Hi,

Sorry to hear you're feeling down about the PhD. First of all, can I reassure you that you are not the only one who feels like this - I think all of us have been there at some point on the journey, it's par for the course with doing a PhD I think.

I'm not anywhere near you subject wise but I'm a bit concerned that you're using a piece of equipment that hasn't been cleared by health and safety. I think you need to take this up, firstly with the health and safety team, and secondly (or perhaps together with) you need to talk to your supervisor. From the way you've worded it I'm guessing your whole project centres around the use of this laser, so you need to get your sup on board to help you out. Is there any way you can reassure the health and safety department that the laser is safe for use? Is there anything you can do to make it safer? Please, please go to your supervisor and discuss this. They will always tell you they're busy but at the end of the day they are supposed to help us!

If you read through the posts on this forum you'll see you are not alone. I can't tell you how much it's helped me coming here on this forum and just interacting with other PhD students from time to time, especially when I've felt like you do now. Perhaps set yourself some achievable goals over the next few months, perhaps writing your literature review and methodology sections, whilst you wait for the laser health and safety to be sorted out. This will give you something to show your review panel and make you feel better because you'll be achieving something and it'll all help in the long run.

Hope that helps you somewhat - we're always here if you need help or just to moan! 8-)

Don't worry Espresso, that's still a substantial amount of writing! It's better to write 500 meaningful words than thousands of words of waffle! and any words are still moving forwards to achieving your goal!

I've finished reading the report now so I'm going to do some admin, then sign off to do some exercise as I've been sat here for far too long now! See you all tomorrow(up)

Well congratulations first of all on getting a place with a famous academic - that is brilliant!

As for the R&R situation:

Option 1: in my honest opinion I would probably take the boss aside and tell the truth. Offer to show a copy of the thesis if you want, then she can read it for herself and make her own decision. I'm assuming she's a PhD too so she'll understand how tough it is and may not even agree with the R&R verdict! If you're as good at your job as you seem to be I wouldn't have thought she'd change her mind but... you always have:

Option 2: where you don't say anything, just keep working for her and publishing etc and see if it comes up, then explain if required.

That probably doesn't help that much! I'm hoping that someone more experienced comes along and offers you some better advice!

Congratulations! Lots of celebrating!

Afternoon,

Hope everyone's having a good day so far. I've managed goal 1 and dare I say it, I think I have done enough to leave my chapter for a few days and move on to something else..!

This afternoon I want to read a recently published report but first I'm having some lunch!

======= Date Modified 31 May 2012 13:08:36 =======
Hi Blackbyrd,

I know how you feel - I get really stressed about my own personal deadlines being missed so I can sympathise!

I think (without knowing your work or writing), all you can really do is plan, give yourself small goals to meet and go from there. I print out monthly calendars and do a rough guesstimation of how many words per day I need to turn out in order to meet my deadline, then work around that. Generally I write in the mornings and read in the afternoon, so each afternoon's reading informs the next morning's writing. I think it can be done, you just need to work hard!

Good luck!

To be honest, I don't know how you go about changing supervisor at my uni as I've never looked into it, but don't you feel guilty about it!

My last minute advice would be to stay calm, and stick to the facts. Don't get emotional, just go in there, tell them you are worried as you have submitted work (it would help if you had evidence i.e. print outs of emails with dates and times) and you haven't received any feedback. Just reiterate you are worried about completing within the timescale and see what they say. Make sure it isn't personal and say something like, "I appreciate everyone is busy but..."

I've done a very quick google search and found this: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_81.htm which talks about conflict resolution and has some useful hints and tips.

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

Good morning all!

Ah it's nice to see the One Goal Thread being used by so many people! As I managed to get so much done earlier in the week I had an impromptu day away yesterday which was nice, looks like you were all very busy so well done!

Today's goals are:

Goal 1: Conduct a literature search
Goal 2: Work on section 3 of chapter

I think that will do for now!

Have a great day everyone!

I think you need to talk to someone about this now, try and find out what there is in the way of help for you at your university. And good luck!

======= Date Modified 29 May 2012 15:07:26 =======
I haven't but I have had a number of sleepless nights in my time through stress which has mucked my internal body clock up. I'd say you need to ride it out really, but try not to sleep during the day if you can help it as you'll just make it worse. I'd set an alarm for 6am no matter what time I fell alseep, then force myself to get up and work, get plenty of exercise, try not to drink too much caffeine (and none at all after about 5pm) and go to bed at a reasonable hour, read before bed, don't watch TV. It helps if you work from home though and you don't have to commute anywhere. I feel for you, I hate not sleeping! Try not to stress about it though - you will get back into a normal routine eventually! If you keep getting up at 6am you'll eventually be so knackered that you shouldn't have any problems falling asleep!

p.s. no supervisor should be putting conditions on reviewing your work, this is ridiculous! Don't let him get away with it! Supervision is not conditional - if they don't want to do supervision then they shouldn't be a supervisor! Grr this has annoyed me!

Hi Human,

Sorry to hear you're still having problems with this. I think you now need to think about whether you want to take this higher, as this guy sounds like he's either too busy to supervise you properly or too lazy to read your work. Either way, you need to approach someone within the university, either the registry or a pastoral tutor if you have one to talk about it.

I can understand that submitting an article will gain some feedback, however this can often take months and you don't have months and months to wait. Is he going to make you do this every time you want him to review a chapter? I think perhaps it may well be worth another email stating that you can see where he's coming from with the journal feedback however you're concerned about the length of time this will take. Ask him when he plans to give you his own feedback.

May I ask, and apologies if you've already said, where you are in your studies? Are you funded or self funding?

Well done everyone for how well you've done so far, and welcome back Emmaki! I'm back from my appointment now, typically as I typed that I'm usually early I got stuck in traffic so ended up being late! I hate being late!

Going to get on with my goals now, though I'm feeling a bit sleepy this afternoon! I might need a few coffees to keep me going this afternoon!

Morning,

Yes agreed Batfink, the more the merrier I say! Good luck with your analysis!

Well after yesterday's workfest I have a bit of a quieter day planned today, I have a dentist appointment that I have to drive miles to this morning (tsk!) so I'm going to take some reading with me, as I usually arrive early, depending on the traffic.

I then have the following goals for today:
Goal 1: Re-write introduction
Goal 2: Plan out section 3 all ready for writing up tomorrow
Goal 3: Write a draft conclusion

Have a great day everyone, it really does help coming here and setting realistic goals every day. It feels great when you achieve them, and makes you feel supported when you don't!

Well done everyone, I've cracked all three of my goals today as well as completing a task I had earmarked for tomorrow, so I've made good progress today (although the receptionist at the surgery wasn't very helpful and said my doctor wasn't available this week and they can't see the diary for next week - what is all that about?!) so Goal 3 will be postponed for later this week!!!

This afternoon I'm doing some reading, then I'm going to get some fresh air. I have one more article to go then I'm off out :-)