Good day!

Weeeeeeeeeeeee! I am a good worker :0)

I am now in the fourth and final year of my PhD, estimated end date of Sept 2011 (with a baby in between lol). Eek! It makes little sense to me if I remember how in awe I was of final year students when I started... they were old and they were wise - and confident - but I am not like this! Wellll, the confidence is probably the main difference. I am definitely older, not wise, but more confident - when I started I was just waiting for someone to send me packing as if allowing me on the course was a big mistake! I suppose by now I have gone through all the MRes rubbish, the worry trying to work out what I am doing with my thoughts, and the lack of confidence that you have anything worth saying - and done the fieldwork. Being post-fieldwork is a big marker in a PhD I think.

I did a plan this morning for work to have achieved between now and when I stop working around the 11th December. Uni finishes for the xmas break a week later than that so I shan't be missing anything or called in for anything which is great - I will feel a lot more relaxed and much less like a skiver. It will probably take me a while to wind down and forget about the work tbh, but I wil have xmas to focus on, oh, and a baby I suppose... so should be ok?! Silly me.

Yep, so I did a plan. Over the weekend I thought about how to help my working day along a little more, and decided that maybe I should sort of go 'part time' so I feel I have lots of time to do nothing (be tired and stupid) but also get lots of work done, so decided to plan on doing a four hour day. This means I should be doing concentrated work for four hours every day - which is not full time I know but ARG who can sit and write for 7 solid hours day-in, day-out? Someone with a very tight and looming deadline yes, but not the normal PhD student who has months and months of writing stretching out in front of them. So four hours of good work is my aim, two hours in the morning and two in the afternoon, with room for food, faff, a nap (if necessary) and exercise. And today worked very well. I felt structured, I did not feel like a loser because if I zoned out for half an hour I can always make that time up - you can fit 4 hours in quite easily - and I did not feel so pressured I did nothing. You know that horrible feeling that you have when you sit down, that the day will never end, will just drag on and on and you will never do any work so what's the point? Well, you an't feel like that if you're 'part time'. AND the cunning part is that four hours is easy, so you will inevitably do more than that most days. I mean, I am still here and I don't feel any pain! And it's 5.45 on a Monday! And also, tomorrow I have an appt at a fancy gym for a look-see, (am just going for a nose and a free swim in a posh pool) in the morning, and normally i would feel guilty but no need! I can be home and do my four hours in the afternoon, no probs. I will have to work hard and have them all in a row but, you know, it feels manageable. Hurray! We shall how it works, but for now it is a good 'un.

Read some of the Joan Bolker bible this morning too and made me feel like on the whole, I have the same problems as everyone else and generally tackle them in the right way. This was reassuring. Is actually a very good book (Writing your dissertation in 15 mins a day it is called) and I would recommend it.

Sorted out my chapters today too, and realised I have a total of 25,000 words done... good going - is just under a third of the total! A third! I can fill the rest up *easily* so hurray! Although the devil is in the detail, let us not forget that... But I shall cross that bridge when it comes to it - for now just getting the words down is the main thing.

So, gym tomorrow am and then working on my presentation in the pm.

x J