I don't know what to do. I am really behind with work and once again today I have done nothing! I have just moped around the house feeling tired and useless!
I seem to be having a day like this every week and I don't know how to counter it. I should be writing but my ability to do nothing at all (not even enjoy myself or relax) is truly astounding!!!
Any ideas for a pick-me-up?:-(

Find a new way to do work ... use a white board, a dictaphone - anything to change the routine.

Email friends you haven't talked to for a while.

Clean up the gaff

Go to the park and talk to the ducks - they probably will make more sense than most supervisors and will be "quack"er responding (sorry - TAXI!!!)

We all have days/phases like that.
Sometimes it can help to ask yourself why you feel like this - I mean why you feel the resistance to do the work that you know needs doing? If you are genuinely tired, not well, then dont beat yourself up about it, but decide to take the day off, and allow yourself not to think of work or that you "should be doing work". But if you are well, but feel this inner resistance ( I certainly know that I do at times), I find useful to ask myself why. Why do I feel like that? I have often found that either when something gets tedious or something is really hard/tricky that I feel like not tackling the problem. Then the best thing is to remind yourself that the only way is to do the work to get through it. Giving yourself a treat once you have achieved something can help as an incentive. You say you are behind with work - why not write yourself a schedule, breaking up bits of work into daily portions and then at the end of the day ticking things off, highlighting the achievements of the day! Do you know Joan Bolker's book "Writing your dissertation in 15min"? Lots of people on this forum found it useful, so maybe give it a go .. and reading that is easier than doing work;-)

hi Florence..
here is what I do to make myself write/work (better) at my computer..
I put on music which I used to listen during my schooldays (I mean..when I was a teenager).
It also brings back feelings of those good old days and puts me in the right frame of mind.

Set small goals first, like start to sit to work for 1 hour first, and go from there.
You'll be OK.
cheers satchi

i know the feeling all too well... i need to write 2 reviews in the next couple of months and i should have been done with at least one of them by now, but i can't get myself to finally working on them. it drives me nutts, or at least, it used to. i was feeling depressed and tired when i was thinking of that work ahead, didn't know where to start. yes, i was and still am afraid of it. but now i'm starting to losen up that clump in my stomach and i'm starting to gain confidence and i will start working on those soon, i'm sure of it.. i'm actually beginning to get that feeling back "hey, it's gonna be awesome wrting about that stuff, so much new things you can learn!!"

the way i changed (gradually, but still) my state of mind was by ignoring the work, as crazy as it sounds.. there was a time when i was stressing about it every hour every day, couldn't find any peace. instead, i told myself to stop thinking about it, do other things for a while. i picked up sport again, i'm going jogging and play volleyball. i found that sport helped me a lot to losen up that depressive/tired state i was in. i feel loads more energetic now than i used to a couple of months ago.

furthermore, i can only agree with the previous posters: set yourself small goals, and make them one step at a time. and everytime you achieved one goal, allow yourself a victory dance, or get yourself a treat, whatever, anything that makes you feel "yeeessssss!! in your face suckaaaa!!!" :D
just one step at a time, don't think too much ahead. everything will sort itself out, just give it time :)

good luck with it mate!

Thanks for your replies everyone. They have helped me feel better - even if the rest of this post makes it sound otherwise!
Poppy - I have asked myself why I don't get around to doing anything and I think it is because I feel overwhelmed. I'm in my 2nd year and the whole of this year I have felt behind. I feel like I'm working all the time to try and catch up with what I should have done already so anything I do is just a drop in the ocean. I've ended up hiding at home, avoiding writing, avoiding email, avoiding my supervisor.
I do try with the breaking things down method, but that doesn't always seem to get me very far. Today for example I decided that first off I would sketch out some ideas for my next piece of writing - I did that but it just made me feel worse because of how little I came up with. That took from 9.45 to 12.15 somehow! Then I decided to do little bits of reading. Would like to read 80 pages today and have broken it down into 10 page chunks, with 20 mins for each chunk and then 10 min break. This is working okay - I have done 20 pages. But I still feel useless, unproductive and down. :-(

Mm, sometimes it is hard to pull oneself out of the dumps, but it seems you are doing okay and working at your situation. You should be happy with your 20 pages that you have read today (up) , and although sometimes it seems that progress is so slow/absent, the process of thinking about a topic is essential even if you dont have hard results at the end (you appreciate what you still dont know, where gaps are, where input from sup might be useful etc). Be compassionate with yourself and appreciate what you have achieved! Keep it up and self-praise in small chunks is definitely required..:-)

Thank you for your supportive comments Poppy!