It's only just gone nocturnal - but I've had enough for the day. Yesterday was so excited at writing something new - the introduction - and today it's just terrible. Have been writing hundreds of twee, boring, repetitive words. I read my supervisor's thesis, and her intro is vibrant and exciting! Makes you want to read more! Mine is dull, crappy, doesn't flow and now am confused about what is context, what's history and what's the sexy new bit. That doesn't even make sense to me...sigh....:-(

I think the washing up offers more satisfaction at the moment.

Hi there

Yes, slouchy days are not good. Even though some days will naturally be more productive than others, you don't want have too many regular slack days. Designate your days - either study, do admin, or have a day off etc. As others have said, treat your PhD like a job. While some days in the paid workforce do bo by without a lot being achieved, if you were in a regular workplace, you wouldn't slacken off would you? Force yourself. Have breaks, but plan your days, allocate tasks, and only be slack when you've earned a short break. I let myself goof off every couple of hours on the net, just for a bit, and rationalise that if I was in an office, I'd have the occasional conversation with a colleague, so that's OK.

Right, that's me being slack, back to writing!

Are you anxious? Giving up smoking is probably the hardest thing I've ever done (next to this PhD!). It really is stressful and I went mad for 6 months. Mood swings, tears, grumpiness, the works. I didn't have any tics though...if this persists, you might want to go and see about it. Probably nothing, but still, it must be annoying...

That seems odd - you'd pick up the structure as you went along! But you know that...Do they offer TAs casually? At unis I've been to it's either the lecturer teaching, or casual teachers. Can you approach some of the other lecturers to see if they have anything going?

Good luck.

Any others working nocturnally at the moment? Today I had a good day :-) My sup said that a piece I had written was a "delight to her eyes"! Which was very nice. And tonight I'm starting on a new chapter - the introduction! Not rewriting other stuff endlessly, but starting a whole new chapter!! Now that's exciting! A scary blank page, with a few sub-headings on it!

...just need to not get tired now...

I think the other posts are pretty comprehensive and I agree with their comments. I think the most important thing is that you need to demonstrate that you haven't been skiving off for the year!:-) Do you have a work plan, developed with your supervisor? Have you got your goals listed for the first year? You need to show that you're working towards completing these.

I could list the amount of work I did in the first year, but that might not be helpful. You really need to talk to your supervisor about this. And remember, the uni wants you to pass!

Yes, don't quit - 3 years' work is too much to throw away, even if it hasn't all worked. Make an appointment to see you supervisor and go through your work. And take a day off and do something nice, try and forget about the post doc for a bit. Discuss them with your sup too. And yes, you also need a co-sup.

Hope things get better for you.

Hi Rick

Yes, good suggestions, and that's what I've done for the last couple of years - worked part-time and studied. I've found though, that you never really get the best of either world doing this. If you work 3 or fewer days a week in the public service, you tend to get the less interesting, less urgent/sexy pieces of work, and are also effectively not on any sort of career track. And then that doesn't leave much time for research work either and also means you're not on campus as much as others, not networking as much as you should etc etc...My problem is I want to do to many things at once and am a restless soul anyway!

Hi Keymus7

There's been another thread about whether to do a Masters or a PhD lately, so you might want to have a look for that. Did you do research in your Masters degree? If so, you might want to go straight into a PhD. Or you could start a Masters and then convert. You should have a look at some of the universities you might want to go to, and talk with the academics in your field, they'll best know.

Good luck!

And re conferences - in the early days my supervisor looked at conference papers I was writing too. Not only to help with content, but also presentation and to make sure my slides didn't have too much info, flowed well etc etc. Now that I'm at the stage where I tend to just regurgitate the same stuff ;-), she doesn't need to see it.

Hi Sheyna

Yes, I'd be wary about providing an external academic with a working draft. Not because they might steal it, but because I know that if I gave a working paper to someone without my supervisor seeing it first, it wouldn't go down well. She quite rightly makes me rewrite things, to a much better standard, and if I sent out a draft, it could reflect poorly on myself and on her. What we think is 'good' is different to what proper academics think! If you want feedback, maybe send them a detailed abstract, and a list of questions, then have a discussion with them.

And if your supervisor isn't looking at your work this early on, that doesn't bode well at all. You should check your uni guidelines about supervisor responsibilities, and try and make a verbal contract with them, so that you get what you need.

Hi Jewel

Thanks for your comments - you raise some good points. Yes, I've also wondered whether I have the stuff it takes - my capacity for hard work makes up for a lack of genius. I suspect I don't have the necessary attributes to snag a permanent position. And since I don't want to teach, I think I would be restricted to contract research positions. Colleagues think I should grab this research position, then do a post-doc...but I dunno...Today I think I'll go back to the public service, but the idea of having a working life of mediocrity appalls me!

This is not my area of study, but I think this is something your supervisor should be advising you about. They'll know the field and the level of analysis required. And am not sure that reader-friendly is a criteria that examiners care about! Reading the articles that my potential examiners have written, dense almost seems to be better! ;-)

Yes, I agree, all you need really is a decent knowledge of the subject matter area. You could also mention presentations etc that you've done, to show that you're comfortable standing up in front of people, but a knowledge of the area seems to be the only criteria.

In Australia a post-doc only refers to funded positions gained through a competitive grant process. They are advertised like a job, and available to people who've gained their PhDs in the last 3 years. They're hard to get, and a decent publication record seems to be a fairly essential criteria. Research assistant positions aren't referred to as post-docs but are just called RAs. RAs tend to be lowly PhD students (like myself!); post-docs are the hallowed ones who've made it and then secured funding ;-).