Yes I've been meaning to do an update, there just feels like so much to say it's hard to start. I'm glad to hear you had a relaxing birthday and sorry I missed your holiday post, I just read it now and the photos of your nieces are so cute!
Things have changed quite a lot with the thesis. I don't know if you remember that I wasn't happy with the draft I produced in 2012. Because of how I'd written it, once I realised it had big problems at a structural level, I became convinced (rightly as it turns out) that very little of it would be salvageable. My supervisor disagreed, so managing that was difficult. At the beginning of last year, I was quite emotionally fragile (and physically spent), and it took time to recover. So, to cut a long story short, a lot of my time last year was spent figuring out a different approach and going over the data again. That felt like progress, and I'm now working more closely with my second supervisor, which is working well so far. I also managed to get a couple of things published - though I wasn't at all happy with how they turned out, at least it's something to show for the past 6 years! I was also dealing with being diagnosed with ADHD, and getting the right support in place so I can work productively and not run into the same problems with the new draft. That's on the way to being sorted now - I'm working with a dyslexia tutor (a lot of the issues for ADHD are similar to dyslexia) and I just started on medication. I'm making headway with the analysis and doing a lot of planning, though as yet I don't have too much actual writing "in the bank" as it were. Hopefully that'll change as things settle down. I do feel very different now that I have an explanation for why I've been struggling. After going through some pretty dark moments and coming out the other side, I'm optimistic that I will be able to finish eventually.
Thanks for asking about the thesis, I appreciate it.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-01-19 03:02 pm (UTC)Things have changed quite a lot with the thesis. I don't know if you remember that I wasn't happy with the draft I produced in 2012. Because of how I'd written it, once I realised it had big problems at a structural level, I became convinced (rightly as it turns out) that very little of it would be salvageable. My supervisor disagreed, so managing that was difficult. At the beginning of last year, I was quite emotionally fragile (and physically spent), and it took time to recover. So, to cut a long story short, a lot of my time last year was spent figuring out a different approach and going over the data again. That felt like progress, and I'm now working more closely with my second supervisor, which is working well so far. I also managed to get a couple of things published - though I wasn't at all happy with how they turned out, at least it's something to show for the past 6 years! I was also dealing with being diagnosed with ADHD, and getting the right support in place so I can work productively and not run into the same problems with the new draft. That's on the way to being sorted now - I'm working with a dyslexia tutor (a lot of the issues for ADHD are similar to dyslexia) and I just started on medication. I'm making headway with the analysis and doing a lot of planning, though as yet I don't have too much actual writing "in the bank" as it were. Hopefully that'll change as things settle down. I do feel very different now that I have an explanation for why I've been struggling. After going through some pretty dark moments and coming out the other side, I'm optimistic that I will be able to finish eventually.
Thanks for asking about the thesis, I appreciate it.