Thesis Journey

One tumblr user's journey to get her PhD thesis submitted by October 2018

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Thesis update 21/12/18

I feel bad that I haven't updated since the start of October. But I have to put it on the record that I've finished my thesis! It's just shy of 200 pages long and I got there in the end by keeping going, doing it bit by bit and not giving up.

There's been a stupid administrative mix up in the department which means it won't actually get submitted for a while yet, but I'm nowhere near my deadline so it doesn't really matter.

I'm also starting a new job after Christmas! It's not in science, but I think might be good at it so I'll see how it goes. I'm just excited to have a proper job!

[badsciencejokes]

Ack! My heart! Too close to home, too close to home!!! #badsciencejokes — view on Instagram https://ift.tt/2rem1yO

[asapscience]

:/ [Ben Flips Twitter]

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Thesis update 3/10/18

I have a meeting today with my supervisors for which I travelled to my university city. One of my supervisors has cancelled at the last minute. 🙃

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[dissertationdaze]

Worlds to live by! That’s how I got through my PhD. Keep writing, no matter what PhD-ers!

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Thesis update 28/9/18

I called up my supervisor today and it was bloody horrible and scary. But I did it and i'm meeting both supervisors on Wednesday.

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Thesis update 27/9/18

I finally finished my introduction draft and sent it off to the supervisors. I also emailed asking them for a meeting and one of them hasn't bothered to email back and honestly it makes me feel like he just doesn't give a fuck. 🙃 I self-referred for therapy today because I haven't managed to get dressed.

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Thesis update 18/9/2018

I’ve finished a first draft of my experimental, although I haven’t read through it as I’ve been having a lot of trouble concentrating recently. I’ve moved onto my conclusion now. I’m just going to try and build up some momentum and get a first draft done of that today, then I can attempt to refine it.

I found out yesterday that I didn’t get an interview for a job I applied for. So now I have nothing in the pipeline work-wise and only 12 days left of officially being within my PhD funding. 

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Thesis update 10/9/2018

I actually did a little work on my experimental section yesterday in a coffee shop, so I carried on with that today. I'm writing my methods for all experiments by referring to my lab notebooks, and afterwards I'll have to go back and add in a few details. I've got a new goal of completing a draft of my whole thesis by the end of the month.

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Thesis update 7/9/18

The last couple of days have been so horrible I can't even. Depression has well and truly reared its ugly head. HOWEVER, I have finished my first draft of my introduction!

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Thesis update 4/9/18

I had a nice long weekend away with J's family, and it really cheered me up by the end. We got home on Monday night and I thought I would sleep fine as I'd had a busy day. Unfortunately I had an absolutely horrendous night's sleep, I had this anxious feeling in my chest which persisted throughout Tuesday. I had been planning on going to the library but decided I was too tired. I didn't get a whole load done on my thesis, but I did start doing a read through of my introduction. I hope to finish that today and then give it to J for feedback.

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Thesis update 30/8/18

Today was not a great mental health day. I got a bit of work done in the morning though, I referenced the introduction section I wrote yesterday and made a figure. I think the next thing I need to do to the chapter is read through it one more time before getting feedback on it, although I keep thinking that and then remember loads of other stuff I need to do first, so we'll see.

We have to travel tonight to go on a weekend away with J's family and I am so not feeling it. I most certainly don't feel like answering questions about how my thesis and job hunting are going!

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Thesis update 29/8/18

As you can see I worked in the library today. I finished improving my introduction section on previous work done on my project, including making a figure. I had expected that to take longer than it did so I moved on to updating another introduction section with the work that's been done in the field since I first wrote it a few years ago. Then I came across a document I wrote 6 months ago which was a fully referenced, up to date literature review of one of the topics I needed to write about! So I just copied and pasted it in, adding an extra 5 pages to the chapter in 30 seconds!

So all in all not a bad day. I'm exhausted now and planning to flop on the sofa all evening. Tomorrow I'll work at home and in the evening J and I are heading off for a long weekend away with his family.

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Thesis update 28/8/2018

I thought it would be really difficult to get back into work today after the long weekend, but it wasn't too bad. I worked more on my introduction, specifically the section on the work done by my predecessor on the project. I found and downloaded a free substitute for Adobe illustrator, Inkscape, which I found worked great for my purposes of making figures. I lost quite a lot of time in the afternoon because I had to go to town to buy a swimming costume for next weekend. It took ages as everywhere was down to the last of their summer collections. Tomorrow I'll carry on with the same introduction section at the library.

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Thesis update 24/8/18

Today was ok, for the second day in a row. I worked at home today and it was fine. I think next week I might alternate days between going to the library and staying at home because I think the multiple days in a row at home early this week really brought me down.

I did lots of referencing today. I'd written swathes of introduction from the cancer research UK website because it's so useful and reliable, so now I needed to go back and find proper references for everything I'd written.

It's a bank holiday on Monday, so 3 day weekend yay! Back on it on Tuesday, and I need to rework an important introduction section.

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Thesis update 23/8/2018

Today has been significantly better than the shitshow that was yesterday. I got up at 7:20, put on a little makeup (!), ate the breakfast that J kindly made me, then left with him for work and went to the public library (the amazing reading room is pictured above).

I carried on checking through and making changes to my introduction. I worked from 9 until 3 which I'm counting as a win compared to my 0 hours of work yesterday.

I'm not sure what will be best for me to do to tomorrow as I can only access papers at home, but I might be less productive there. I'll discuss it with J tonight and come to a decision.

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Thesis update 22/8/2018

Today was absolutely horrendous. I woke up feeling horrible and spent the majority of the morning crying. In the afternoon I cheered up enough to comfort eat my body weight in sweets on the sofa. No thesis work got done. J has convinced me to go to the library tomorrow, so I'll give that a go. Fingers crossed for a better, more productive day.