[nushi]

Hey everybody

I'd like to ask you something, that's making me really confused, 'cause I've got OCD & perfectionism, & right now I'm working on finishing my Master's thesis (which I've been working on since 5 years ) & I'm putting myself a deadline this December, when I turn 30 years old.

In the past months I've been doing my field-research part of my Master's thesis.

Before starting, I had decided to apply my questionnaire on 3 groups: 100 youth, 100 elders, & a 100 activists (BTW, my thesis is about political culture).

It took me around 2 & a half months to finish my field-survey with non-activists. I finished 200 people. I went to sport clubs, cafes, hospitals, government agencies, & religious centers, in 6 different places in Cairo & Giza.

But then came the hard boring part: the activists!!!

It's been 3 months now, & I only finished 71 activists, & still got 29 to finish!!!

I chose the sample through snowballing: meaning that when I meet one of the activists, I would ask him to recommend other activists for me & so on. Of course, I had to make a gazillion phone-calls & facebook messages to arrange meetings with every one at his own suitable time & place, & it also takes me a lot of time to search & ask everyone I know to mention any other activists he knows, so I would arrange meetings with them each as well, some don't answer, some answer but then get lazy & don't show up for our meeting... OOOOOOFFFFFFF That's why it's been taking so much time, & it's so boring to just wait for other people to answer you or to find a suitable time to meet you!

Until now, from the total 71 that I finished: (62%) are Muslim Males - (27%) are Muslim Females - (4%) are Christian Males - (3%) are Christian Females.

I asked my professors if I could just end the interviews at that number, & they said it's ok. But I don't feel ok, I want, I HAVE THE URGE to complete searching for & interviewing the remaining 29 activists, to complete my first-intended number of 100. This would be PERFECT, I don't know if this is the perfectionism bugging me, my mind tells me that completing interviewing a 100 activists would be a historic feat, & that if I don't complete them I'll regret it for the rest of my life...

I put myself a limit to get my Master's certificate on this December, & if I leave out 2 or 3 months for the finalizing bureaucratic procedures (my professors revising the thesis, finishing the adjustments that they'll give me, discussing my final version, making the final appointed adjustments...etc.), then I've got 2 or 3 months to make the statistical analysis, write it down, make the content analysis for the interviews talk, & write the intro/concl/concepts etc. & wrapping up the thesis. Would there be enough time if I still wait until I finish interviewing another 29 activists & finishing my intended dream-goal of interviewing a 100 activists?! Or is this my perfectionist-OCD getting in my way of finishing my thesis on the deadline I put for myself?!

I'm so confused & depressed

[hvert]

Work with what you have. The fact that you only were able to interview 71 activists in the time period can inform your results, right? You may have actually approached 100 activists already but only 70% of them chose to respond. That's meaningful information.

[nushi]

Yes hvert, I could definitely say that in my thesis

Thanks very much for the tip The problem now lies more with quieting my nagging perfectionist mind that's making me uncomfortable with "just sufficing with what I've got"