The PhD Life Coach
Whether you're a PhD student or an experienced academic, life in a university can be tough. If you're feeling overwhelmed, undervalued, or out of your depth, the PhD Life Coach can help. We talk about issues that affect all academics and how we can feel better now, without having to be perfect productivity machines. We usually do this career because we love it, so let's remember what that feels like! I'm your host, Dr Vikki Wright.
Episodes
5.03 Why you’re probably setting the wrong goals
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!We all talk about goal setting, and the importance of SMART goals, and yet most of us still set goals that don’t work. Maybe we get there in the end, often in unsustainable ways, or maybe we let the goal drift and then set it again with the promise “it’ll be different this time”. In this episode, I’m going to share 10 ways I think we can
5.02 How to be more resilient with special guest Dr Sherry Hamby
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!We often think of resilience as the ability to withstand more and more stress or pressure, which never sounds like a lot of fun or very sustainable. However, as Dr Sherry Hamby explains in this episode, that’s not really what the scientific literature says about resilience. We chat about Dr Hamby’s book, Stronger Than You Think, and go t
5.01 How to be independent when your supervisor is controlling
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Trying to be “more independent” and “driving your PhD” when your supervisor simultaneously keeps rejecting your ideas can be one of the biggest challenges in academia. In this episode I talk about why I think this situation comes about, what impact it has, and give four tangible ways that you can improve the situation for both you and yo
4.69 GREATEST HITS - How to manage negative feedback
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!When did you last get some negative feedback? As PhD students and academics, we get negative feedback quite often, either comments on drafts of papers, rejections from journals, applying for jobs, all sorts of things. We get bits of negative feedback and it can really hurt. So what do we do when we experience negative feedback? What do w
4.68 GREATEST HITS - Why you should notice the paradox of imposter syndrome
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Imposter syndrome often affects the most high achieving people yet it can still feel so true that you’re “not good enough” and “conning” other people into believing you’re better than you are. In this episode, I discuss a paradox that I see a lot in academics experiencing imposter syndrome - the tendency to simultaneously believe that yo
4.67 GREATEST HITS - How to manage your energy
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!How many times have you seen or been on a time management course? How many books and podcasts and blogs and social media posts have you seen about time management? I want you to compare that to how many times you've seen courses and support for energy management. So much less. It's so rare to see people discussing energy manage
4.66 GREATEST HITS - Why you deserve a life outside academia
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!It's so easy to believe that you don't have time for a life outside of academia. The pressure and the never-ending to-do lists mean that even having fun feels like one more thing you need to fit in. In this episode I talk about the benefits of having hobbies outside of academia, including how I found myself hanging by my ankles
4.65 GREATEST HITS - How to use a Do Know Don't Know list
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!One of the things I hear clients say most often is that they don't know what to do. They either don't know what decision to make in their life, they don't know how to do something, they don't know how to present their argument, how to structure their paper, they don't know which study to do, they don't know,
4.64 GREATEST HITS - What to do if you already feel behind
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!In this episode, I talk about feeling behind! It's easy to spend a lot of time telling yourself that you're behind your own plan or you're behind other people. Neither feel good and neither help us make more progress. I'll talk through why these sort of thoughts hold us back and give some ideas about what to do instea
4.63 GREATEST HITS - Eight ways you’re secretly procrastinating
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Procrastinating is when we scroll social media instead of working, right? No! Procrastination is anything that we do to avoid the emotions associated with doing the task we intend to do. In this episode, I will share eight things that I think are often used as procrastination and help you figure out what to do if you recognise yourself i
4.62 GREATEST HITS - How to work out why you procrastinate
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Pretty much every PhD student struggles with procrastination yet the advice is often very generic. In this episode, I talk about a theoretical framework that helps us better understand why each of us, as individuals, procrastinate so that we can make more tailored plans to support ourselves. I also explain why it’s totally understandable
4.61 GREATEST HITS - How to Stop Wasting Time by Trying to Be Too Efficient
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!In this episode, I explain why chasing ‘perfect efficiency’ is actually making your PhD harder. Many students think that taking flawless notes or writing excellent first drafts will save time — but this mindset often leads to procrastination and stress. Instead, I reveal why starting imperfectly is the key to progress. Writing is part of
4.60 GREATEST HITS - How to make your week more effective
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!If you start your weeks strong but usually end disappointed, then this episode is for you! I’m going to be sharing how everything improved for me when I separated “boss me” from “implementer me” and used that idea to understand why I felt so frustrated at the end of the week. I’ll identify the most common issues so you can see which reso
4.59 GREATEST HITS - Why I’m banning highlighters
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!In this episode, I make a feisty case for why we should ban highlighters! I’ll give you four reasons they’re not helping you and tell you what you should be doing instead. Forward this to all your favourite stationery-obsessed friends! If you liked this episode, you might also like this episode on Ten lessons I learned about doing PhDs
4.58 GREATEST HITS - How to take better notes
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Pretty much all PhD students have a vague (or very strong) sense that they’re not taking “good enough” notes. Yet for most of us, we’re not really clear what good enough notes would actually be like, and often have really unrealistic expectations about what function our notes should serve in the future. In this episode, I don’t give you
4.57 GREATEST HITS - Why you should never read when you're writing
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Do you keep getting distracted when you’re writing? Settle down to actual draft something, then decide to just look something up, and then two hours later you’re still down the rabbit hole and nothing is written. If so, this episode is for you! This has blown my clients minds many times. I’ll tell you why you shouldn’t read when you’re w
4.56 GREATEST HITS - How to read academic papers more quickly
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!One of the most common comments I hear from PhD students is that reading always takes longer than they expect. In this episode, I share four elements that you need to take into account when deciding how much time you are going to give an article, book or other piece of writing. By being more intentional in considering these elements, you
4.55 GREATEST HITS - How to edit your work without hating yourself
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!One of the most frustrating moments in a PhD or academic career is reading through your first draft—only to realise it’s a mess. It doesn’t flow, the arguments feel clunky, and now you’re stuck figuring out how to fix it.In today’s episode, I’m sharing practical techniques to help you transform that rough first draft into a polished manu
4.54 GREATEST HITS - How to write when you’re confused
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Writing can feel like you’re banging your head against a wall sometimes. Trying to craft sentences, when you’re not entirely sure where you’re going, and then spending hours working and ending up with nothing to show for it. In this episode I unpick the self-talk that makes this more painful than it needs to be, I introduce the concept o
4.53 GREATEST HITS - How Winnie the Pooh can help you manage your mind
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!In this episode we think about our own inner dialogue. How do you speak to yourself? Are you critical? Quick to judgment? Pessimisitic? Put yourself under pressure? All of these things are so common in academia yet we never really get shown how to manage our minds. Instead we either indulge these thoughts (ie we believe them and look for
4.52 GREATEST HITS - How to be your own best supervisor
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!There is no voice you hear more often than the voice inside your head, yet we often spend very little time thinking about HOW we speak to ourselves and the effect it has. When did you last call yourself useless? Lazy? Stupid? In this episode we think about how we can notice our negative self-talk and start to be our own best supervisor.
4.51 GREATEST HITS - How to prepare for a difficult meeting
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!If you put off having difficult conversations or get frazzled just thinking about it, then you need to bookmark this episode! I am going to give you my three step process for preparing for a difficult meeting. You’ll learn how to manage your own worries, strategize for success, and leave feeling proud of yourself. If you liked this epis
4.50 GREATEST HITS - How to have a great relationship with your supervisor
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!In this episode I discuss five ways that you can improve your relationship with your PhD supervisor. This relationship is one of the most important aspects of your research experience yet we so often leave it to chance. The good news is that you can improve things so much without expecting them to change at all - find out how in this epi
4.49 GREATEST HITS - What to do if you’re lonely in academia
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!This is the second episode this week focused on community and relationships. Loneliness in academia is so common yet so rarely talked about. In this episode I’m going to get honest about some of my experiences of loneliness, share why I think academia can be a particularly lonely place, and give some tangible tips that you can use to mak
4.48 GREATEST HITS - How to build your own academic community
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!This week we’re thinking about community and relationships! So many people feel isolated in academic and like they "should" have more of a community than they do. In this episode, I talk about the benefits of having a community inside and outside of academia and the barriers there might be to building a community. I then go thr
4.47 GREATEST HITS - How to prepare for your academic summer - structure and freedom
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!This is the second of my two part series about thriving in our academic summer. This time we consider the balance between structure and freedom and how to plan a summer that meets all of our needs. I chose these episodes for my greatest hits because I think there’s a lot to learn here not just for how we organise our summers but also how
4.46 GREATEST HITS - How to prepare for your academic summer - acceptance and resistance
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!This is the first of my 24 favourite episodes, repeated for you this summer! The summer period can be particularly stressful for academics, whether it's because you miss the structure of "normal" term or because you don't feel like you even GET a summer any more. This is the first of two episodes considering how we ca
4.45 Some common misconceptions about self improvement - and what to do instead
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!We often assume that the route to achieving our goals is to “improve” ourselves in some way and so we search podcasts (like mine!), YouTube, or wherever for advice and tips. The trouble is, there’s a lot of misconceptions about what self-improvement should actually look like and even more misunderstandings about the specific tool of time
4.44 How to do a PhD later in life (a double coaching episode)
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Whether you are doing your PhD later in life, you supervise older PhD students, or you’re younger and sometimes feel like you’re not ready for academia, then this episode is for you. You’ll hear me coach Louise and Kath, who are doing their PhDs later in life. We discuss how imposter syndrome hits different when you’ve got prior experien
4.43 How I made an idiot of myself (circa 2011)
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!I was bored, feeling imperfect, and came up with the idea to share with you some of my idiocies from the depths of my academic career! I was very active on Facebook in the early to mid years of being an academic and apparently had no shame - in today’s episode, I share many statuses that will hopefully make you laugh AND remind you that
4.42 How to plan time off when you’re busy
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!It’s coming to a time of year where you might be planning some time away from work, whether that’s a full holiday, a clear weekend, or even just not working in the evenings if you usually do. The trouble is, we’ve all also got a thousand things to do, and often end up telling ourselves that we don’t have time to take a break or that we w
4.41 What to do if you fail an annual review or milestone
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!This episode is for anyone who either has failed a key milestone, or is worried about failing a milestone, or who knows someone who has failed a milestone. This can feel like a massive problem and often makes us doubt whether we can even achieve our goals. I’ll take you through a step-by-step process that will take you from upset and con
4.40 Why you should body double and how to do it well
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Body doubling is where you get in a room or virtual space with another person, with the intention of getting something done in a way that is more productive or pleasant than doing it alone. Originally developed by the disabled community, and especially those with executive functioning challenges, body doubling can be live or online, sync
4.39 Nine things I learned about academia from watching reality competition shows
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!If you think you would do better work if you had more time, or you wonder whether to push back against or accept feedback, or you get envious of the success of others, then this is a great episode for you! Having spent more time than I like to admit watching reality competition shows, I started spotting parallels with the things I was he
4.38 How to get through the next steps post-thesis submission (A double coaching episode!)
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Handing in our thesis can be such a pivotal moment that we can forget there is more to do afterwards! In this double coaching episode, I chat with Lekhana and Lena who are both post-submission about the new challenges that they are facing. Lekhana discusses how the wait for her viva is affecting her motivation, whereas Lena (who is post-
4.37 How do I stop beating myself up in hindsight
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!It’s so easy to look back and beat yourself up about things you feel you “should” have done earlier, differently or not at all. That can lead to a spiral of self-criticism that’s not only unfair to past us, but that also makes it really difficult to move forward for fear of experiencing the same regret in the future. In this episode, I d
4.36 How do I know if my work is good enough
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!“Is my work good enough” is the million dollar question running through most PhD students’ (and many academics’) mind! In a sector famous for high, yet very poorly defined, standards, it’s no wonder many of us spend a lot of time worrying about whether our work is good enough. In this episode, I chat about why this concern is totally und
4.35 What to do when you don’t stick to your systems
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!So many people set up new to-do list systems, or decide to time block, or come to one of my workshops about how to review your week, and then don’t stick to the system. We then often beat ourselves up, declare it a fail, and never go back to it. In this episode, I give you a much more productive way to figure out what to do when you don’
4.34 How to understand your own procrastination (a special coaching episode)
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!If you think you are the only person in academia struggling with procrastination, then you need today’s episode! Hear from Susie and Zareen, two students in my PhD Life Coach membership, as we discuss hiding from the big scary thing, never feeling ready enough to start, and shiny object syndrome.You’ll hear real coaching, with real stude
4.33 How to cope in academia with menstrual dysfunction (a double coaching episode!)
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!In the second of my April coaching series, we hear from Til and Alex who both experience pre-menstrual dysfunction that impacts their ability to work on their PhDs. We discuss how they’re affected (including how it exacerbates their ADHD) and coach around the tricky balance between achieving their goals and looking after their health. Th
4.32 How to do tasks you’ve been putting off (a special double coaching episode!)
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!This is the first in a series of live coaching episodes, where I work with students currently in The PhD Life Coach membership on issues that affect their academic lives. This week we’re starting with an old favourite - procrastination! Thoko and Deb are at different stages in their PhD journey but both struggle with procrastination and
4.31 How to get going on work without external accountability
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!One of the hardest things in academia is the lack of accountability for the most “important” work. We know we must write, but there’s rarely external deadlines and so many other things feel more urgent. One of the PhD Life Coach membership students asked how to get going on a task without external accountability and this is an extended v
4.30 How to write when you’re confused
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Writing can feel like you’re banging your head against a wall sometimes. Trying to craft sentences, when you’re not entirely sure where you’re going, and then spending hours working and ending up with nothing to show for it. In this episode I unpick the self-talk that makes this more painful than it needs to be, I introduce the concept o
4.29 Why you shouldn’t wait for a polished draft
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!One of the most annoying phrases I hear is “my supervisor only gives feedback on polished drafts”. This is usually accompanied by stories of wasting weeks stressing about whether the work is polished enough, only for the supervisor to later declare it “missing the point” or other such criticisms. In this episode I discuss (ok, I rant abo
4.28 How to manage when your work is interrupted all the time
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Lots of people struggle to get work done because they feel like they’re always interrupted, whether that’s by colleagues, friends or family. In this episode I discuss how we can explore this with curiosity, and give some tangible tips about how to reduce the likelihood of interruptions as well as reducing the impact on your work. There’s
4.27 How to stop thinking about your academic work
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!It’s easy to feel like our academic work has taken up permanent residence in our brains! Recently a member told me they woke up thinking about their PhD, went to bed thinking about it, and were fed up of not thinking about anything else. In the episode, I help you work out whether it’s a problem that you’re thinking about your work and,
4.26 What to do when you don’t have enough time
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Lots of PhD students and academics feel unable to make decisions about their time management because of a series of beliefs that feel very true. They simultaneously tell themselves “I can’t fit in writing during the day because I have other commitments” AND “I can’t write more in the evenings and weekends because I’m tired” AND “I can’t
4.25 How to do difficult tasks
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!If you are stuck on a difficult task, then this is the episode for you! So often we get caught up on a task that we’re finding difficult, and then we struggle to see a way forward. Unfortunately we often then start making it mean something about ourselves - that we’re not good enough to be able to do the task, or that other people would
4.24 How to identify options when making a decision (a coaching episode with Claire!)
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!In this coaching episode, podcast listener Claire is exploring career options, but worries she lacks the lateral thinking skills to come up with possible ideas. I am not a career coach, but we use this example as an opportunity to explore how limiting beliefs can prevent you finding solutions and how there are many routes to creative ide
4.23 How to manage tasks that are not on your To Do list
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!If you end the week somehow having been busy but not having done the things you intended, then this episode is for you. I’m going to help you make more intentional decisions about how to deal with tasks that land in your lap during the week, so that you can feel more in control and accomplished. I’ll also share why adding tasks to your t
4.22 What to do when your task is taking longer than you thought
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Do you have a piece of work that is taking way longer than intended? This episode will help you figure out why AND what to do about it. When things take longer than we thought they would, it throws off our schedule and other tasks, and can lead to us spiralling into a panic. Often we feel like we can’t stop long enough to decide what to
4.21 How much should I work per week in academia
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Everyone I know in academia somehow simultaneously believes that they’re working far too much AND that they’re not working enough to get it all done. That leads to a horrible situation where we feel unsatisfied and exhausted, and we often don’t get to enjoy our downtime because we feel guilty too. In this episode, I answer a very common
4.20 How to manage the critical voice when you’ve got too much to do (a special DOUBLE coaching episode)
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!A critical inner voice is one of the most common and difficult experience as a PhD student or academic. In this episode, you get to hear me coaching TWO of my current students in the PhD Life Coach membership, who are both part time PhD students while holding down demanding careers in our National Health Service. It runs like one of our
4.19 How to pursue goals that you’re not sure are possible
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!It’s a time of year where lots of people are setting goals, worrying about which goals to set, and then beating themselves up if they don’t meet them. In this episode, I answer a question I was asked about how to set goals when you’re not sure they’re possible. I share five ways to evaluate big audacious goals to see if they could be a g
4.18 How and if you should use a Brick to reduce phone usage
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!I really wanted to cut down how much I use my phone and I bought a Brick! This episode is my honest review of the experience so far, and includes some evidence-based advice about what you can and can’t expect from a product like this. I take you through my ups and downs and the behaviour change approaches that I have applied to my Brick
4.17 Why I left academia (it may not be what you think)
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!We hear so much about people leaving academia at the moment and it’s easy to make assumptions about people’s reasoning. I realised when talking with a one-to-one client that my story is not necessarily a typical one, but it could be one that it is interesting for people to hear. So, in today’s episode, I share my reasoning for leaving ac
4.16 Why you should notice the paradox of imposter syndrome
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Imposter syndrome often affects the most high achieving people yet it can still feel so true that you’re “not good enough” and “conning” other people into believing you’re better than you are. In this episode, I discuss a paradox that I see a lot in academics experiencing imposter syndrome - the tendency to simultaneously believe that yo
4.15 What to do when you don’t know what to do
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!One of the most paralysing thoughts in academia is “I don’t know what to do”. Whether it’s about your next career move or how to analyse your data or what argument you want to emphasise, we can get stuck in the “don’t knows” for weeks or months. In this episode I help you break “I don’t know” down into “I can find out”, “I can’t know”, a
4.14 What to do when the **** hits the fan
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Short one this week - I am using a current example from my own life to talk you through how to look after yourself when it all goes wrong. I talk through how I decided what work I am and am not going to do, and how I am looking after myself in the process. It’s short and the audio will be less crisp as I’m recording on my phone but I thi
4.13 How to celebrate big wins without getting too big for your boots
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!We’ve talked before about celebrating tiny wins, so now we’re talking about big wins. If you feel uncomfortable celebrating papers being accepted, finishing your PhD or getting a job, or any of the other big objective successes, then you’re not alone. In this episode we’ll talk about why this can feel so uncomfortable, how we can expand
4.12 What the Celebrity Traitors taught me about imposter syndrome
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!THIS EPISODE CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS!! Imposter syndrome is top of my mind at the moment because it’s the focus of my membership this quarter. I’m also utterly obsessed with The Traitors and have been loving the UK Celebrity Traitors which just finished. If you want to hear how the final five (and the winner in particular) made me refl
4.11 Why my phone addiction confession might help you too
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!This week I’m confessing my dirty secrets. Have a listen and compare your screen time to mine! I talk through why I’m unhappy with my current phone usage, why I’m not beating myself and what I’m doing instead. If you’ve ever felt like you can only change by “being more disciplined” or “criticising yourself into wanting it enough” then th
4.10 Why we should celebrate tiny silly wins
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!If you’re bored of reading people’s “I’m happy to announce…” posts on LinkedIn, where they only seem to celebrate big wins like “I got a new job” or “my paper’s published”, then this episode is for you. I’ll tell you why big wins aren’t as motivating as they could be, why we should look out for tiny wins, and why sometimes the sillier th
4.09 Why you are more than a Gantt chart
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Sometimes it can feel like the only thing that matters is whether you are “on track” or not. We measure our self-worth in progress, we report to our supervisors about where we are against our plans, and the only answer we can think of to “how’s it going?” is “busy”. In this episode I talk about why you are so much more than a Gantt chart
4.08 How to stay focused when a lot’s going on - a special coaching episode
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!In this episode, I talk with Gabriela, a student in my PhD Life Coach membership. She is taking a few weeks off to get married and is struggling with getting distracted, worried that she’ll feel guilty while she’s away, and that she’ll dread coming back. Listen as we work through ways to address these challenges. Whether you are taking a
4.07 Why you need an instruction manual
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!When you buy something like a car or a piece of technology, you get a manual - it explains what you need to do routinely to keep the product running well and helps you troubleshoot common issues. Today we consider what would go in YOUR instruction manual - what does it take to keep you as a human being running smoothly during your academ
4.06 I answer listener questions
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Today I’m answering listener questions in the same way that I answer questions for students in my memberships. People have submitted questions about all aspects of PhD Life and I’ve selected 7 to talk about today - for each question, I help you unpick what is really the problem, what is making it feel difficult and try to give some tangi
4.05 How to send that scary email
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Today I’m sharing a real life coaching experience we had in the membership this week. One of the members came to an online coaching session because she had a “scary” email to send and she realised she’d been procrastinating for what felt to her like ages. You have likely experienced this too! The trouble is, when it feels scary, we often
4.04 How to prioritise when you have competing challenges - a coaching session with Predrag
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!In this coaching episode, I’m chatting with a part-time, international student who is juggling full time work, a family, a disability, and a PhD that started many years ago. Predrag contacted me for help with prioritisation and time management. Regardless of your own situation, this discussion will help you think through how to balance y
4.03 How to mentor anyone in academia with Dr Maria Lamonaca Wisdom
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Whether you’re a PhD student or an academic, we need to be thinking about how to make mentoring more effective and enjoyable for everyone involved. This week I’m talking with author and university leader Dr Maria Lamonaca Wisdom about her new book, How To Mentor Anyone In Academia. We chat about why mentoring can be so challenging, how w
4.02 How to take better notes
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Pretty much all PhD students have a vague (or very strong) sense that they’re not taking “good enough” notes. Yet for most of us, we’re not really clear what good enough notes would actually be like, and often have really unrealistic expectations about what function our notes should serve in the future. In this episode, I don’t give you
4.01 How to use your existing expertise when you feel like an imposter
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Feeling like you know absolutely nothing is perhaps the worst part of doing a PhD. You know you need to become an expert but often you feel like a complete imposter. One great strategy is to identify areas of your life where you DO feel more competent or confident and consider how to transfer that learning to your PhD. This could be a pa
3.48 What to do when you don’t make time for yourself (special coaching episode with Gillian)
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Today I’m coaching Gillian who is a member of The PhD Life Coach membership! She has been making great progress on her procrastination during Q2 of the membership, but asked for coaching around making time for herself. She lives with her parents and young son, and finds that she spends all her time in daughter mode, mum mode, and PhD stu
3.47 What to do if you’re lonely in academia
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Loneliness in academia is so common yet so rarely talked about. In this episode I’m going to get honest about some of my experiences of loneliness, share why I think academia can be a particularly lonely place, and give some tangible tips that you can use to make it all feel a bit better.If you enjoyed this episode, you might like this e
3.46 How to prepare for a difficult meeting
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!If you put off having difficult conversations or get frazzled just thinking about it, then you need to bookmark this episode! I am going to give you my three step process for preparing for a difficult meeting. You’ll learn how to manage your own worries, strategize for success, and leave feeling proud of yourself. If you are preparing fo
3.45 How to write your discussion when you don’t know how (special coaching episode with Becci)
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Today I’m coaching Becci who is writing her final thesis discussion chapter. She told me “I feel like I don't really know what I'm doing and I'm just flailing around in the dark spewing out thousands of words and wondering what my point even is. Up to now, I've found it quite easy to understand what I need to do and w
3.44 Understanding how power affects student-supervisor relationships
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Today we’re thinking about the relationships we have with our supervisors/advisors. These are one of the most complex and important elements of your PhD experience yet we rarely consider the nature of the relationships. In this episode, we think about how power is distributed in these relationships and how this affects how we each behave
3.43 Answering your questions – balancing different commitments, academic role models and surviving publish or perish culture
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Today I’m answering listener questions! We hear from people who are feeling pulled in different directions for a variety of reasons, a student who feels she lacks academic role models, and another feeling pressured by a publish or perish culture. I give some words of advice and thoughts to consider to help navigate these challenges. Reme
3.42 What to do if you are considering leaving your PhD – a special coaching episode
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!Today you get to hear a real coaching session with a listener, Ruth, who is considering not finishing her PhD. We talk through the reasons and I take her through a process to help her make a decision that works for her. This is a great episode for you if you ever doubt your own abilities to finish your PhD or if you have any big decision
3.41 Thriving with autism in academia: Advice for students and universities
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!In this episode, I’m joined by Jess Dineen, who is both a PhD student and a neurodivergent consultant, speaker, coach, and founder of NeuroNatives. We discuss the strengths and challenges of being in academia with autism, how autistic people can support and advocate for themselves, and how individuals and universities can better support
