Good idea! :D

Wow I consider my department/university as very efficient? I submitted my thesis on 26th March, they sent me an email saying thesis are in examiners' hands and viva date is agreed this morning. The viva date will be 8th July !! Now I can plan things better. :)

Smoobles, ginga, BilboBaggins, Mackem_Beefy, angie81, meaninginlife and psychresearcher:

Thanks so much for everyone's response!!!! I have learned a lot from you all.

My main supervisor has indeed red pen over my draft for around three times,
that‘s why I felt quite tired of reading it at the moment (because I have read it over and over again for so many times!! haha), but I've slowly started to re-process it in my head, should be able to re-open it soon.

Apart from my thesis, right now I have a small research project funded by a governmental institution, which is a bit like the arts council in England (its rather small amount of funding...but during this kind of transitional time I thought earning some extra money, having some sort of job is good for stabilizing my mood). Its not as strict as writing a journal paper, but will still require reading new materials and writing (I'm in humanities). I regard it as a freelance job that I need to handle along with my viva preparation.

I've planned a short trip to Paris though (only for a week).

Thanks a lot , everyone !! :D

Hi psychresearcher,

I have no idea when my viva will be yet! I have been told it is likely to be held in June, but they haven't decided the date yet. Thank you for your very thoughtful suggestions, you have covered all the points (from summary of the thesis to the outfit)!!! I will definitely bear all these details in mind. :)

Waiting for a viva date surely makes me feel lazy, hope that I can know the date soon!

Hi, meaninginlife:
Thanks for your suggestion, the slowly re-reading strategy sounds good.
So have you had your viva yet? When did you submit? :)

Hi everyone:

I just submitted my thesis on 26th March, feeling very reluctant to open my thesis for now.

I would like to know/learn from other people's experiences:
about how long after submitting your thesis do you re-open it and start preparing the viva?
Namely, what is the length of a normal break after first submission?
I dont want to take a break for too long but I do feel so lazy at the moment....

Hi Thank you for your reply, I kind of calmed down and decided to just do as much as I can, block out all the negative thoughts and focus on improving one section per time instead of feeling panicky..... I've decided not to continue in academia, however , still want to finish this PhD as a way to respect my original decision to get myself into this...hahahah...

Hope your PhD goes well !!! Good Luck :)

I'm 16 days away from my submission,
but according to my supervisor my main argument (I'm in film studies, so lots of own interpretation to do) is still not convincing enough and needs lots of work.
I've written everything and right now "only" have to focus on polishing my main arguments, the rest of it seemed fine/ or either just impossible to have time to polish them (i.e, introduction, 2 chapters of historical background, main arguments should be delivered through my 4 chapters of case studies). English is not my first language so I do use a proofreader, he has been great in correcting my errors.

Just curious what people usually work on on the last two weeks, is it only me or is it actually normal to work on this kind of 'crucial' thing in such a hurry/last minute???
Late March is my final deadline so it is impossible to extend it. Now I'm just terrified of the thought of handing in a not-good-enough thesis and will fail my PhD ...:(