I could figure out how to stay awake 24 hours a day.

Hi guys

I know these requests come in all the time but if you could spare 10 mins to complete my survey I would be really grateful. I am willing to complete your surveys in return.

As part of my studies I am carrying out this research project entitled: Studying the long-term psychological effects of emotional abuse experienced in childhood.
Whatever your childhood experiences involved, whether you suffered any type of abuse as a child or you had a happy, carefree childhood, your voluntary participation in this research would be greatly appreciated.

The link for the survey is:

Thanks everyone. I am 5 hours away from my uni so it's not easy to go in to look at previous work. I will try and get hold of some the next time I am in but your posts have been a great help for now. Thanks

So your introduction would be about the general topic area, lit review about the specific topic areas and then if you had separate studies from your one research project, each study would have it's own chapter with its own lit review section in that chapter, is that what you mean?

I've got my second year viva tomorrow and my supervisor told me to include that we have discussed a skeleton plan for the thesis and that plan and then said we will discuss it after the viva tomorrow.

This might seem like a really dumb question but what are the individual chapters used for?

If you have an introduction section and then 3-4 chapters, is it just the same layout as a research paper but labelled individual chapters instead of methodology, results, discussion, etc? Or are you supposed to have a few chapters for the different areas of the literature and then go on to the other stuff?

My research is in human and health science, I don't know if that makes any difference.

Yes I think all PhDs start off this way. I was about 11 months in before I finally got ethical approval as I was waiting for permissions from different organizations and then I had to make amendments and resubmit so it was a lot of waiting around but as previous posts suggest, there is always something to work on. Maybe look at policies in your area or brainstorm ideas for a paper that you can work on getting published.