[scrapheap]

That is the second year of a PhD - the first year you're distracted by your literature survey of the area you're interested in. The second year is where you're trying to dig out a little niche that you can work in and expand the knowledge of what's there. The third year is where you're supposed to be writing up, but in reality you're probably still working on building up enough new knowledge in the area to actually write up.

It's not uncommon to feel the way you are during the second and third years - my advice is to recognise how you're feeling and then work out how to push forward (which is what you've already started to do).

My advice for how you can compete with large research projects full of postdocs is, don't try to. You're not in competition with them, you are doing your own research. It might be in a tiny niche area, but it's your area and it's new knowledge.