Good morning forum,

I am currently attempting to wrap up my PhD after 3 years and 4 months of study. I still have quite a lot of tidying up to do/ completing sections which I have been putting off/ and general editing - although I have the bulk of my content. I guess my problem at the moment is that I don't seem to have any perspective on what I have done. I feel like I have laboured over every sentence so much and re-read everything over and over that I am bored to death of what I have written and am finding it hard to see that anything I have said is really worthwhile.
Some days I feel excited that this is nearly all over, other days I think it is going to take me another year or so to get to the point of submitting! This means that some days I am very productive and other days it's as if the task ahead of me seems so daunting that I am unable to do anything. Sometimes I feel like I am a fraud and have somehow managed to wing my way through academia, other times I feel like I have produced something to be proud of.
So, I was wondering whether anyone else is at the same stage and/or having the same issues/feelings? I feel like I need to get a final burst of energy and then I could be done, but I don't seem to be able to find it at the moment! I think it doesn't help that my final deadline is the end of September because it means that I have this to fall back on.
I will stop rambling now!
Good luck to everyone who is undertaking a PhD :-)

Hi,

I'm a bit behind you in that I'm only at the start of my third year, but I can understand how you feel. Certainly for me I have days where I feel like I've been really productive and then days where I get almost nothing done other than procrastinate and surf the web! If you read through the posts on this forum you'll find that it's not uncommon to feel like you do, and a lot of use academic types suffer from "imposter syndrome" most of the time!

You just need to focus on the final outcome which is that coveted PhD qualification - and do it one step at a time. I have days where I feel like I'm drowning in information and can't see anyway out of it, and days where I feel like I can't/won't/don't feel like it but you have to work through it. Also, it might help if you set self imposed deadlines that force you to work. I've done it myself and informed my supervisors that they will see three chapters by the end of March. It's scary but it's forcing me to work at a pace I've never achieved before!

Break it down into chunks and set yourself achievable goals each day. That way, if you exceed your goal you'll feel good, and even if you achieve the bare minimum at least you've done something productive towards achieving your PhD.

I hope that's somewhat helpful, I must apologise for rambling, I'm writing my analysis chapters at the moment and I tend to waffle and wander off the point at times! :-)

Yes yes. I had these feelings when I was in year 3 of my phd study. Feeling bad/good alternatively...

But be brave, be faithful. Tell yourself that you will do it and your effort will get paid! :D

Thank you both for your replies. Great advice!
I am feeling a bit more positive at the moment, and decided to make the most of this positive attitude by working through the weekend. I moved onto another chapter which has done me the world of good as I think I had lost all perspective on the other one, and now I can actually read my work without cringing/falling asleep! Going to try and stay optimistic and get a completed version over to my tutor as soon as possible.

Thank you :-)

Hi Wolfie,

You said exactly what I am thinking!! I am at the same stage as you, 3 years and 4 months. I gave a first draft to my supervisors and had a meeting. They said it was good, near complete and I only have 1 month more ... if I work really hard. They then seemed to pile up a very large list of critiques of my work which seemed like it would take 3 months to fix.

I tried to start working on it again but I am so sick of it!! (Thus, I am on this forum than at my thesis). I guess this final push is the difference between minor and major corrections. How are you getting on with it now?

Hi,
Thanks for the reply Potatoes - good to know i'm not alone, although I wouldn't wish this on anyone else! That's amazing that you have managed to get a completed draft version in. Have you taken a break from it since you handed it in to gain a bit more perspective? I am doing OK, I have managed 1,800 words today - although to be fair I am already slightly over the word limit so I know it is going to be a case of cutting out some waffle!

What are you plans regarding post-PhD employment? I'm in a position where I need to get employment ASAP as my funding has run out. I don't think my chances of a job within academia are that great at the moment, so I am more than prepared to work outside of it - in fact, I think this is best for my sanity at the moment rather than jumping into more research. I am planning therefore to get a complete draft sent off to my tutors within the next two weeks and whilst waiting for feedback shall be applying for jobs.

Did you anticipate that you would finish within 3 years or were you always quite realistic about going into the fourth year. I think I was hoping to be done in 3 so feel like a bit of a failure at the moment - although I know I couldn't have put anymore effort in than I have - it's just a case of me being quite a slow writer/ over analyse everything I write / delete and re-write every other sentence!

What discipline are you in?

Are you happy with the feedback?

Sorry for all the questions!:-)

I took a couple of weeks off after submitting my thesis to have a break.  It was good to have a break but I got really sick (from the flu), so spent 7 days feeling miserable.  The break helped me gain a bit more insight.  The final chapter is still proving hard to write as you really need distance from your research to do it. So, I have been reading other PhDs to see how they frame the final chapter and this has also helped.  The questions, "so what?" and "what does it all mean?" are hard to answer.

You are over the word limit!  I have the opposite problem.  I got too straight to the point that my supervisors said that some things were not clear and I assumed too much knowledge on behalf of the reader. They did say that a one good aspect of my thesis is the length, it isn't too long. 

My discipline is business and I am doing a mixture of finance and psychology.  My funding has also run out and my job outlook is still mixed.  In the short term, I have a contract to teach for 2.5 months starting May.  This will take the financial pressure off but it is not permanent.  I really don't want to work as a post doc, I have already done a bit of that whilst studying, so I am currently looking outside of academia. However, I think I would like working as a lecturer as I enjoy teaching and contemplating.  So not sure.  Going to worry about that in April.

The feedback I got from my supervisors was excellent.  When you present them with a finished draft and book a 3 hour meeting, they think "hang on this student is going to finish". So they spent a lot of time writing comments and questioning my arguments.  I cant complain about that all.

I wouldn't feel bad about finishing after 3 years. At my Uni, no one had finished within 3 years since I have been there.  One student who was ahead of all of us is going to submit in Feb. This is 3 years and 5 months.  So I don't feel bad for a second. I would have appreciated funding for longer, but I feel like they take it away to make students finish or move on.  To motivate us, I think they should offer a bonus for finishing on time.

What discipline are you in?  When are you hoping to have the first draft done? Are you on good terms with your supervisors?

I'm based in a criminology department although I come from a history background and specialise in crime history (so I'm not quite sure whether I would be called a criminologist or a historian)! Like your thesis, mine is pretty inter-disciplinary - I think this has added to my word-count as I spent a lot of time/words justifying my methodology which is not something historians normally pay that much attention to. But, to be honest I have always been someone who writes too much since undergrad. I'm nervous about cutting anything out at this stage because I don't feel like I can make an informed decision what is necessary and what can go, particularly as I know how long some of the sections took me - so I hope that my supervisors can advice me on this. On the whole my supervisors have been great. I'm someone who has always preferred working alone at home so our interactions haven't been constant but that suits me I think! Although, my major concern is that because my work is inter-disciplinary (history and criminology) that I am not meeting a high enough standard in either, that I am spreading myself to thin, trying to achieve too much etc.

I need to stop comparing myself to others, although I think this is connected to working from home and not having many interactions with the other PhD people in my department. The people I know who have completed have normally done so between 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 years.


Oh no, that's not good that you got ill on your break, but probably a sign that you have been working flat out and it always catches up with you when you stop. I feel your pain, I am dreading the concluding chapter, which incidentally I am going to leave until I have feedback from the completed draft version. I am hoping the end of next week I will have the draft in a good enough state to send to my supervisors, not sure how quick they will be able to get back to me with feedback. Do you have an official submission date now then? Do you know who your examiners will be!:-)

Hi Wolfie,

I want to get submitted asap.  I aim to get it done by March 15th. This gives 1.5 months to wrap it up.  Fingers crossed (up). In regards to your supervisors reading your Thesis, here is the approach I used.  I asked my supervisors how long they need to read my thesis. Once they have answered that, I then said I would submit on date x and have a meeting on date x.  And asked them if that was OK? When they said yes, they had kind of bought into the idea of reading my thesis and put time aside to do it.  This worked better than emailing them the thesis and asking them to read it.

Interdisciplinary work is hard.  I thought it would be really cool to have two different perspectives on an issue, but really its just hard. I had to do one literature review for one field, then another literature review for another field.  Also I had to do two different findings chapters and making it all tie together at the end is causing me problems. Also, its hard to find an external examiner who has a foot in both fields.  Are criminology and history linked at all? Have you sorted out examiners? Sounds like you have a good relationship with your supervisors.  This is a good relationship to keep in the final stages.

I have an external examiner lined up and waiting to find out their availability.  The internal examiner I have no idea about and it will depend on the external examiners availability. Right, I better get back to work now,
:-)