***Update***

I took the job!
I started at the beginning of 2023!
I love the job and my team and its such a relief to have a proper income!

I am also still doing my PhD, and when I say 'doing' I have continued fieldwork. The writing part not so much!
I was due to submit in December(this year) but I am not anywhere near finished my writing up stage. I still have to analyse data ha let alone write about it! I expressed my concerns to my supervisor, and currently we are trying find a way of extending my time a little more. So fingers crossed we get somewhere with that.

It's not as hard as I imagined to juggle the two but I got incredible lucky with my boss, he's been through a similar situation to me and is very caring and understanding about giving me some flexibility to work on my PhD. I don't know if I would be as content as I am doing both if I didn't have him as a boss. Even with the flexibility, the writing part is tough. I have very little motivation to sit down and write unless it's on the likes of this or in my journal. Hence, I came on here looking for some motivation. But said I would update my comment in case anyone else is in a similar situation.

Although I don't have as much writing as I 'should' have done, my anxiety and stress isn't as bad as it was when I was working from home alone. Talking to people and getting out of the house has helped me so much with that side of things. Of course there are bad days, when I become so overwhelmed with how much PhD work I have left to do that I can't bring myself to do anything at all. But for the most part, I think working in the new job has made me realise that there is in fact a wonderful life beyond that of a PhD. I am really happy I took the job and if I somehow manage to wing a PhD some day, well that will be the icing on the cake but the cake is fine without the icing too 😁

Thanks for all your replies! :)

The company has not yet advertised the job so it's looking more like the new year realistically before I get started!
I still have to go through the process of applying for the job and going to an interview, so I have been trying to put the problem out of my head until I have successfully made it through both of these!
However, it's extremely hard to focus on my PhD at the moment, as mentioned previously I am trying to write up as much as I can but it's so difficult!
And since I last posted, I have come across two professional people in a similar industry who both advised me to complete the PhD that there will be more opportunities to come in the future!
So although I agree wholeheartedly with you @tru the main reason I took this PhD was to gain employment in the industry, however, I feel having come this far the past three years of my life will be a waste if I don't complete it!
I definitely don't think it's possible to do both so I was thinking of two possiilties:

1. Try to negotiate with the new employeer to only work 3 days a week, then do the PhD in my own time the other days
OR
2. Try and change my PhD to part-time for the remainder of it and get it finished outside full week working hours.
But I am not sure if you can just change your PhD three-quarters of the way through to part-time, I asked my supervisor he didn't know either!

So I will try make this as brief as possible.

I am in my third year of a 3 year Research PhD got an extension fully funded until June 2023.
The company that are funding me have offered me a full time position in a very similar role to what I currently do in the PhD. (Amazing!)
Its a full time position so minimum 40 hours a week. They want me to start around start of November.

My current stage of my PhD:
I have a draft thesis of approx 20,000 words (Introduction & Literature Rev) - I am carrying out fieldwork once a week and still have some senors that are not working 100% (Which means I have to figure out how out fix them still). I collect data from the fieldwork site once a week too (Alot of data). As of yet I have no clear plan of how to analyse any of my data and there are three different types that will need to be analysed differently. I have started writing methods but can only write so much until I figure out what analysis I am going to do and IF that analysis is appropriate. I got some help off of a fellow PhD candidate in a similar role the other day and there is a lot of statistics involved in the analysis, which I have no experience in so I will probably have to do a workshop or a module in statistics. The fact I have no clear plan for data analysis, as you can imagine, leads to a vast amount of procrastination, which further delays progress.

Discussed this with my supervisor but he had no solution as what I should do regarding the PhD.

Has anyone been in a similar situation?
Is it physically possible to get that much PhD work done outside of a 40 hour working week while still getting a healthy 8 hours sleep!!!

What time zone are you in?

Hi Ana, Did you find yourself a study buddy yet?
I am in the same time zone, also doing my PhD by thesis, and finding it very hard to stay focused and motivated to write.
I try to allow myself about '2 golden hours' a day of just writing no editing or anything (as recommended by Hugh Kearns), apart from days when I have to go do fieldwork.
Let me know if you still need a study partner.

Glad to hear you took a break, some great advice here from other members.
I hope you made the right decisions and are happy with them now.

Hi all,
I am wondering what a study buddy is, and I think I could do with one too.
Doing my Ph.D. by thesis, not publication, in the area of environmental science/Geography.
I have allocated time for myslef to just 'write' but finding it very hard to do just that.
I have tried all the tricks in the book to help me focus and none have helped.

Hi there jw5, Do you have updates on your PhD.
What did you and your supervisor decide on?

I Would also love to hear an update from @Coarvi!
And I was also like to ask her how she managed financially when she was on maternity leave?

Hi there,

I think you are very lucky to have been awarded the funded 6-month extension. You should take full advantage of this there are a lot of people who have been delayed and haven't been granted an extension (like me).
You have two chapters already written which is a huge amount, have faith in yourself that you can finish. Maybe even receiving feedback on your progress review might help with your motivation they will let you know if you are falling behind on the workload.
I honestly don't think many people like the writing part, especially if you are practical-minded it can be really hard.
But even if you just try and dedicate two hours a day with no distraction and do nothing but write, it doesn't even have to make much sense just write, and eventually, it will become somewhat of a habit and hopefully someday a thesis.
I am trying this method out myself at the moment, I got to know of it from a really good motivational speaker called Hugh Kearns.
I am not going to lie it's really hard and sometimes I don't even use 90% of what I write but it's a start!

Best of luck!

Hi, ekster,
I don't really have any advice to give you as such, however, I would like to highlight that your post was very beneficial for me to read. So Thanks!
I am in a very similar situation to you. Only I am in the 2nd year of 3 years funded research PhD. I have No published papers, nor am I near publication. I have no data collected yet and I probably won't be collecting data for another month at least realistically, which is only over a year behind schedule. And I have been denied a no-cost extension to my research even though I was delayed in part as a result of COVID.
Anyway, rant over ha. This is not a competition and I am not saying I am worse off than you are or anything like that I just mean I am in a similar situation and found myself doing exactly what you mentioned. I am feeling guilty for not being overworked and comparing myself to others, and losing motivation around my topic.
So to read your post was really refreshing and somewhat reassuring. It's nice to know I am not the only one doing a PhD and feeling this way.
I also read the advice from @directdrive which I found really helpful and wouldn't have read that only for your post! So Thanks again!