Hello accountable people, you all sound like you're doing well!

Lara, they're good revision questions you're working on, I did them and I got asked some of them too, so it really was good preparation. You can't do any more than that.

I've been a grumpy so and so today, sitting in front of the corrections on the computer and not doing them. Well, I think I wrote ONE sentence.... Absolutely shameful, if I say so myself. Sigh... I think it's such an effort because I find them a bit boring. They're not things I'd choose to write about, so I've got no interest in it, other than getting it finished forever. It's stuff the examiners find interesting and want me to add, rather than bits I find exciting. Aaaaahhh well, it's still got to be done. Probably a good idea to get used to people telling you what to write, I suppose, as I'd imagine editors do that too, so maybe it's good practice. Well I never, I think I've just found a silver lining to this weekend's PhD cloud of tedium. Fancy that. I guess on that mildly positive note, I should do something - just one tiny thing - that's useful, shouldn't I. Yes, so virtual monologue over. :$

Good luck with your work this weekend everyone.(up)

======= Date Modified 12 Sep 2009 22:30:42 =======
======= Date Modified 12 Sep 2009 22:30:04 =======

Thanks Ruby!! :-) thats good to know! now i just gotta hope that my answers aren't completly blah ! lol.

Good luck with the corrections, i can sympathesise how tedious it might be! you know when i was finishing off my thesis and doing last minute corrections, i had printed out a list of things i had left to do before i submitted, and stuck it on my wall, and next to it a column, where i could put a tick! its small thing, but its very satisfying to tick something off, and then everyday see the number of ticks growing!! maybe you can try that

we're all here , to help you along on your first hurdle! keep going, you're so close to the finishing line!!! :-s bring your battle face!

Today I am just going to get some admin tasks done, minutes of a sup meeting, draft up some questions for sending by email and draft outline for my methodology chapter. I took a day off yesterday to catch up on some cleaning, hadn't done any for a couple of weeks! I remember in one of Bolker's chapters she says to drop the cleaning standards in the dissertation year! I am trying to clean less, just the essentials! Sometimes its hard to look at things in a mess! Hi Emmie, I am also reading another book on writing up qualitative studies the author recommends not sticking to amount of pages done but time spent, in one hour you can write five page very quickly or spend the whole day trying to get one page done. He said that time spent was more motivating. I am not sure yet what works for me as I haven't done enough to know!! I suppose its good to know the tips and then take what works for you. Rubyw I remember attending a seminar and one of the presenters had finished her PhD and was talking about how difficult it was to motivate herself to return to the thesis and start working on what the examiners wanted, she said she felt she has lost ownership of the thesis. She got through it using the the do list and also clocking in and out each day using small cards to record her progress. I can only relate to how tedious it is to edit, I don't know about the end stages of the PhD but I am hoping to soon have some chapters to edit! Have a good day everyone, I am planning to not spend too long at the computer today.

======= Date Modified 13 Sep 2009 19:14:23 =======
======= Date Modified 13 Sep 2009 17:01:30 =======
Hi guys! good luck everyone studying today. I'm clocking in.

My goals are: freewriting/key word note answers for the following 10 viva questions:

********************EDIT ***************
Met my goals for today! yippeeee :-)

33 What is the relevance of your contribution to other researchers? [ DONE . 60 words ]
34 How do you expect the research in your field to progress over the next few years? [ DONE . 140 words ]
35 Where do you think your research will move in the future? [ DONE . 168 words ]
36 Do you think your project went well? [ DONE . 84 words ]
37 Who are the 4/5 key people in your field? (or 3) [ DONE . 54 words ]
38 Who are your closest competitors? [ DONE . 126 words ]
39 What have these people published recently, including after you have completed your thesis? [ DONE . 21 words ]
40 What are the key papers? [ DONE . 73 words ]
41 What is the area in which you wish to be examined? [ DONE . 4 words ]
42 What are your publication plans? [ DONE . 103 words ]

total words written= 833

======= Date Modified 14 Sep 2009 18:37:46 =======
Hello peeps. Clocking in.
My goals are to freewrite/key word answers for the following 21 viva questions. (i really want to finish freewriting answers to the remaining viva questions today so that tommorow i can start on zero draft answers, my original deadline was tommorow night, but i'm pushing myself today to get it done by tonight).

******************EDIT*********************
Yipeeeeeee I met my goals for today! :-) I have finished my freewriting for all the viva questions (1 day before my own deadline) and tommorow I can start working on my zero draft answers for each question, filling in the answers from my summary thesis notes, and from other notes and resources.

43 What topics overlap with your area? [ DONE . 11 words ]
44 What techniques are commonly used for all 4 topics? [ DONE . 39 words ]
45 Where do current technologies fail such that you could make a contribution? [ pending/maybe not relevant . 0 words ]
46 What did you do for your Mphil and how does your phd extend it? [ DONE . 90 words ]
47 What are the strongest/weakest parts of your work? [ DONE . 76 words ]
48 Where did you go wrong? [ DONE . 17 words ]
49 how long would it take to implement X, and likely problems you envisage [ DONE . 146 words ]
50 Why is this subject important? [ DONE . 78 words ]
51 Who else thinks it is important? [ DONE . 23 words ]
52 Who has worked on this subject before? [ DONE . 21 words ]
53 What had not been done before? [ DONE . 64 words ]
54 Who has done something similar to what you did [ DONE . 42 words ]
55 Who would be most likely to agree with you? [ DONE . 57 words ]
56 Who would be most likely to disagree? [ DONE . 48 words ]
57 What did you adapt for your study [ DONE . 87 words ]
58 What are the pros and cons of the methods you chose? [ DONE . 46 words ]
59 Why did you reject others? [ DONE . 81 words ]
60 What precautions were taken against likely sources of bias? [ DONE . 73 words ]
61 What are the limitations in the design? [ DONE . 117 words ]
62 To what extent did you feel that you had got all you needed by that point, or did you feel limited by time? [ DONE . 92 words ]
63 If you had 250, 000 dollars to spend on your research, what would you do? [ DONE . 168 words ]

Total words written = 1,376

My plan for today and for each day over the next couple of weeks is to code one transcript. I have more aims that are written down in my notebook and its usually the case that only one or two major things get done. At least if I write down one major aim which I think I will achieve by the end of the day then it will be progress! Phew everything seems to takes ages to do!

PS Lara well done you for being ahead of your schedule (up)

======= Date Modified 15 Sep 2009 17:50:42 =======

awwww Thanks Bulbs!!! :-)

My sup emailed me today to confirm the time the date and the examiners! its REAL and its happening. 28th september 10am. he said i can come on the thursday before to meet with him. he's away at a meeting until then. but i can email him. so will email him asking him if my answers to viva questions are correct.

i think it will be good to see the room and where it is. so im not panicking on the day. so meeting up with my sups at 2pm on thursday 24th september.

i have exactly 9 days to prepare for my viva as best as i can, to show my sups.
so going to make a deadline of 8 days. keep 1 day before the meeting with my sup as an insurance.

i just gotta focus on what i have to do, instead of panicking and running around like a headless chicken. just gotta work consistently and methodically. and since my viva is at 10am. I'm going to go to bed early and wake up early to prepare my body and mind. instead of staying up till 3am and waking up at 11am.

so the plan is to go to bed at 11pm. and wake up at 6am.
cause of the day of my viva. i am planning on waking up at 6am, and leaving the house by 7am. as it will take an hour and half to get there.

so when i get into central london, i will go and have some breakfast and coffee, and then 1 hour before my viva (9am), go to the building and wait.

======= Date Modified 18 Sep 2009 22:34:02 =======
======= Date Modified 16 Sep 2009 02:11:38 =======
did not meet goals today.:-( will do them tommorow. off to bed now. as i need to shift my body clock, i have to start waking up early and going to bed early. cause my viva is at 10am. i have to wake up 10am tommorow. that will give me 8 hours. and the next day will wake up at 9am. slowly work my way up to waking up at 6/7am.

My goals for today:

1. find and print the 7 articles that cited my first paper. {all 7 done!} :-)

2. find and print recent related articles to my first paper. {found DONE - 9 left to print}

3. find and print recent related articles to my 2nd paper

4. format and print out my summary thesis. - put in dividers (to take in viva)

5. print out freewriting answers document.

6. put back thesis chapters back into the folder -and put in seperators for each chapter (to take in viva)

7. go through papers, flagging papers that can help me with my viva answers: make a list (using keywords) of papers to use for answers.

Managed to complete my task that I posted to the accountability thread, so goal for yesterday code on transcript [DONE]. Hope you don't mind Lara if I use your strategy of writing DONE! It's motivating to write this word in caps!! Goal for today is the same, code one transcript. I have other things which I could be adding to the list but for now I am just going to write down what I know I must and can achieve for the day. It took the whole of the day yesterday to do this piece of work that I would say could be done in 4 hours. I was struggling to finish last night, thinking I will finish this last piece in the morning but it feels a bit more motivating coming to the computer today to start on a new transcript. OK I am clocked in!

Of course not! I love it that you're using the idea of writing DONE. GOOD FOR YOU!!! well done buddy :-)

hehe it sure is ! ;-)
awesome work , well done (up)

======= Date Modified 18 Sep 2009 03:24:27 =======
EDIT : finlly finished with my goals that i stated from 2 days ago! i'm frustrated that it took me 3 days to get it done. but in retrospect it was quite alot of work. but i'm happy that i've finally finished. yipeeeeeeeeee

tommorow brand new goals and better get cracking on the mega pile of papers i have to read before my mock viva next week and adding notes to my viva questions.
it's funny, the only thing that was motivating to get through the list, was just so i could say it was done with a smiley face in this message, haha funny how little things can motivate you! and also having a clear idea of what needed to be done. when you have a list of things, you are less inclined to procrastinate!
======
EDIT for today. my goals same as from the day before yesterday.

======= Date Modified 17 Sep 2009 02:19:12 =======
*edit - i'm calling it a night. will finish the rest tommorow. did 3 more goals today
-----
My goals for today:

1. find and print the 7 articles that cited my first paper. DONE :-)

2. find and print recent related articles to my first paper. DONE! :-)
got loads of yummy papers to read!! some are real good ! that i can use for viva answers. one author was kind enough to send me a reprint, as my uni didnt have access to the latest journals. how nice eh!! so yah, anytime you find a journal that you must read, try emailing the author! he said that he would be happy to answer any questions i had aswell! turns out he cited my first paper in his paper. so thats 8 papers that have cited my 1st paper. goody goody gum drops lol you can tell i'm starting to lose it abit hahah

3. find and print recent related articles to my 2nd paper DONE :-)

4. put back thesis chapters back into the folder -and put in seperators for each chapter (to take in viva) DONE :-)

5. format and print out my summary thesis. - DONE :-)

5a - type up hand written notes for missing pages. DONE :-)

6. print out freewriting answers document. DONE :-)

7. print out summary questions and answers for each chapter. DONE :-)

======= Date Modified 25 Sep 2009 22:45:10 =======
======= Date Modified 25 Sep 2009 22:14:57 =======
update. had my meeting /mini mock viva yesterday ok it wasnt really a mock viva, not even a mini one, but more like random questions lol and discussion but i just like to think of it as a mini mock viva hahaha - but it went OK. there were a few questions i didnt know at all. and a few questions i thought i wouldnt know the answer to, but i did, suprising even myself!.

anyways so my sups gave me a bunch of reading material to revise last night. for the questions i didnt know and my sup was like, you really should know this!!!!

so last night and this morning, i crammed. and had another meeting with only my 2nd sup this time and my 3rd sup and went well today and answered the questions i didnt know yesterday.

i'm sooooooo glad i met up with my sups!! as much as i was dreading it and didnt wanna see them. it really helped me! as i am feeling so much more positive now!!! i'm going to bed early now and waking up early tommorow, and going to just revise tommorow and review as much as i can. leaving sunday to relax and do some light reading. but main revision is tommorow. last chance revision as i like to call it ! hehe

if you dont hear from me, it means i've fallen off the planet after my viva. no im just kidding hehe. i will come back and let you guys know what happened. whatever will be will be. i just gotta do my best and forget the rest. part of me is looking forward to it. as i've been in limbo land for a year now and felt like i was stuck in treacle, studying with no finish line in sight, and a dark cloud over my head. i am ready and i want to take the next step now. of course there is still a large part of me that thinks, if i had more time, i can study even more and read even more papers and know even more stuff! but you gotta draw a line eventually. whatever i have studied up until this point, is good enough.

no matter what the outcome, i dont care now. i just want to do my best and thats all that matters.

thanks everyone on this forum for your support, advice, encouragement. i could NOT have done it without you wonderful people and the support of this forum. it really saved me!

Good luck for Monday Lara. Definitely try to relax on Sunday, and chill out. But all the best for the big day itself. Fingers crossed for you.

======= Date Modified 26 Sep 2009 12:12:04 =======

Thank you so much Bilbo!! you're a star :-) that's really good advice , i appreciate the support :-)