Thank you both very much. I will probably combine your respective pieces of of advice. My supervisor advised me to start with what was "easiest" to get into, so that would be the contextual material, but I will start forming a basis for the Lit Review, too, and see how things go. Thank you for the projected time periods; very helpful!

Definitely a late night worker. Though distractions such as email can be a real pain (self discipline needs a bit more work on my part) and can mean staying up later than is really necessary. There is something about the daytime though that bores me and something about the late evening that inspires me...perhaps its the subconscious realisation that I've wasted a day...(and surely this forum is a way for me to stop reading/writing what I should be, too...argh!)

Hello! I have recently started a PhD (musicology) and am keen to hear views as to which chapter people think is the best to start the writing process with first...if there is one, that is? I'm thinking about starting with a contextual chapter I want to include, but does anybody have a strong opinion about another part (eg methodology, literature review) Also, is it normal to worry about the validity of your topic, whether its original enough and how on earth one goes about producing a methodology chapter...is this all normal PhD beginniner's angst??? Thank you for any advice!