Hi wowzers, I totally understand you! Writing is like crunching a book :)

Also, I sympathize you regarding problems with supervisors. Sometimes people are egoistic, and we need to be as well. I find my 2 sup is more helping, and now I do see and consult my 2 supervisor much more than my first. Perhaps, my first sup is not bad (could be simply misunderstanding), but I often find their comments confusing or that I need to do more work and look at something else, whereas I often just need to finish what I already have (and my 2 sup helps with this). When my 2nd suggests something to do, I know that it will help.
I have started to use those writing services at uni. I found the right person (few others were useless), and have writing sessions with them. Surprisingly, they understand the research I do, and can help with structure, phrasing etc. Not only these sessions help international students, but any students. After a morning session with them, I am happy and energised.

So my advice is to be more selfish and use any strategy, which will be more efficient in your case.

Good luck!

aleruri well done! 5 papers sounds like you have done an amazing job!

That's very interesting, Bella, thanks.

So, my progress on new chapter is very slow. I did very rough drafts for Introduction and Background and structure for the rest of the document. Two things upset me the most: 1) I tend to read instead of writing. I feel like I still don't have enough background (for interpreting results and significance of my study). and 2) the research field I am working on is too competitive (I may be wrong, but there are lots of scientists working on this), so again I don't know how my research may be valuable. I have new data for this chapter, but the ideas I am addressing and my conclusions are similar to other researchers' publications. That's just a slightly different way to solve the question. Do you guys have the same?

Congrats Ellebelle and TreeofLife! Let us know how the things go :) Good luck!

Oh, and I also use a new strategy. It is a table, where I put how many words in the document at the beginning of the day, at the end, and words produced each day and also sections I worked on. Yesterday I have revised several sections and ended up with a negative number of words (a few hundreds). I was surprised how many sections I did revised and was proud of myself :) a challenge is to fill the table everyday. Hopefully, it will work nicely with my new paper! Looking forward! [I cannot believe how happy i am right now]

Hey everybody!

wowzers and RinaL, thanks for your sharing! We do not have or plan kinds yet. I am surprised with you, as I always thought otherwise. I am waiting and waiting for that right time for the kids! But all I have is my PhD life haha wow now I am more open-minded :) Also, I see your point with an earlier deadline, which makes sense in your case and could be useful in my case (as I am always delaying).

pomodoros technique is a good one, thanks, I can see many people use it. I have not tried it yet though. The technique should be helpful when there is no motivation. So I will keep it in mind. When I am focused, I can work without breaks.

Dunham, I totally agree. Yep, the wi-fi should be cut down! I did 2 days with limited internet !!! :)

By the way, I would like to share some of my progress :) first of all, I went to see those people at uni that help with writing. I thought they would not be helpful, but they were! That was a good kick! Funny thing happened. They asked me to finish one section (same paper-chapter), that my supervisor asked me to do. I also had to revise/polish the document during the weekend, but could not look at it anymore. So, after the meeting, I did revised all the document AND finished the section. Though I am not entirely happy with it (and never will haha) I sent it to co-authors!

My next challenge is to start my new paper/chapter. I need to find all the pieces I have ever written regarding this project. Believe me, there is almost nothing. However, I have mostly interpreted the data (still need to finish the interpretations!) and have a good idea on paper structure, figures and what to write. Fingers crossed!

Good luck with your projects!

Thanks a lot for your support and suggestions, guys! A list to do for every day sounds like a smart idea! Another thing I need is to make sure I complete the things by the end of day. During last year I did set up deadlines to complete my chapter, but then got stuck on something. However, I learned a lot about writing. So today my challenge is to manage things on time.

Hello everyone. I have found a lot of useful topics in this forum.
However, now-or-never I think I need a harsh kick! :)

I sit in front of my computer all day long. Despite of this, I do procrastinate a lot, which does not help my writing. I check chats, get distracted with internet or worry about PhD/time/revisions and how bad and slow my writing is etc. I don't know how to put my emotions aside and just work hard. I hope that my confession will remind me that I have everything to finish! I have to complete my thesis draft by December! At the moment I have only 1 chapter-paper done. I have materials for 3 more body chapters and then need to fix my lit review and other things.
I really want to finish. I feel like it would be a disaster if I do not complete it. I basically have 5 months left, 1 month per chapter.

I was advised that I need to change strategy to complete on time. I need to cut my work into chunks, and set up deadlines for them. I have to complete my next chapter-paper in 4 weeks! The more deadlines the better. I think I need to set an amount of work for everyday and try to get it done.

Guys, if you have something to share in terms of writing or you are in a similar situation, please join me! I would love to read your stories on how hard you worked in the end of PhD and how much time per day you spent on it. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks. This is a good strategy. Also important to write up methodology part while still in a lab. I bet it makes you feel a lot more confident, when you have something written.
I always wait until I get the results. Same with methodology, it is not complete, as it did change a lot during data acquisition. I would even say, I get frustrated while waiting for the results. However, I do try to interpret things while waiting (produce graphs, read articles etc). Now, after struggling for a while, I realise that writing the results part should come first or at least in parallel with interpretations.

Adam, how is your progress going? As I have problems with meeting my deadline too, I had a meeting with student counselor (maybe you need one too?). They advised me not to think about deadline. Otherwise, we get overwhelmed. Cut your work into chunks, and set up deadlines for them. Good luck!

Hi there. If that's only 1 page that's ok, I think. In my research field, some articles contain a few pages of tables.
In my case, I have a very large table. I have decided to submit the table in excel format (check if that's possible). That is, the table will be a supplementary material to my paper. For my PhD thesis, however, I would like to print it out, so I managed to split it in 2 with some information being repetitive. It will be several A3 pages long.

Critchley, that's impressive. How much time in total have you spent on your Master's? I am not in a good situation regarding my PhD thesis. I have had a lot of delays, and my writing is very slow (also English is my second language). But thanks for sharing. I think I need to improve my organisation skills.

Adam, sorry to disappoint you, but I think that 1) you need to work really hard this month and keep your worries away, and 2) if you will make no progress within this month, I doubt you can finish by the end of the year. It depends on your project, of coarse. Master students that I know spend 1 year on their research or more. If you do not have data by August, you cannot finish by October for sure. This is only my opinion, your field of research and situation may be different. What do you think?

Glad to be helpful.
I believe there is a way to start your PhD 1 (or more) months later. You may try to find it out. It is hard to predict your supervisor's reaction, but hopefully she will understand.
However, it might be a bit too early to inform her. Are you sure you cannot finish on time? or that 1 more month will make a change?
how much have you done for your Masters?

Congrats Grumpy and Glowworm! Well done!!!!! I am very happy for you!

As for me, my chapter is not finished yet. I am working on corrections and really hoping I need only a few more days before I send this paper to reviewers. It is very frustrating that my progress is so slow. I find writing papers is extremely difficult. However, my sup is interested only in papers and says chapters and papers are the same thing. I disagree with that, but I cannot do anything about it. My chapters are more like separate stories, and my sup reviews them as papers.

I agree with Grumpy, posting everyday about my progress may actually slow me down. However, I feel like I am socialising here :)) I skip meetings with my friends, because all I have in my mind today is PhD and academic life. So, I want to thank you guys and this forum.

Good luck and let's keep posting!

Hi Adam,

I had a quick look at your previous messages at this forum and I feel sorry for you. I can imagine how overwhelming it must be for you.
As some other people suggested before, I think 1-2 months is enough time to write-up Masters. The only problem is you need to know what to do. Is your database complete? Do you have interpretations in mind? Do you have outlines of your chapters ready? Try to put a document somehow, make an outline as detailed as possible, and then start filling up the gaps. Prepare your tables and other "easy" parts. You may find easier to start with introduction chapter, methods, review of previous investigations or the results. Personally, I find literature review and discussion parts difficult, because of we need to put our research in a "bigger picture". Think which strategy is better for you. Even if your writing progress is slow, it is still a progress.

I think, if you have 1 month overlap of your Masters and PhD it is not a big deal...
Are you going to do PhD on the same subject and / or with same supervisor? if yes, do you really need it?

Feel free to ask questions. We are here to support each other.

wowzers, thanks for sharing. It is good to know writing strategies of other PhDs :)