As you may have gathered I am part-sponsored by an organisation, so I have to get all my participants from there. My research area is quite sensitive so I can't offer any incentives as it may be seen as coercion so I just try to get the appropriate people i.e. leaders of various parts of the organisation on board with my research with short reports and provide all participants with easy to read reports at the end of each study. However, the type of people I need for my studies are few and far between in the organisation and at the moment feel very, not in control of the whole situation and it is my biggest stress issue! The organisation also has offices around the country and am finding it difficult to spare the time to travel 4 hours for one half hour interview.

So my advice would be try and gain 'buy-in' by getting people interested in your research by producing a small report (difficult if you don't want to alter participants' opinions etc, so maybe just give it to the people who can source participants for you). Also, if your studies are different, use the same participants again, and always provide them with a 'findings report' so they feel like their input was valued. Any tips for me would be more than welcome!

Hope your work has gone well Maggie - sounds like you have done a lot more than me! Had a frustrating meeting at my industrial partners where they got what they wanted out of it, but I didn't get what I wanted! Didn't work today but plan to sit down tomorrow and catch up. Thinking of makign Monday my last day away from home i.e. to uni/ind partner, so I can get some proper writing before my parents arrive for xmas.

Not to worry about the blip Maggie. Have you tried the whole "I will work for 15 mins" thing?

In my field its all women - but bf at home all day so he can be a distraction - not like that! Mainly he always wants to watch films so I end up sitting on sofa rather than working.

My rather ambitious goal today didn't work out - I got the stats done, but due to not being able to find related stats :-s took me until 5. But I sent the work to Sup anyway, with an essay plan underneath of what I was going to write about. I get the feeling she thinks I'm not doing anything so thought its better than keeping it to myself until after xmas.

Spending next 2 days at uni and industrial partner so may be absent from here.

Right, just sat down to my work! - I know its late 10.30 but spent all morning exercising. Just had email from supervisor who wants to go thru my thesis with me at some point (im guessing she wants to make sure Im on right track so she can go off for xmas early). She hasn't asked me for anything BUT would be great if I could get her this intro chapter tomorrow as I think she may think that I have not achieved enough writing wise. Therefore my aim for today is to obviouslty finish this chapter. So am breaking it up into small chunks for today

so before lunch I plan to complete the statistics section of the intro. (should only be 300 words or so its just putting them all together!)

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I stopped work again at 6 :-(



But I did plan out my intro chapter, find loads of newspaper articles (its quite a hot topic and wanted to include something relevant), find all the stats i needed about the topic e.g. 34% said this..... and also wrote 100 words, so will continue tomorrow. Really want to get it largely finished tomorrow cos then I can get onto properly writing up lit review - which I really should have done, almost 18 months in and at the mo feels like I have nothing to show for my time. So my aims for tomorrow



- finish writing the intro chapter!! (need about 2500 words) but all planned out so its just joining the dots......I hope!



How are things going Maggie and Frankie!! Do you have physical research to do, like my constant search for participants?

Talk about RAE and publications, journal impact factors - shows you know about a career in academia.

I know someone who has done this. The advantages are that you don't spend the 1st 6 months of PhD getting 'set up' i.e accomodation, office space, new emails etc etc. and you know the staff and admin people probably already. Disadvantages would be after the PhD, especially if you want to move out of academia, might look a bit contricting on your CV but as with most things you can just explain it well in your interview. I had a friend who bummed around travelling for 6 years and manages to get jobs (have no idea how!)

No But I need one!

Tea and biscuits are the way to go Maggie! YOu have motivated me to keep working longer today, I usually start at 11 and finish at 6 but will work longer today!! Well I will try to anyway.

Frankie - I think maybe you suffer the same thing as me, putting all non-PhD work before the important stuff. Maybe we should try to set aside an hour in the evening to do the admin/consultancy/more admin/chasing emails stuff so the day is actually PhD related??

Hopefully, as represented above, I managed to finish my report for the industrial partner, meaning I can go into my meeting on friday with some information for them! and hopefully get them hooked enough to help me with my next study.

I didn't manage to plan or do any of my intro :-( so today and tomorrow - it must be done! :-s

I did manage to help other half with some teaching related essays so, kind of did work in the evening as well.

I have decided to tackle my admin/consultancy after 6pm today (altho have had to send off a load of emails today to keep pushing for participants)

do you need publications to get the PhD? in my field its not necessary. I think the best thing is to confide in your supervisor about your fears and see whether they are founded, this is probably just nerves about the whole thing

Sorry to hear you are having a rough time. I expect your supervisrs are swamped themselves and don't realise what they are saying, or think the message will get across clearer if they are blunt. The old 'sandwhich' technique went out of fashion a while ago, largely becasue it means that the important comments (negative) were lost by the end of the meeting cos they had been enveloped with positive remarks.

I would take it with a pinch of salt, its their way of pushing you forward. try and chanel that annoyance into getting it done with a 'that'll show em' attitude - thats what I try to do!

Wow new dresses, xmas trees, I'm so jealous!

My plan for today

- draft intro chapter
- finish report for industrial partner

Sorry to be totally anti-american but can't stand 'happy holidays', so......Happy Christmaaaaaaas (slade stylee)

(and other various religious holidays including Pagan Yule).

In my experience the uni probably won't even notice you're gone/not be organised enough to actually impose a ban on any facility use. It takes about 2 years before they take peoples names off doors/re-format computers etc. So I wouldn't worry! If you are chummy with security/admin they prob won't even care if you are technically not allowed to access stuff.