Here is a great article in today's Guardian Newspaper about how tasks always take us longer than we have planned for them!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/aug/02/healthandwellbeing.psychology

I really enjoyed it and thought I would share

x J

course they do, but on the other hand, without any planning you could find that you are out of tea just after the shops have closed

Yes I find it odd that they seem to think no planning is a viable alternative. That is plain silly, but I sympathised with the findings that we constantly seem to set targets that, while maybe achievable, we just aren't *going* to keep! I am like that ALLLL the time - a new chapter, a new optimistic deadline... Doh.

thanks for sharing!!! explains me so well!! every morning i have great expectations and always fail to finish my aims

" It's also why the list-makers among us get up each day and make to-do lists that by the same evening will seem laughable, even insane.
"

Yeah, exactly, I am the same too. And if you re a bit of a perfectionist it can actually be very demotivating. Hmm, maybe spend time working and less 'planning'?!

hehe thats exactly what i was thinking Janey, after reading that article , I can happily spend an hour or so planning and planning, and most mornings i will spend at least 30minutes making plans for the rest of the day!

i think from tommorow onwards, i am going to just jump in and just start working, and make the next thing to do as i go along. sometimes i dont like to plan at all. as i dont even know what i have to do until i start working on it, and then i realise i can break it up into little fragments.

i sometimes add things to my "list" as i go along, just so i can tick it off lol.

I think it is naive to believe that all plans made will be sucessfully implemented. Nonetheless, it is imperative to plan otherwise the PhD will go on to eternity.
Its important to write everyday and to set a word target. On a good day, I can write 1500 words, only to scrap 500 off the following day. But, hey ho, PhD writing is all about edit, edit, delete, delete, till you get the essence of it and present it nice and crispy.