Struggling to get back to the grind...

So my survey launched on 1 November 2018 at https://portsmouth.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/duvenage and as of today, 14 January 2019, I have 72 participants, of whom 11 indicated that they would like to be interviewed. The geographic and vocational spread is quite good, so I'm chaffed with what I have achieved. The survey closes on 31 Jan, so I might even get to 100. I've pushed the social media marketing, especially Twitter and LinkedIn.

In the meantime, I have refrained from all things academic for a month - because it's our summer Christmas holidays here in sunny ZA. Back at work now, and not rested... had to look after grandkids with chickenpox and my in-laws had a health scare that we had to deal with. Life happens ... But time does not stand still, and I'm looking at my thesis time line and realised that I should have been much further with my literature review than I am.

Feeling despondent and tired this weekend, I came across someone's advice to actually start writing your thesis - as in the table of contents (of course its going to change...) So, I did that, and then went back to everything that I have previously written about my thesis (proposal & ethics application) and copied and pasted these parts where I think it should go.

In no time, I had something on paper that made sort of sense... and it gave me a confidence boost that I'm not stupid and suffering from serious #impostersyndrome.

I also had a look at other theses that did similar research and dissected their structures and flow of ideas, and made some notes on what might be useful to me in the future.

What can I show for all this? A draft Word document in my Final_Thesis folder named Duvenage Thesis PI of SRIA_Jan 2019.docx. Yes, it has the title page, the dedication page the declaration page and draft Table of contents and a few paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter... the date in front is June 2020.... But I feel so much more confident!

Now I'm working with the end in mind... and reading more deliberately and judiciously which of the nearly 900 reference sources will REALLY be necessary to contribute to my thinking in this fantastic thesis. I feel more in control and am not in the hoarding mode anymore - it is much easier to delete articles now!

Hope this helps you a bit when you're struggling to write... it's worthwhile to sit in front of the PC and read through old stuff and delete and bold whatever you feel like - that also brings perspective and new thoughts...