Hi, I'm a third year PhD but brand new to the forum. Although I seem to have wasted a lot of time I still want to complete before my funding runs out in the autumn. I'm very curious to hear similar stories from anyone who intends to tackle their thesis in a final death battle, having left much of the writing to the end, or indeed from anyone who tried and succeeded or failed. Is it realistic/possible/advisable?

Given a supportive supervisor who will read and comment on all your draft version and all data collected, it is possible if you are mentally strong, make sure your body is healthy, exercise minimum twice a week, you eat properly and you follow these steps:

1. Dump your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/partner.

2. Rent a van for a day, drive to a large grocery store and buy food, water, drinks, toilet roll, toothpaste and so on which could last for about 4-5 months.

3. Cancel your TV license, sell your TV and take phone calls from family or friends only once a day at a specified period. The rest of the day, unplug your phone.

4. Be prepared for loneliness but tell yourself that the nightmare will be over sooner if you follow this strategy.

5. Write, at least 8 hours a day. Aim should be 1000 words per day, but not set in stone.

6. Don't worry about quality, re-draft once a week for 8 hours.

7. Check your email only once a day.

8. Visit this forum only once a day.

9. Meet your advisor at least once a month and provide an update of your draft chapters.

Enjoy

Addition to 1.: *this list is not meant to be exhaustive and does include pets

Hi kaymoy,

I haven't tried what you're doing, but reading your post reminded me of this chapter of a PhD writing book I have that I think tackles just what you're talking about. The book is called 'How to write a thesis', by Rowena Murray, and the chapter, called 'it is never too late to start' (chapter 8) walks you through the process of fast-track thesis writing. It says it helps writers who are starting the last phase of their doctorate but have not yet written much - or any - of their thesis. Good luck

I tried, but failed miserably - finished last September and been writing from 6am everyday (had 5 days off since christmas)

Just finished my final results chapters (rough draft) - I had a lot of outstanding Data analysis to do

Have to be submitted March 30th for Viva on April 30th - so I can start job in the states May 12th

I'd suggest thinking of ways to fund between 4-6months of writing (this may differ based on field of PhD) - I'm in Biochemistry and it can take anything from 4-12 months to write up dependant on your commitment!

Have a job start date as a goal helps - but it can add undue pressure

My experience is most folk set unrealistic goals for how long it will take them - but I'm sure depending on how organised all your data is you could do it faster - I have heard of a 2 month write up - very few people do this!

Good Luck

S

Thats just a bit of pressure!

Oh I'm in a situation like this mainly because I have extended my data collection to March, which means redoing and finishing all the analysis is delayed so then writing is delayed - especially as I'm really unsure where the final analysis will take me. I'm also still learning some of the math (SEM).

I have seen a PhD written up in 3 months - but one friend I know who did that moved back to his parents and just did nothing else. Unfortunatey I have a young child and a busy husband so I am getting very anxious about this. My funding also runs out in October and that pays my daughter's nursery fees. I'm aiming for Xmas.

I think if you start writing now that is definitely enough time - just don't procrastinate any more.

I'm in a similar situation. In December I showed my supervisor an elaborate timetable I'd drawn up for finishing this September, but still feel like I'm in the middle of research rather than on the brink of writing up!

Thanks for the feedback everyone. PS it is comforting to know you're in the same position. It would be great to know how you progress over the next few months- we could egg each other on!! I also came up with a ridiculously tight action plan to show to my superviser recently. The main problem is that I spent most of my second year in a writing block over one particular chapter that I didn't manage to finish. I completed one chapter in my first year so at least that's under the belt. This leaves me with two whole chapters to research and write (although the ideas are there), a devil chapter to go back and tackle, some readjustments to the first chapter (because it was a long time ago and ideas have since mutated a bit), intro and conclusion... all in 6-7 months, eek!

Sounds like you've done pretty well so far!

keep at it and you'll finish no probs