Couple of days to finish writing paper... lost motivation about 2 weeks ago!

T

Help! I've a few more days to finish writing this draft paper... it is basically done in rough form APART FROM the Discussion. I am so boooooooored! This has never really happened to me before (usually take real pride in my work and enjoy it - hence why I chose to do a PhD). It's like I've eaten too much chocolate... this should be fun but it isn't right now. Any tips on how to get through this and have something decent to submit on Friday?

C

Bullet point what you want to say, then write it up one bit at a time with spaces in between to do nice stuff?

T

Thank you Chickpea. I have just written on a piece of paper "What I've done", stuck it on the cupboard door in the kitchen, and am going to write each small task I complete on it.

T

I can't treat myself. That is part of the problem. I indulged for a few days a few weeks ago and really enjoyed myself and since then haven't been able to get back into the swing of things.

C

Sometimes it's just like pulling teeth. I'm at that stage post-thesis completion and knowing I should be writing stuff for publication, yet resisting it with every fibre of my being. I tend to find I need to just do something (when I'm not feeling like it) just to get the momentum going again. I should take my own advice really :-)

T

I've just pulled two little teeth. I like the analogy! I'll be toothless by Friday hopefully!

Avatar for skyisnotthelimit

Quote From chickpea:
Sometimes it's just like pulling teeth. I'm at that stage post-thesis completion and knowing I should be writing stuff for publication, yet resisting it with every fibre of my being. I tend to find I need to just do something (when I'm not feeling like it) just to get the momentum going again. I should take my own advice really :-)

Hahahaha I love this.

Avatar for skyisnotthelimit

Hey @Tudor_Queen, if you cannot do it, no one else can! Come on, you've got this! What works for me when I am stuck is reading something related to what I am writing but that is not necessarily academic. I am in the middle of writing an article too and I got stuck real bad last week and I just started reading newspaper articles about the topic, watching some videos of studies and picked up the flow from there. Not sure if it helps but it works for me. Good luck and let us know how it goes :)

T

Thank you skyisnotthelimit! Encouragement from you all plus my little childish poster on the kitchen cupboard is motivating me (also it helps that it is NEARLY FRIDAY and the thought of not having a chance to re-read and edit what I've written before submitting it makes me SHUDDER into life!). A few more paragraphs of the Discussion and then the whole paper will be finished (in very rough form in places!). I will have a day (tomorrow) to dedicate to improving it!

Ps. Thinking of buying some coloured pegs or glittery star stickers for my reward chart!

T

Just thought I'd share a typo I just noticed in the Discussion of my results...

"Stinkingly, there was a significant..."

I definitely need to put aside time to proofread after the final edit!

T

Finished! Knackered! Thanks for the support!

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