I'm now half way though my PhD (assuming it takes me three years, which at this rate is entirely unfeasible), and have very little useful data to show for it. I've had numerous problems that have delayed progress and for the most part my supervisor's fairly understanding. However, I have a second year progress report due at the beginning of next month, and in my most recent meeting with my supervisor all he could talk about was maximising production of data and that if something isn't working I need to just work harder and get it done. Since then, every time I see him it's just more questioning on why I haven't finished something, or why I couldn't get it to work, or what have I been doing with my time. I know he must be feeling a bit nervous about how I'm going to write a progress report that really doesn't show much progress from last year's progress report, but instead of it motivating me, I feel totally deflated and completely demotivated. At a time when I really need to get my head down and put in some serious hours in the lab, I'd rather be anywhere but there.

Anyone got any suggestions, or should I really just get my act together and realise this happens to most people and I have to just get on with it? Sometimes I think I just need someone to give me a kick up the arse to get on with things, and other times I can't see how I can go any further when I don't want to be there. It's a waste of time discussing these sorts of issues with non-PhDers, as with the best of intentions, they just say things like "it'll be alright" or "I'm sure you'll get there in the end"....how is that really supposed to help?! Perhaps a bit of venting on here with people who understand (I hope!!!) will help.

sometimes, get away from the problem for a while is necessary. take a rest for now!

Know just what you mean for the most part: keep panicking when I think about how much time has already passed with little to show. My supervisors are OK but I sometimes think my industrial partners want ever more data ever more quickly...and it's not happening.

I've decided to ban TV in the evening till I've read at least one paper, and to try every idea as soon as I think of it instead of putting it off. Most ideas don't work, but I guess that's life.

George Bernard Shaw said: "When I was a young man, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. I didn't want to be a failure, so I did ten times more work".

Hi AmyP,
My advice is to have a laugh at the whole damn project! Sounds like its been a bit of a nightmare, and with these science projects it sounds like sometimes its just not your fault if you get crappy results! So firstly, give yourself a break. Secondly remember that this is just a phd, not your life. Keep it in perspective, I know thats hard to do sometimes, but sometimes its just better to decide you dont care, laugh at how pointless you feel it is, and then you might be able to get on with it. I find it helps to trivialise things, just temporarily, so they seem maneageble and back under my control.

In the end a phd is about game playing, and you've just gotta to quit takng it personally, laugh about it to put it in perspective, and then get on and try and produce something-anything!- to get through the progress report! Shouldnt be too hard to come up with something and then its up to your creative genius to justify why your results are interesting/useful Good luck! And you WILL get there in the end, everybody feels like this at some point

Thanks everyone- I think I do need to get a bit of perspective. The other PhD student in my lab is at the end of her third year and only started getting good results a few months ago and tells me not to worry. I'm sure I'll get there in the end, but sometimes it seems an impossible task. It's not the first blip in my confidence, and I know it won't be the last...thank goodness this weekend is a bank holiday, a few days out of the lab will do me good and hopefully I can come back on Tuesday with renewed enthusiasm