Seeing as my last star nomination was cruelly ignored (and hence I still languish in the one star fleapit), I shall come skulk at your four star arena like the whipped PhD puppy I am. Perhaps some crumbs will drop from the four star table.

Anti-anxiety meds? Send em my way sneaks! I find the stress does more to paralyze than encourage me :-S
In all seriousness though, glad you got some medical help, hope it kicks in nicely and gets you through the work (stupid bits and otherwise).

I have been very bad today, a couple of monkey-level experiments and zero writing. Must try harder, as school reports tend to say.
I shall now.....

- read this paper on data analysis
- compare it with the other methods I've been reviewing
- open my thesis document so I don't become literally phobic of it

Hi Kezia

Don't worry, I think everyone feels a bit lost at the start, and the reading still overwhelms me three years in! But you're reading list gets narrowed down once your research question is clearer, and you start to get the reassurance of ocassionally reading something that actually sounds familiar :-) It does worry me that you have no supervisor though - how did you come to start your PhD without one? I'd definitely feel a bit at sea in that situation.

The guilt is a student staple I'm afraid, even with the best intentions and schedules it's hard to feel as if you're ever truly "off duty" it's the downside to the flexibility you gain. Just work when you can, and if you can set some basic targets that might help, then you have a definite sense of whether you're progressing. There's always the sense that you could do more so don't beat yourself up over spending time flat-hunting etc - even students have to live somewhere!

======= Date Modified 05 Nov 2009 21:46:03 =======
Hi Natassia



I think it is something that comes naturally with time, and you're definitely quicker once you know what you want from a paper. Your basic process sounds good and it's natural to be slower while you get used to academic reading, so don't worry too much. At the start of a project you take notes on every aspect that's new, after a while you pick out only what you'll need and it will go a lot quicker. Aside from that, one odd but useful tip my old tutor gave me was to skim by last lines instead of headings, ie - read only the last sentence of each paragraph. In well written papers it can give you a basic feel before you decide whether to dive into the detail. Sounds strange but it can work.

Hehe, stooping to outright bribery huh?
Afraid my answer will un-starry and vague, as I think it varies a great deal with region and subject. From what I know, in my field (genetics) the standard at universities is often ~£27k-£32k, but then there are postdocs in my lab on £22k as we're smaller and far North. How it compares for other subjects I'm not sure. I've found the best guide is to just do a quick job search and see what's on offer, it does vary but it gives you a rough baseline.

Thank you walminski, I was starting to think I was blind and mad (far better to know I'm just dim). If you ever come to post on a thread I start I promise I shall give you your fourth star!

In the words of so many inexperienced teenage boys..... where's this magic button????

Just keeping it alive :-)

Ah, that is a serious time pressure then Sneaks - good luck with it and with tomorrow's appointment.

And thank you for my star if that was you! :-) hehe

Oooh I got my pity star!
I'm sure you deserve one too cobweb, but I honestly can't see this button - where is it?!

Oh dear Ev, hope you're ok whatever it was.

Don't worry sneaks, I've had days when I stared blankly at a screen for 8 hours even without pain medication - sounds like you have a pretty good excuse to me!

I've totalled 4 papers and a truly revolting bowl of instant mash for dinner (with half a stick of rock for dessert - thank you whoever went on holiday to Blackpool) I reckon 2 more papers, sample sorting for tomorrow morn and that's that. Home to bed and a hungry cat before 9.

I have no stars, and I can't actually see the vote/helpful user button :-(

I feel both unloved and incredibly dense (give me stars out of pity?)

This sounds like the holy grail to me just now Bilbo! Well done for getting so far :-) Hope you get to a better place again soon and can enjoy those extra hours, whether you need them for PhD work or not.

Must admit I haven't had "that" talk with my supervisor yet, he seems to have backed off so I'm letting things lie until the joint supervisory meeting in December, then I can put my thesis plans to the other sups and hopefully they'll back my more *cautious* approach to timescales.

Sorry to hear that Ev, hope you're ok and that work is a useful distraction (that said, don't feel bad if you need a night of less PhD and more chocolate, they have their place too!). I'll be keeping you company for a good bit yet anyway, if you want I can race you to the next paper pit-stop ;-)

Time is not a friend today, is it Sneaks? I just saw that I posted an hour and a half ago, I've read one paper :( looks like a late night at the office for me.