Hi Walrus
I understand your frustration BUT you should realize that the PhD is not a 9-5 job so yes, weekends and evenings are unfortunately going to be filled with reading, and once you start your experiments with lab work. If you are lucky it will only be some evenings and some weekends and not every single one of them.
My other advice is to embrace the fact that you are part of a big team. By helping the others you will gain confidence regarding lab procedures and you will be likely to make more successful experiments of your own. Of course it should be a “give and take” and finding this balance is maybe something you need to talk to your supervisor about. If your contribution to other peoples work is substantial you should be included as a coauthor and this will help your future career (if you stay in academia)

All the best,
Almost-there (5 days left until I hand in my lab-based thesis)

Hi, its going quite well, thanks for asking.

I have submitted everything to my supervisors and am waiting for their corrections. So I have had the day off today!! That felt really weird!
If all goes well I am hoping to send the thesis for evaluation by the end of this week.

How is it going for you?

of course you can embed figures and tables in the main section

wow blueberry this sounds pretty tough. But it is a pity to quit when you like what you are doing. I would suggest that you a) dont quit b) learn the language c) try to make friends through other activities (join a sports club, pottery class, whatever you like)and d) try to schedule research visits at the other part of the univerisy or at completely different universities in the periods where you don't need to do stuff on your species.

e) go out without your supervisor, meet someone from that city and fall in love. Then the place will look like paradise. :)

But seriously, talk to your supervisor about your dissappointment, maybe he/she can figure out a solution

nice, I also had this grand plan of finishing the paper tonight but I am beginning to doubt it. Somehow there is no point in proofreading something while being really tired

good luck with your draft, I hope you finish it by tomorrow.

just about when I thought I was done with the paper that I am working on, I remembered I still have to do the abstract...and correct some figures...and of course proofread it...

zzzzz.....I am so tired and sooooo booooooooooored

Anyone else who wants to complain? ;-)

congratulations clowning81!!

I was actually about to start a thread asking if all those people who should have handed in this week ended up doing so. I am very new in this forum, but it was really helpful for me last week when I was going through a self-doubt crisis. Thank you!

I have aaaalmost handed in. I have sent my thesis to my supervisors on Monday but I don't have their comments yet because and I quote "I am so busy right now with important proposals" or "I have friends visitng this week". Apparently their lives do not revolve around my project

But I still have tons to do because I need to finish a paper which will be part of my evaluation...so that is also due next week.

Anyway, good luck to sjo4 and to jouri with finishing up!

At some universities it is possible to take a leave from your phd for a year or more. Maybe you could do that for a while, to check the MSc meets your expectations?

Personally, I think that if you don't want to get a job in academia the phd is not worth the trouble, but that is just me.

The best advice I can give you is: whatever decision you make in the end, don't doubt yourself. don't look back and say what if, because you can actually never really know what would have happened if you had made the other choice.

I know what you mean. I have had days of extreme stress (no insomnia but a lot of crying and anxiety attacks incl. trouble breathing and heart race etc.) I didn’t take any medication; I am a bit scared of drugs. The symptoms were sporadic but I had decided that if they persisted for a longer period (1week) I would do something about it). This was also my way of coping with it, giving myself a deadline for getting better. As far as telling the supervisors I would suggest you wait a bit. See if it is just a bad couple of days. But if your stress and symptoms persist over a longer time then talk to them. They should know what you are going through otherwise they will keep demanding more and more and may get more and more stressed and get into a really vicious circle. All the best.

A good friend and fellow PhD student has been proofreading my thesis. She left a comment on the last page of my thesis.

I write: “The findings of this work have highlighted the need for further research into:
a) issue 1
b) issue 2
c) issue 3…”

she added
d) research into who would be stupid enough to spent 3-4 years of their life investigating the above issues. It is the opinion of the author that the chances of finding someone are very slim.

LOL it takes some guts to write that sentence, you must admit that:)

I think one of the side effects of doing a PhD is bitterness and cynicism, especially if you meet too many challenges along the way. This has happended to me and to a lot of other people I know and it is actually really sad.

Hopefully I will return back to my cheerful self once it is all over

To be honest, that exact phrase is a bit "academy award" style. But, I think that the acknowledgements is the only part of your thesis where you can show your personality, so if this is what you feel like writing, you should do it. I am thanking my family and friends too. Here is a sentence from my acknowledgements, and yes it is cheasy :-D

"...my family in Greece and especially Mama and Nikos for their love and encouragement and for every phone call they made when I was working late "

I would try to adjust the style to the person I am thanking each time. For example something sober and boring for the supervisors and something funny for fellow phd's. I don't know if this is helpful...

Wow, you 've been good!! And an early bird! I am more of the 11am-03am type of person. I am drinking coffee with baileys now...cause I was out of sugar and cream. I think it actually helps my writing. When I was younger, if I was working after 11pm, I would drink a martini and dance a bit, then sit down and work again.
Good times

So how is it going for you all that have to hand in very soon? I was pretty productive yesterday but I still didn't meet my self-set target of finishing the last chapter. Today. I have a grant plan of sending the thesis to my supervisors on Monday for their approval. I am super-nervous, as they didn't want to see any drafts, only the final thing (need a nervous smiley here). Anybody actually enjoying the weekend? I already have a long list of plans for what to do after I hand in, you know once my life resembles living again

I hope you are all doing well and typing fast