Since the beginning I have had weak supervision, I've changed supervisor and although he's hard to track down i'm happy with our meetings, yet, next year is my 4th year and I would like to finish. What perplexes me is that at the rate feedback and corrections are given, I find it had to believe anyone in my group can finish 8-10 chapters in 12 months....considering drafts and having to wait for supervisors to read it, get in touch, arrange meetings....months fly by.

I wonder if people have a similar experience and how did you tackle the race against time against slow supervision? needless to say I dont want to work without getting regular meetings and approval every 2 weeks at least....

I found that working on two chapters at a time helped both me and my supervisors to get through things efficiently. It also stopped me getting very bored with one chapter at a time.

I'm also working on several chapters at once. It helps me mull over ideas from one chapter whilst writing another, it is sometimes quite amazing how you sometimes get a bright idea about another chapter when plouging through another one - well I do anyway :-) - perhaps i should hav ejust said idea, not all are that bright in the cold light of day!:$

Many irons in the fire at the same time seems to be the way around this.

I've given myself a really tight timetable, which I've agreed with my supervisor, so I'm constantly working on something. I worked on chapters 1 and 2 at the same time and handed them in together, and now while I'm waiting for feedback I'm putting together chapters 3 to 7. I don't have to worry if the feedback for the first two takes a while as I've moved on to the next ones, which will all be handed in at the same time. By then I should have the first two back to make changes on along with finishing up chapter 8 (general discussion) and a few bits and pieces....and then once those are in I should have corrections to make on 3-7.

If you constantly cycle work like that, though you may go insane, it should mean slow supervision doesn't matter as there's always something productive to be done rather than wasted time.