Grumpy's Thesis writing diary

T

Thanks Caro, it's nice to know that other people think my plan to finish up and leave soon is a reasonable one. Glad to hear you're feeling more positive now! You sound very organised so I'm sure it'll come together reasonably quickly :)

I'm also feeling a lot more positive today - I got a small chapter finished and sent off to supervisor for feedback last night, so I now have almost complete drafts of 4 of 7 chapters. I have one more results chapter to draft for next week, then a general discussion chapter to draft almost from scratch and half of my literature review to finish, so it seems doable now! Just have to keep plodding along... hope everyone is having a productive day! :)

Tulip

C

No worries Tulip, I'm glad you are more positive too!

The internet has been down in the office all day today - which really helped me do all the boring data stuff that I have been procrastinating my way though. So that is all done now, and I addressed comments about the intro to this chapter so just need to fiddle with the discussion tonight/tomorrow and hopefully it'll be ready to send off. Internet is back on now obviously...I need to learn more self-control and not use it much during the work day!

M

I'm joining in on this one! I'm in the final stages of my PhD-period (but still have a lot of writing left) so need to burst my motivation. The positive spirit and energy in this forum is already working =)

For tomorrow, I intend to create an outline and structure relevant literature for a mini-report I have to submit in a course (need a few more credits). I've been struggling to focus on this as I'm writing articles and drafting my thesis at the same time. I only have a few weeks on this, so will need to work day and night to finalize this last mandatory obstacle to a PhD.

I wish you all a productive work day tomorrow!

C

Hi Marg! I hope you managed to get some motivation and meet your goals =)

I am still on the chapter I wanted to finish, I need to finish the discussion as I was working at my pt job all day yesterday and was too tired to work in the evening. So this morning's task is to read what I have got for the discussion, and modify it and add a few more references in to finish it off.

N

Hey everybody! Please take me to the chat! I am on my last year of PhD, and it looks like it will never be finished. I have almost completed one of my chapters (in a paper format), but still need to do the revisions, which take so long... I have to do 2 more body chapters (3 if I have time) and then revise other chapters (intro and lit review are partially completed). Writing this paper took me almost 1.5 years, I had misunderstandings with my supervisor and did more lab work. I am quite scared that the rest will take that long (and I don't have time). I would like to start my thesis diary too :)

G

Hi all. Great to see some new people joining on here. Just to let you all know that I'm still here and I'm not ignoring you. I have to submit by end of June so all my attention is taken up with that.

Keep going everyone - we can all do it! =D
Take care and speak soon. g

M

Hi Nautilus! I feel sympathy, I'm in the same situation myself. I've only finished one paper, two are on draft level and my fourth is kind of somewhere in my mind - my funding ends this fall. And before I can finalize these papers, I actually have a final PhD course to finish (next week).

I managed to meet my goal for Friday, but have been spending the weekend and today preparing a presentation for a seminar tomorrow (It's really not important, but always gets prioritized as I freak out if I'm not very well prepared). So my goal for Wednesday is to get back on track with my report - finishing the structure and start writing on the main body.

C

Hi everyone, I hope you are all having a productive Monday! I am still fiddling with my chapter before I send it to my supervisor, but I've also addressed half the comments I got back for another chapter from another supervisor which shouldn't take me too long. Then that will be two sent away by tomorrow and I can concentrate on my final data analysis. Two weeks left of full-time PhD work before I only have weekends and evenings...eek! I say full time.. I work 2 days a week elsewhere so it's kind of part time already hah.

N

Thanks Glowworm, Marg and Caro! Happy for your goals. Hopefully, altogether we can make it through! Today worked hard on paper/chapter revisions, but could not finish the results part. All I was able to do is to complete an additional section in results. Discussion was quite poor without this section, so hopefully the discussion correction will not take too long.
Marg, thanks for sharing. looks like we are in the same boat :)
Caro, how much do you have left to write?

take care,
Nautilus

C

HI Nautilus, sounds like you have done a lot today.


I have one data chapter which I am still putting graphs together for so that is only in it's infancy, and then my discussion/conclusions chapter to be written from scratch. But I also have revisions to do to all of my other chapters, I did my intro in January and my supervisor still has it! He says it needs a lot of work and I should concentrate on my data chapters first but I just wish I could have one chapter that is properly 'finished'!

I have three supervisors so it takes a very long time to get a document looked at by all of them!

How much time do you have left Nautius?

T

Hey guys,

Hope everyone is having a good day! Marg - hope the presentation goes well today and you can get back on track with the report afterwards. Caro and Nautilus - good luck with work today!

I'm making revisions to my 3rd results chapter this afternoon and tomorrow to send to supervisor on Thurs - I'm hoping that will be this chapter finished then. I haven't been very productive so far today, I feel very tired after working through the last two weekends to meet deadlines, but I'm taking this weekend off so that's something to look forward to! I think I'll start with changes to methods and results sections this afternoon... good luck everyone working today!

Tulip

C

Hi guys! I hope you are all doing well. I was working my pt job yesterday and will be tomorrow so I have to cram a lot of work in today to get my results section finished. My first job is making some graphs with some data I analysed on Tuesday, and then working out some mislabelling which is confusing things, then sorting that data to make some graphs. Let's do this =)

M

Hello everybody, thanks for the good spirit =) A weekend off seems like a good idea, Tulip, enjoy it!

I didn't get much writing done yesterday, but did do a lot of thinking and hope my thoughts end up as clear and meaningful on paper as they seemed in my mind yesterday (hardly the case, though). Although it's a five page report for a course, I'm using it in a chapter of my thesis, so it's a useful exercise. Today, I intend to finalize sketching my line of thought in the report and define terms and interconnections. Tomorrow, I'll start my discussion part, which will probably also be the dominant activity for the weekend. My goal is minimum 500 words per day so that I have a sketch early next week.

Good luck everyone - I'll try to radiate positive energy to all of you!

G

Hi. I hope everyone is doing ok. Caro - I hope you get your results section sorted today, or at least make good progress there. Marg, sometimes thinking days are much needed. Hopefully you'll be able to get some of those ideas down on paper/computer screen today.

I don't know what's wrong with me!!! I've really not got that much to do, but I've only got 10 days until I have to take it to the binders and I'm just a ball of excitement, confusion, and zero motivation! I'm so close, and yet I feel so excited, I'm just not doing what I need to do!!! Does anybody else ever have this problem, perhaps with papers/presentation/previous dissertations etc.? I feel like such an idiot at the minute. The excitement is not helped by the fact that I'm going on my first proper holiday in ages just after submission, so I'm excited at the prospect of submission and the holiday!

I guess one thing I've definitely learned about myself doing this phd is that I have to have a certain amount of pressure in order to get things done. If I don't have deadlines, I just coast. *sigh* Oh well, I'm off to make (another) cup of tea and search for my motivation.

Good luck guys! I hope you're all more motivated than me (it wouldn't take much) ;)

S

I can really relate, and wish you the best of writing inspiration!

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