I made another post a couple of weeks ago, but the feedback from that was that I needed a different title so I wasn't ignored. I've read a lot of posts on this site and they've helped me keep going but very few solve my immediate problem.

I have about a year left to get results, having just entered 3rd year (I'm in the sciences, by the way). I've read a lot and I understand the theory well but my experimental work is a bit of a mess. I have a few results but it doesn't feel like enough or high quality enough. I'm not particularly efficient and I make a lot of plans but they never get done, or I change my mind. I'm struggling to see how I can do enough to complete a thesis. I don't have any papers yet either.

Maybe someone has had similar problems, how can I make a long term plan for the coming year and stick to it?

Thanks for feedback. The problem is, I don't have a large forest of data, I only have a few months worth. I need to be able to plan future experiments; I only have 3 weeks before christmas and then I'll have about a year to get all the data for my PhD. I guess the same principle applies though.

I'm a couple of months into my third year of a chemistry PhD, but in the last few months I've gone backwards. Part of this was because I was chasing an order that they got wrong, but most of it has been my own fault. Either I didn't understand what my supervisor wanted and therefore made silly mistakes or I lost interest and wasted time doing pointless things. I don't feel like I still deserve to be doing a PhD.

In my progress meeting in July I was told I needed more of a long term plan on how to finish my project but I'm no closer to having it; every time I try and plan I just feel overwhelmed and make a long list of vague tasks. I'm not sure I know what my project is about anymore, the plan has changed so much because I couldn’t get things to work or my supervisor changed his mind.

I need to take back control; any advice on setting goals and staying focused?

Hello,

Not sure this is relevant to you, but I'm doing a science PhD and I'm always having any results and methods scrutinised, yet also put under pressure to get things done quickly. It got to the point where I was breaking down and letting my anxiety get the better of me. Don't do that, it just digs you into a hole.

The best advice is to just not take it personally, you're still learning, and maybe the criticism is deserved. I've made a lot of stupid mistakes during my PhD and not realised it until later. Are there any older PhD students who have gone through this process and may have advice. I'm in third year now and I thought my second year was a write off, but I got some positive comments on my annual assessment, I'm sure it will be similar for you.

I'm sorry for clogging up this forum with another "everything is terrible I want to quit" post, but here goes.

I am in the second year of my PhD in Chemistry but I have very little to show for it. I have a small amount of data but it feels rushed and not very good. I somethimes wonder where all the time went.

In undergrad I really like my subject, but I've never been very confident with practical work, and I'm always scared I'm going to mess up. This leads to me either avoiding something or rushing and making mistakes. As a result, I've lost confidence in my ability to do anything. To tell the truth I've almost stopped caring and think I'm in the wrong project. I live on my own so I'm alone with my thoughts a lot, which makes things worse. What's keeping me here at the moment is that my lab group is awesome, I don't want to think of myself as a failure, and I don't have anything else lined up so why give up?

My relationship with my supervisor isn't great at the moment. He is pushing me to get results but if I ask for help he usually just tells me to work out how to do it myself. Normally I wouldn't mind this; I want to learn new skills, but sometimes I really have no idea what is going wrong (if anything) and there isn't anyone left around who did the earlier work on this topic that I could learn from. Am I expecting too much?

I need better ways of dealing with things going wrong. I sometimes moan to my group but they seem so much more capable than me, so if they try to be reassuring I don't really believe it. Has anybody else had similar doubts about themselves and how did they deal with it?