To be honest, I wanted to do a PhD because I wanted to challenge myself. One of the additional reasons for wanting to do a PhD was for the long term career in academia, which I'm not sure if I actually want to pursue at the moment or not.

I've recently had my annual review and the feedback received has motivated me to get back on track (although my secondary supervisor is more than happy with how I've progressed so far).

Have you both finished your PhD and have you pursued a career in academia?

Thank you for your reply, apologies for being so slow at replying.

My supervisor has just said that he doesn't feel I'm trying hard enough and that the PhD isn't my number one priority. I know I've not been doing as much over the last few months, but it's things like this that just make me question why I'm actually doing a PhD.

In terms of my 3-4 year plan, I'm a little behind because of the recent delays (had initially planned to have data collected for one study by now and to be analysing it).

I can continue to write my literature review and I've modified a study to include a questionnaire, but other than those, there isn't a great deal more I can do at the moment.

I feel exactly the same at the moment as I had to delay data collection. I tried to use the time to work on ethics applications and writing for my literature review, but I'm now getting to the point where I feel a bit lost and uninterested in my PhD.

To try and encourage productivity, I've tried a couple of things:
1) work in small chunks (e.g. 1 hour and then do something else)
2) set some deadlines with supervisors (I set a deadline for a chapter draft and ethics approval)

The above have helped me a little bit but I think the most beneficial thing for me is to have regular meetings with my supervisors. I use Zoom or Skype and try to book a meeting for every 2 or 3 weeks. While we may not have much to discuss in terms of my PhD, it gives me a motivation boost.

Hi guys,

I'm currently in my second year as a full time student and I'm starting to feel really de-motivated and uninterested in my PhD at the moment. I just feel as if I'm not really getting anywhere as I've not started data collection yet due to the UK lockdown. Is it normal to feel this way in your second year and feel like you shouldn't be doing a PhD?

I also feel like I'm never doing enough work and feel guilty about not wanting to do my PhD work at the moment. I've had a paper published (a brief review), written about 10,000 words of my literature review, and had ethics approved for my first two studies. To me, it doesn't seem like I have actually achieved much in the first 18 months of my PhD. Does this seem like a normal amount of work or should I be doing more?

Thank you