PhD diary

The title “A life-changing week” refers more to my current inner thoughts and feelings. Over the past few years, I have put off some things that I need to do, personal stuff, not study-related. These have all come up in more obvious shapes this week, and I have just decided to resolve matters and change read more

For the past two weeks, I have been fully occupied with moving and teaching. Moving is really stressful and time-consuming for many matters, but it’s been fantastic to see that the new apartment has been set up very nicely, little by little. As for research, my progress was quite slow last week. I was completely read more

My next deadline is 25th March – by when I must test the analytical framework and draft the initial findings. I’ve allowed myself to rest a little bit, created templates, and glanced over the data and field notes. Having thoughtful preparation is most important. I would like to move on to the next analysis after read more

I am writing this post on my new MacBook Air. Very light to carry, and typing feels good. There are lots of milestones in the process of writing a PhD thesis. In Week 113, it feels like I’ve finally got to the stage that I’ve struggled to reach for the past nine months. Over the read more

Luca has received a job promotion to a management role in the public sector he works for! I am more than happy to know that his hard work was finally acknowledged and that it paid off. Over the past year, he has had a very tough time at work, physically and mentally, in providing a read more

I’ve worked on outlining my methodological framework for analysis, as well as preparing transcripts. Yesterday I sent my sketch of it to my supervisors. One achievement in Week 111 was not just completing this, but also building a habit of writing my thesis every day. Since I felt bad about having had an unproductive week, read more

I attended staff meetings, which were on the second day of the Chinese New Year. It was nice that we had some Chinese biscuits and fortune cookies during the meetings. The ‘fortune’ inside my cookie read ‘Do everything with confidence.’ I love fortune cookies. Their sweet little messages make me laugh and feel positive. That read more

This week, I did some very intensive data analysis. Using card sorting, I divided the data, named them, justified my categorisation, made a very quick sketch of it and sent it to my supervisors. A funny thing is that when I do an intensive data analysis, I stay home in pyjamas all day. A non-teaching read more