I tried to use latex before but I found inserting tables quite cumbersome - does anyone know if there is a shortcut that I would be able to insert excel tables into latex and would anyone have any good links to a PhD formatted latex thesis? On a funny latex note when I did email my friend who introduced me to latex and put in the subject line "I love latex!!!!!" she automatically thought it was spam :p

Hey everyone, I'm still alive! lol, thanks a million for the responses, made me feel much better:-) I've been running experiments to see if they work and told my supervisor about it and hes been great! I know at the end of the day mistakes are made and you just have to move on, I suppose that's just the territory with wet lab work, it still sucks though!! I felt so relieved after chatting with supervisor instead of hiding away, phew!

AUUUGHGHHHHHH! That's it I'm going to have a nervous breakdown! I have had the worst year ever and I'm still trying to trot along with the PhD as I am really busy in 2nd year now, I wont even bother to say how bad a year it has been. But I'm trying to catch up with a massive workload and just after getting up at 7 on a sat morning only to find I have left out all of my reageants and they need to be frozen so I have just wasted thousands of pounds probably, I'm just so upset and I don't know what to do:(

Heya,

I'm in a very similar position at the moment so I know exactly how you feel! I've just started 2nd year and I have a huge amount of work to do, which is great but I just cant get it done with everything else going on! I'm just finishing up my first year progress report and on top of lab work etc I have to supervise a final year undergraduate, plus teaching labs, and I'm writing a paper from research that I did a few years ago, plus extra teaching that I do to get money in and then both of my parents are really sick, one is in hospital and the one has a longer term ilness and is really not well at all so I'm constantly running around the place..And my car is also gobbling up all my money so I have none left and have to keep going to the mechanic.. sorry about the rant, basically I know how you feel!

I did have a bit of a breakdown in October, but I'm handling it ok now, realizing that panicking is not going to get me anywhere! The best thing that I find is to get into some sort of a routine and that has worked well for me so far...

Best of luck with the balancing!:p

I've just started 2nd year but I've got a load of writing to do so I thought this might be a good way to motivate me! I do plan on writing as I go so that's the plan anyway... I've just read Bolker' book so that's given me a big motivation to write.. Sure give the DONE! thing a go and see how you get on!

Today I did absolutely feck all.. Well I did print out two papers lol :p No writing at all just got distracted by PhD admistratroy crappy things eugh.. and got quite stressed with all the crap I have to do and that was just totally counterproductive!! Oh well new day tomorrow!

Well second day of writing going well so far so good! My plans for today were:

-Do draft of the first topic -- DONE!
-Read around first topic -- ended up reading 9 papers

I do find it very slow going though.. I'm finding it quite hard to restrict myself as I am so limited for time, but will keep ploughing on!

That's really fantastic well done Dr. Lara!! I can't imagine what it feels like, it must be amazing 8-)

Good luck Lara! Hope everything goes brilliantly for you (up) Also I hope you don't mind that I nicked your method of writing DONE!

Well I said that I would be starting this thread when I came back from my hols.. I came back down to earth today with a bump as I'm as busy as ever! Today my plans were to:
-Make a plan for the next 3 months, this week and today -done
-Sort through all the papers I have printed out - done
-Make a plan for my progress report due for the end of the month-divide into sections -done
-Start writing on one of the topics, edit old writing and read papers -done

I have to do my progress report for the end of October which includes a literature review and I'm a bit worried about it now as I have a load of other work to do and I'm just realizing how little time there is eek! Is this possible??!

Hey Tinkerbell. Just a very quick bit of advise from my part! If you only wanted to do a PhD just to learn more about the subject I would advise against it. It is a long and difficult path, and keep in mind that you would probably just be focusing on just one aspect of genetic disease so you may not learn too much about the broader picture. I really think that in order to do a PhD, and keep relatively sane, you would need to be fairly passionate about doing research, and willing to put up with all of the things that come with doing a PhD.

It sounds to me like you know pretty well what you want to do and I'd say the best thing would be to find out what qualification is required to go into this profession. Also if you are lab based in molecular biology it is very repetitive work and you don't learn that much by doing the lab work..Also why don't you contact someone in this line of work? I'm sure that a friendly email wouldn't be any harm to ask for some advise..

Hope that helps somehow!

I'm at the same stage and I know exactly what you mean! I've heard from many people who are finished their PhD and are at this stage that this is perfectly natural. That's not to say that I'm not stressed though:p Whenever I get stressed out (like today..) it is generally because I think about the big picture and all of the things I have to do. So today I wrote down my to do list for the next 6 months which I will come back to after my extremely lazy sun holiday8-)

Overall I'm pretty happy that I have a lot of work to do. I think it's a good reflection that a good amount of work got done in the first year, and in my case I feel more confident about the direction that the project is going..

But oh god, there is so much to do lol!

:p

Hey guys, I have been lurking around on this thread now, it's brilliant! I haven't had any need to join in I suppose as I am only a year in, but at the moment I'm stuck into writing my first paper and after that I want to write a little every day (well thats the plan!), so I have found the thread really useful so far.

Bulbs, I totally know what you mean about reading books on how to write and not actually getting down to it lol! I love reading them, they really motivate me. I'm reading Bolkers book now which fantastic. I tried to freewrite today and its pretty hard! She advises between 3 and 6 pages a day? That's a lot! I only managed to come up with 2 pages of pure text.. anyway I do get that her main point is to set your own goals, just as long as you do write every day.

I'm going on my holiday next week and in the meantime trying to get a draft of this paper ontop of my PhD work so that means working all weekend:-( But hoping to join in this thread now that it will motivate me to write every day (even though will probably be a tiny entry:p)

Thanks guys, those are really good suggestions! I had in mind that I was going to write a little every day, like two hours every morning, on top of doing all the other work. I've been trying it out, and so far its working, but I wonder if its enough to keep on track and not fall behind deadlines..

Hey everyone, just wanted to get a few ideas about how to finish whole PhD project within the funding period. I'm just finishing up first year and I have funding for 3 years and there is no possibility for funding after that so I'm getting my skates on now!

I wanted to know is it possible to do this!? And if so, what does it take? :p

Hey everyone, just need a wee rant as not feeling very productive at the moment! I'm nearly a year into the PhD now and I'm finding that work is either flying and I'm getting up early and having great days, or really really slouchy days where I don't even know what I did! I know I'm not the only one, but really I would love to just scrap those slouchy days, they really make you feel like crap :-(

Anyone else have the same problem and any advise about how to get some balance!?:p

That's great advise Siwee! I have exactly the same problem with reading, I'm really slow and as I'm learning lots of new information I take notes on that and then go look for the bibliographies, it's just such a slow going process for me that I really have to catch up on my reading!

I'm going to try some of those tips though and see how I get on. I'm trying to do my lit review also, so is taking notes for each paper worthwhile for reference at a later stage? (i.e. for the lit review/thesis/presentations)