Hi Lara, congratulations on getting that done, so that's finally that! :-) What's next for you, apart from a well earned rest?

You're way ahead of me, I'm still waiting to hear back from the examiners about my corrections. It's taking absolutely ages to get the whole thing finally signed off. I can see it dragging on until the new year at this rate, given the admin situation.:-s Ah well, at least there's other stuff to be getting on with. :-)

Hey Ruby, good luck with your examiners, t must be so frustrating to have to hang around so much.

So! tonight, in between scoffing turkish delight and discos; watching compulsive but bad television; replying to a series of emails from a stroppy student (shouldn't she be out collecting traffic cones?; trying to telephone everyone I know for procrastinationary chats; and successfully resisting downing a bottle of rose I have in the kitchen, I have done the following:

1.finished the red penning
2. almost finished typing the third draft.

I have to get this finished by Sunday night now because my sup needs it for Monday so he can read it in time for our hastily arranged meeting on Tuesday. So, contrary to my usual working pattern, I am going to plough on tonight and finish the third draft so that I can do a poss fourth tomorrow, and then filll in the missing cites and refs. And then down the bottle of rose when it's all done.

Update:

I have finished the third draft and all my cites and references are done and dusted. I have now decided that I will have ito nclude anoher chapter outline as a possible alternative to my final chapter; I already have a very badly written and shodily thought out version of it which I will alter tonight. So tonight, Matthew, I will do the following:

1. Update, ie basically re-write, the alternative chapter outline.
2. Print the whol lot out.
3. Do a cursory re-draft of the whole thing - a kind of souped up proof read.

I have accepted that there are many things which wouldimprove this thesis outline, but I can't possible do them now, so will just have to doscuss them with my sup on Tuesday; pprobably better that way anyhow. I'll also be making a nice roast chicken dinner - anyone want some? Hahaaa, aren't cyber friends wonderful, they can't eat your food...

I just sent it!! Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah. Now I am free and can walk amongst normal human beings. I'm going into town to get a bit of air and life; unfortunately, though, I drank half the rose last night and put a quarter of it the gravy (probably hence the stroppy comments), so I won't be downing that tonight.

Hi there, I hope noone minds if I budge on in here! Just trying to do the 7th draft of a paper that's taken about 9 months to get this far and I've been doing some serious procrastination all day so I thought I'd better do something about it! So the plan is, to hack the paper to pieces again, restructure, and redefine the main points, and redo tables and figures to send it to my sup tonight...good luck everyone! and congrats on finishing ur bit eska!

Hey Algaequeen, Welcome to the accountabulity thread, i's great to have you around . I hope the re-jig of your paper went alright.

Today I will be combining PhD work with housework.

So, fo the PhD I will be:

1. Working out a schedule for the list of work my sup and I think I should be doing.
2. Making a start on an abstract for a possile book chapter (I am petrified of doing this, but can put it off no longer because the deadline is looming).

I will be taking short breaks once ever 45 mins to an hour or so to procrastinat on here, and to make my flat sparkly and beautiful.

The time has come for me stop faffing, put my fashion radar down, and get on with the primary business of my life: my PhD research.

This evening I will work on the chapter abstract I need to send off by Friday. This will include:

1. typing up and re-drafting the hand written notes I made while sitting on the train today.
2. writing up the suggested content of the chapter abstract.

hello algaequeen hope you got well through your paper and eska you look to be doing really well. Over the past couple of weeks I have been preparing for an interview. I still have some preparation work for a few interviews at the end of the month. I am now into writing up my data analysis. I have drafted up over 1,000 words today. It's not so impressive as its just cutting and pasting quotations and writing around them. For this evening I am going to go through all my nodes in Nvivo and decide which ones need to be redefined or moved. I will also work on one transcription.

Yesterday evening I went through my Nvivo codes [DONE], think I will be able to move to the next stage soon of creating tree nodes.
Work on Transcription [not done]
Looked at another thesis for ideas on methodology chapter, read a methodology chapter [DONE]

For the rest of the evening - work on transcription ----

Hi Bulbs, sounds like your nodes are going well, I'm very curious about the node trees. And good luck with the transcripts you're working on.

Today I finished and typed up the first draft of my chapter abstract. It's currently 750 words and it needs to come down too 500; I also need to make sure it's pulling together efectively, so that's what I'll work on tomorrow. It must be finished by tomorrow night because I have to send it to the sup on Friday and I'm working Friday day and out on that evening. So tomorrow I will:

Re-draft the abstract until it is concise yet comprehensive, and 500 words long - and try and be relaxed about it so it flows well.

I hated that book!! I bought it not long ago and had to abandon reading it. However, I will happily join the accountability group as I'm not having the most yummy time writing up; I feel so lazy and unmotivated stuck at home on my own.

Great to have you on the thread raging; I haven't read the book, it just helps me to write things down here. Must press on.

I decided that  should start writing here in order to have some work done!!!! :p
Well, today I had planned to transcript 2 interviews and translate them into English (my interviews are in Greek and I translate each of them, double work, I know!!!).

I did it! And because I felt very happy for completing this task, I went on working. I ended up transcribing 3 more interviews and translating all of them. I also did an initial analysis in one of my interviews!!!!!!!

I feel great! But I am soooo tired that I can't do anything else for today.
I just hope that tomorrow I will continue with the same enthusiasm....;-)

Hey Ruby! sorry for the late reply!!! thanks so much!! :-) sorry to hear you're still waiting to hear about your corrections that must be frustrating!

Update from me, today i went to senate house and handed in my final thesis! i felt like there should be a quiet little celebration or ceremony when you hand it over, but there isnt lol

i cant believe its over. i still have nightmares from time to time, i've had quite a few these past couple of months, ranging from, freezer breaking down with all my tumour samples and i cant do my experiments for my phd , to my final thesis with my corrections are in a bag, and i leave it for a second on the side of the road and it gets stolen and i panic and think oh no all my corrections are in there! bizzare i know.

it really feels strange that its over. its like i cant believe it. for so long ive been dreaming of the day of throwing off the shackles of my phd and today its finally arrived. i've wished for this for so long and all i ever wanted was to pass my phd. its like a huge burden has been lifted off my shoulders. i want to cherish each day of my freedom, and i want to hold onto it and not let it slip away. i feel like those prisoners that finally get released from jail. its like i want to enjoy every moment of my time off before i join the rat race. im almost wishing for time to stand still so i can hold onto it for longer. its like when you wait for it for so long and its finally here and then you're afraid of losing it.

tommorow im going to sort out all the papers. and be really strict and not be tempted to hold onto every single paper lol. just gonna keep the important things, but i know its gonna be hard to let it go, cause im gonna feel like, oh wait i might need that, and then realise oh wait no i dont , ive written my thesis. i've not touched a single paper, it was like tempting fate until i actualyl handed in my final thesis. i still feel nervous and scared that senate house will write to me and say, oh sorry theres been a mistake you have to do X Y Z. its silly i know lol.

but yes tommorow is the day when i start to clear out my study room, believe me, when i say, its a mess, stacks and stacks, hundreds and hundreds of papers to sift through. keeping important papers and recycling not so important ones. its almost gonna feel therapeutic to go through all of that, cause it wil remind me that i dont need to worry about them anymore and that my thesis is written.

whats next for me, is to start on all the projects i had kept on hold during the past few years , i've got alot of sping, well winter cleaning to get through. i have accumulated so many papers over the years, that it will take me a month to go through them and sort out some sort of filing system. i still dont know how i'm gonna store all those papers. i feel like i need to hold onto everything or i will forget my thesis. but i know practically i cannot. i need to devise a good filing system though. ive never been good at organising things.

then after i've done that. i'm going to do some research and find which subject i'm interested in to specialise in. how about yourself Ruby?

Aww thanks so much Bulbs!! so kind of you! really appreciate it. i will miss you guys too ! :)

i'm really gonna miss this thread in a weird sort of way!! really helped me to stay focus , i really believe when you write your goals down and break them into teeny tiny steps they are much more manageable to do! i now do this with every aspect of my life! i've even bought a big diary to put down lists everyday to do things.


Thanks so much Ju-ju! :-) so nice of you to say!


Thanks so much sheena! awww thats so nice of you to say!! that really makes me feel better, its like i almost feel guilty taking a break. lol i love your idea!! hehe thats so cute! thanks :)


aww thanks so much Eska, you're so sweet! i really appreciate it :-) thats so nice of you to say!! i will miss you guys aswell and this thread! this thread has been my saviour!! i now hand over the torch to you guys :-)