Hi all,

I had my viva mid-January this year and thankfully I passed, but I have major corrections before my thesis is deemed PhD-worthy. I took a couple of weeks off and started work on my corrections following a meeting with my supervisor at the beginning of February. During the meeting, he said he didn’t see any major issues and I could get it all done by Easter. Obviously this has passed and my corrections are nowhere near done. After the first month, my productivity took a nose dive off a cliff and I’ve been struggling ever since. I’ve not been entirely sloth-like and the easier corrections are nearly done, but one chapter requires more work and another an entire re-write.

There are several things that I think are going on here:

1. I’ve worked for four years on this project and towards my viva. Part of me naïvely thought I’d be good after my viva, finish a few corrections, and be done. Alas, no. In my mind, I'd already finished and now, having this not insignificant amount of work to do, has thrown the proverbial spanner in the works

2. I’ve had mild imposter syndrome all the way through. At some point I assumed I’d be caught out and sent on my way. Somehow I’ve made it to the end and there’s no more being caught out. This stems from undertaking a more technical PhD adjacent to my undergraduate and postgraduate study; something I have basic knowledge on, but am sorely lacking in technical discussions

3. Fear of the unknown. Once I’m done, that’s it. No more formal education in the foreseeable future, something that’s been part of my life for as long as I can remember and having nothing planned is a little scary. Maybe I'm dragging out my corrections for this reason

I have until mid-January to submit these corrections. I know I need to get them done, and I want to get them done as soon as possible, but I just find myself completely unmotivated to complete the task at hand, and it honestly sucks. I just procrastinate all the time and barely get any work done. It’s not helped by still having to be careful because of COVID, so I don’t really socialise or do much. I was also offered a decent job in the big city. Unfortunately, I had to turn it down as it was a more junior position so the pay wasn’t sufficient and the prospect of moving across the country in a pandemic didn’t fill me with joy.

Apologies that this has been rambling but I’m trying to give as much info as possible and I just want some advice about what to do.

Thanks I’m advance.