Any PhD Students Fancy A Mutual Support Thread?

[GentlyGentlyOhDear]

Is anyone else currently doing a PhD? I've just had my first baby and am trying to get back into the swing of things academically. Is there anyone else out there in a similar situation?

I'm currently on mat leave from my PhD until the new year, but I've been doing two days a week since baby was 4 months old as I desperately need to get finished! My registration ends in June next year, then I have 2 years to write-up (part-time), but I'm aiming to get finished within a year and a half.

Really should be working now...

Hello everyone, is this thread still active? I've just been accepted onto a full time funded PhD in intercultural studies - really excited but also nervous! Our baby will be 11mo when I start in the autumn. Our parents will be visiting to give sporadic childcare, we're optimistic this will be right for us at first.

Hello again, getting very close to enrolment here when I'll be able to join in properly.

Sorry to hear about writing up woes - hope it gets easier for you.

I have had a stroke of luck - someone else on my MRes course is also juggling childcare and the course administrator has decided to condense all the teaching into 2 days which is fantastic. It hadn't even occurred to me to ask for any special arrangements at all!

My biggest concern now (apart from general will I cope worries) is that we start off with a residential week. My DCs are 2 and 5 and it's a bigger separation than we are used to. DM and DMiL are helping with childcare so it's really the emotional side rather than the practical that's an issue. (And probably more for me than the DCs!)

Hello all, hope you have had a good summer. I managed about 2 solid weeks of work out of 6, but have had some lovely times with my two DDs that I'll miss when school starts up again tomorrow.

Those of you who are pregnant, and can't concentrate, you're not alone! I have about 6 weeks to go before the baby comes and my mind has been focused on baby things. Nesting has begun. I did write a chapter over the last couple of months (my first lit review chapter) and my supervisor said its 85% there. I was really relieved but now want to get another chapter drafted before leave... I'm probably dreaming here.

Anyway good luck to new starters this year! x

Hello everyone, twogirls... that could be my username ;-) You'll have to change yours in a few weeks though?!

Have had a lovely summer and nfeels like it's final push time now (year 4 looming) except I am devoid of enthusiasm. Bah :( Got a conference in a couple of weeks so that should help rekindle it. I am so bored of this writing/drafting thing and increasingly feeling like this is "not me"....I hate it, much prefer fieldwork.
Good luck to the new starters from me too

Hello everyone - been AWOL over the summer. Looking back up the thread, sorry to hear about your bad supervision in July, miffytastic, and the lack of enthusiasm now. It's tough, isn't it? I am also just starting year 4, completed my writing up extension application form and banked my last monthly stipend, so the pressure's on. I have two chapters written, one good and one pants, two more that I've made a start on and three more that are no where yet. I had been planning to aim for Christmas, but when I look soberly at the number of weeks in the autumn term, I think done and dusted by Easter is more feasible. I actually quite like doing the thinking involved in writing up and pulling the threads of my ideas together, though of course getting words on a page is tortuous.

Twogirls - that could be my nn too. The house is gradually sinking into squalor all around me. I have to finish before the window frames fall out for want of my arranging repointing and repainting! All the very best for your new arrival, and for getting stuff done before it happens.

So good luck to all new starters. Come and tell us how you're getting on. And enjoy your first year - that was definitely the best bit for me, the sense of infinite possibility and being able to read widely and indiscriminately. I still keep finding fascinating sounding but only marginally relevant stuff I'd like to read but am trying to be more disciplined now and write not read!

Hello Dotty good to see you, and comforting that you're at a very similar stage to me. Someone I know, also a parent and working on the side of doing FT PhD, submitted a couple of weeks ago and it really got to me :-( Pressure is on though isn't it? I haven't paid my extension fees yet but expecting to soon. It will end at some point won't it?! tell me it will!

Good news from me is I am almost enjoying editing now... it's certainly more satisfying than getting words down in the first place!

I've just had my welcome pack - it's all freshers' week stuff: night clubs and bizarre societies I could join... It's making me realise how different I am to the majority of students - I need a society for old ladies who have a nice chat over tea and cake! I am feeling very very old indeed!

You won't be the only one though, 93jb. There are plenty of PhD students in their 30s at my uni (I'm 40) and a fair few who are Even Older Than Me. Mind you, I do find it amusing when students standing outside the union giving out fliers for clubs etc don't give one to me! Good luck starting out.

Miffytastic - I love editing once I've been through the agony of getting it down in the first place. It is satisfying. Know what you mean about submission envy though- I overheard someone in the library yesterday who was submitting today and sounded a wee bit smug (as well he might). I was full of jealousy even though I know nothing about the poor bloke and he may have been through hell to get there for all I know!

Please may I join? I start on Monday and I am a (very) mature student. Old enough to be the mother of other PhD students. So, I'm nervous. I have already had to say to my supervisor that my childcare might not be quite up and running in my first week, which doesn't give a good impression but is, I suppose, realistic and open.

Does anyone have any tips for getting off to a good start and for making the most of the experience? I have wanted to do this since I was about 19 and I can't believe I finally have the opportunity.

Congratulations, Steala. I hope it's a brilliant experience for you. Hmm, let's see, if I were starting out again, what advice would I give myself? Well, I think to read and think around your question for the first term or so and not try to narrow things down too quickly. That's part of the joy of it. Also, I am finding it frustrating now going back to my notes that a lot of the notes I took in Y1 and 2 turn out to be not that helpful because when I looked at a possible source (I'm writing a history), I noted only the bits that were very directly related to the question I had then, which is not quite the question I had now, and wish I had cast my net a bit more widely. Ooh - and find a way of recording all your notes and references that enables you to track back and find things. That could be Endnote/Refworks or some more bespoke lower-tech system (like my notebooks into which I laboriously write page numbers!) but make sure you use it.

One thing I've found is that because of childcare and life complications I have tended to work at home unless I really needed to be in the department or in the library and I wish I'd gone in more and got more out of the interaction with the other students, so don't pass up on opportunities like that.

Good luck!

Can I join too?

I technically enrol on Monday, but I went to see my supervisor last week and he has already got me going on my first piece of work.

Your advice is great dotty, lots there to think about. I have been told already that its a good idea to get involved in the social side, only problem is that 90% of the social stuff is regularly on a day I don't have childcare (I am a part time student). DH would have to take holiday to allow me to go and obviously that's not ideal! It should get easier next year when DS goes to school though.

I already have a big stack of notes, just trying to work out how to manage them best.

Hello Zombies - great to see another new starter. Good luck. Yes, it's tricky with the social side if it doesn't fit your childcare. But once you've got to know people you might be able to ask them to make alterations to suit you (if it suits other people too). For example, the other PhDs in my department agreed to move a regular semi-formal journal club meeting from 5-7 to 4-6, which made it more feasible for me and others with long journeys/childcare etc to go.

Submitted my thesis forms. -6 months to submission: countdown is on.

( & soo sluggish - so frustrating when you can't work your best)

Hi wetgrass - similar to me then. I have just paid for a 6 month extension, running out at the end of March. And have just arranged my external, so it all feels very real now. How are you doing with the writing? I have 3 chapters in decent draft state (out of 7), one which needs a lot of work and 3 more to do from scratch, pretty much. I should be cracking on right now!

I'm really, badly struggling at the moment.

Don't know if its fear or exhaustion - but DH has been so good in carving out work time for me - but I seem to just lose hours of time to nothing .

I don't know how to get some 'flow' going. I have material and direction and support - but I;m somehow 'blocked' from achieving my full potential.

I'm sorry to hear that. I am also not having a very good day today, but two small things that have helped me recently are:

The Pomodoro technique - or a version of it. Set a kitchen timer for 25 minutes, and work solidly for those 25 minutes, not checking emails or getting up from your desk. Try and focus and keep a notebook to hand to jot down anything that pops into your head but that isn't to do with the task in hand. Take a break and repeat. (25 minutes is enough to get something done, but not so long as to be oppressive. I don't follow it religiously in that if it's going well I keep going - I think strictly speaking you are supposed to stop whatever)

Small chunks. I map out a whole chapter but then have smaller chunks of about 1000 words that I write in a separate word document then later incorporate - feels more manageable, and means you don't endlessly keep getting distracted by revising page 1.

Are you part time? I am full-time though I do a bit of freelance work - and still find it hard to make enough time in a school day. They go so quickly!

I'm funded full time but have part-time childcare - which is a good deal - but part of the problem!!

Ah yes - that wouldn't help. I had only part-time childcare for the first year, before my youngest started school. Now have 2 long days and 3 short ones - and it's still not really enough. But I do wonder if it's a coincidence that I often seem to really get into the flow of writing at 2pm on days I have to pick up at 3 - the deadline is what makes it work?

I've always joked that I was 'training at altitude' - & was a fearsome efficiency machine underneath!

Losing confidence of ever descending from 'altitude' however!

Bumping, lets get this thread moving again!

Quite a few babies (including mine) have arrived so when do we go back and what are our (un)realistic expectations? What deadlines do we have?

How much support do we have from partners and family?

I return in January, FT, but only afford PT childcare with my two, I have GOT to be finished by September although funding runs out in July, I haven't written anything yet and I have one small project to scope and carry out. I'm quite scared.

Maybe we should form a facebook group?

This thread moves slowly, & I often don't spot when someone posts.

Hi All,
Found this thread and hoping its still active. I'm doing a PhD and hoping to be a Mum soon too. For now I have a phd related question: when presenting a conference paper in the arts, is it normal to use material that you will include in your final thesis? I'm a beginner so sorry if this is an obvious question!

Hi PhDmaybemum - this is probably too late, but I just saw your post. I think this is an area where opinions differ a bit - it came up in my Year 2 Review (with a panel of two academics). At the time I was planning to write up a conference paper I had given and possibly then reuse some of the material in my thesis. One thought that was ill-advised, the other thought it was fine - different context, material slightly recast, not rehashed verbatim etc. Mind you, that was about publishing, not about the conference paper itself - I think that is completely fine, and even expected.

I'm writing up at the moment and reusing a lot of material I've used before, in published papers, things I've written for my supervisor, and in conference papers/presentations. But it's all part of a new narrative, and doesn't really feel like rehashing, if you see what I mean.

This thread is clinging onto life by its finger tips I think, but it would be nice to keep it going if we can. I have to submit a full first draft in January and need all the support I can get!

I'm in my final write up!