I will put a team in, I play most years mainly for the office banter and the princes trust is a great cause! :)

Good luck with it!

10 tomatoes finished. I think this has been my most productive day in about 6 months. Good old tomatoes! :)

Hi everyone,

Just finished number 4, will do one more then off for a walk with dogface then will aim for another 5 this afternoon. Makes me realise how unproductive i have been for so long! :S

Brilliant idea to have a tomatoes accountability thread. I have just started writing and finding motivation and concentration difficult! I used tomatoes a while back but then lost it during data collection etc. I will start this again tomorrow and update how I get on! :) I used to aim for 10 a day too so will see how I get on with that!

OK so this might be a ridiculous question but...

I am about 20 months into my full time Phd. I have drafted my literature review and methodology chapters and finished data collection. My supervisors have told me to now leave those drafts and begin writing some results. I didn't think I would be doing this until September when I officially registered for my final year so now feel a bit panicked. Should I not be working on the lit review (which is by no means finished) or writing more background stuff or reading? I kind of feel like it's moving too fast and I will look back and think why did I leave that in such a state in a years time! When did people start drafting their findings chapters? This might sound like a silly post and I apologise, I have been suffering with anxiety recently and just feel like I need a bit of comparison with where I am at with others.

Sarah :)

Thank you for the replies everyone, it's good to know not everyone spends every second networking and making small talk! There are some sessions I plan to go to so will hopefully meet some people in the same area of research that way. Hopefully I won't make an utter fool out of myself by saying something stupid but I'm not betting on it! :)

Hi all

I am due to go to a very big conference soon which is the largest meeting of academics in my field. I am going alone and I am terrified. I am useless at networking and find the whole wandering around trying to find people to talk to situation so painful. I also don't know if that many PhD students go either. It is over 5 days and I am so stressed about it all. Does anyone have any advice how to network well at these sorts of events? I can't sleep for stressing about it all!

A very stressed Sarah

I had a meeting with my supervisors a few days ago which didn't go well at all. I sent them what I have been working on for quite some time now and they tore it apart completely. What made it worse was that I thought it was quite good. I was lacking all sorts of things and the structure was all wrong. I am in my second year and still don't seem to be writing up to scratch. I am feeling rubbish and feeling like I wish I had never started this PhD. Finding it difficult to look at the document again to make the improvements (basically a rewrite) they suggested. Does anyone have any advice how to get back into it after such a slating. Just want to know I'm not the only one who comes out of meetings feeling like I have been beaten up :(

Hi Ady

I am feeling exactly the same - not that that is much help to you! I am not using grounded theory but I have decided to arrange my analysis chapters around my 3 research questions. So i will have a chapter for addressing each question and then a final discussion chapter to pull it all together. I conducted interviews as the main part of my research collection. I think it is difficult to get your head around the analysis and how to structure it so I am hoping once i get writing i find some inspiration from somewhere! :)

Hi everyone,

After deciding I am 99% sure that the world of academia is not for me about half way through my PhD in humanities I am now very worried about getting work outside of academia after I finish. I went straight from undergrad to PhD and only have summer job experience. Has anyone had experience of doing internships alongside their PhD, do people think it's a good idea? I fear I have no chance of getting a job in research outside of academia with my only experience being within the university.

Any advice would be appreciated! :)

Well done Batfink. Sounds like a busy day! :)

I have been procrastinating massively recently! Having a long weekend as the OH is off work so hoping to come back refreshed and ready to work next week!

Hi everyone,

I have had a very unproductive week due to many non PhD related things. My aim today is to make progress with a presentation I am really struggling with! I hope to plan what I will talk about and sort some sort of structure out. Fingers crossed I find some inspiration! :)

Have a good day all!

Hi everyone,

I am due to present my preliminary findings at an important conference soon and I am struggling to know what to say! I have completed my interviews but not fully analysed them or figured out any specifics like 'this many people thought this' or 'men thought this whilst women thought this' type of thing so do I just talk about general themes I have come across and will be exploring more in the write up? Does anyone have any experience of presenting findings before analysis? What kind of things did you talk about?

Thanks for reading! :)

Sarah

I am mid way through my second year and I am 23. I went straight from undergrad to PhD which is what I think some people have a problem with rather than my age. I don't feel at a disadvantage in terms of doing the research but I do sometimes worry I will be if I was to go on to look for an academic job as I would have less experience than others. I think if you feel ready and prepared to do it now then don't worry what other people think! :)

Sounds like everyone is on a roll today! :)

I had a day full of meetings and admin stuff yesterday so got nothing done that I needed to. So today I need to clean my house which has been neglected recently due to work stress and get on with editing my methodology chapter. Feeling very unproductive today for some reason so hoping I get into the swing of it soon!

Have a good day all!