tomorrow, I have to give a talk about my thesis... I tried to do the last experiments today and yesterday... only a short one....
I need to, as I simply lost some data.
And both times it did not work !!!!
And the powerpoint part is not even ready yet, as I am now in the lab and left the things I wanted to scan at home!
Now, what should I do?
be sick tomorrow?
My brain is a complete fog, I am still not used to my medications.
I only want to go home, go to my bed and not see anyone!
Why can't this ******* just disappear ?!
I do not want that anymore, I hate failing all the time.
Will that ever get better? I'd really love to find a medication, lifestyle, therapy, whatever, that would reduce those symptoms by 50% or so.
Just to make me able to live a normal life.

FAKE IT

Just do the best you can with what you've got. I've often had to put together less-than-finished projects for talks -- I currently have to do a JOB talk on a dissertation I haven't started!

Just fill it out with more detailed explanations of theories and such.

GOOD LUCK!

Aw man, I feel for ya! Deep breaths . . . deep breaths.
(why oh why do those experiments *never* pan out the way you need them to?!)

If you *can*, do what Barbyma says and fake/pad the talk. (see #3 above); If you're like me and that phrase makes you panic even more, this is how I usually end up dealing with these crappy last-minute situations . . .

1) How far away are you from home? Any chance of nipping back and grabbing what you need? It may not seem like it now, but I've found that regardless of how much panicked running around I do, it's almost always better to grab stuff you've prepared previously instead of trying to start from scratch . . . that includes time spent in transit (and if you're not driving, you can outline what you want to say on the way, maybe? If it's not too distracting?)

2) If you want to scan figures from journal articles, and you have online access to those journals, there is a way to copy figures from the pdfs online (there should be a tool on the menu bar in acrobat reader that lets you do this).

3) Remember you've been working with your stuff for a while now; you've read the papers, you've done the research. You *know* this stuff (and it's easy to forget how much you know about it when you work with it every day). . .

4) (and this is the one I have the most trouble following myself) Don't beat yourself up about this now . . . try to focus your energy on solving the problem instead and save the berating until everything's over.

Good luck!

Tyger

tomorrow, I have to give a talk about my thesis... I tried to do the last experiments today and yesterday... only a short one....
I need to, as I simply lost some data.
And both times it did not work !!!!
And the powerpoint part is not even ready yet, as I am now in the lab and left the things I wanted to scan at home!
Now, what should I do?
be sick tomorrow?
My brain is a complete fog, I am still not used to my medications.
I only want to go home, go to my bed and not see anyone!
Why can't this ******* just disappear ?!
I do not want that anymore, I hate failing all the time.
Will that ever get better? I'd really love to find a medication, lifestyle, therapy, whatever, that would reduce those symptoms by 50% or so.
Just to make me able to live a normal life.

Hey piaszw, relax! I can totally relate. And, I guarantee that this kind of thing happens ALL THE TIME to both ADD and "normal" people alike. This life you just described is pretty normal for the typical researcher - ADD or normal.

This is what I would do for my slides:

Introduction - background on the field and lead up to what is especially relevant for your work, and motivation for what led you to the hypothesis you are about to present.

Hypothesis and specific aims - this you know

Present each specific aim and either the data you have to back it up or the experiments you are DOING or PLAN to do, followed by its importance.

In the absence of data, spend time talking about why what you propose is important, how you plan to do it, and what the field will gain from your proposed work.

The committee wants to see how you think and plan your research more than anything else.

Good luck!

Get in the car, go home, get the stuff and get to work on it ASAP.
Focus on the presentation and work around the lack of data... you can get the data later.

good luck

ME :D

tomorrow, I have to give a talk about my thesis... I tried to do the last experiments today and yesterday... only a short one....
I need to, as I simply lost some data.
And both times it did not work !!!!
And the powerpoint part is not even ready yet, as I am now in the lab and left the things I wanted to scan at home!
Now, what should I do?
be sick tomorrow?
My brain is a complete fog, I am still not used to my medications.
I only want to go home, go to my bed and not see anyone!
Why can't this ******* just disappear ?!
I do not want that anymore, I hate failing all the time.
Will that ever get better? I'd really love to find a medication, lifestyle, therapy, whatever, that would reduce those symptoms by 50% or so.
Just to make me able to live a normal life.

THANKS!!!!!
I followed your advices... and:
I survived.
I'm not happy, I hate being in front of all those people and give an "not-yet-finished" talk. I hate it, when there are labels missing, data missing...
Luckily, I am at least not one of those people who have to practise talks. I just finished 5min before I was due, and then -of cause - the beamer did not work and the prof said we should please try next time whether it works.
I wanted to!
I just want to go home now.
Stupid question: is anyone of you now coping so well with ADD that you are at least able to work normally? That you can keep up with your "attention-surplus"-colleagues?
That might sound very arrogant now, but I know I could do so much more. I might even know more than most in my lab. Only that I stumble every single day over ADD and have to get up again.