The PhD Life Coach

Episodios

• 4.48 GREATEST HITS - How to build your own academic community 20.07.2026 36m

  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 through some really simple tips to help you build an academic community, step by step. If you liked this ep...
• 4.47 GREATEST HITS - How to prepare for your academic summer - structure and freedom 15.07.2026 30m

  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 we plan our time and our priorities more generally. If you liked this episode, you might also like ...
• 4.46 GREATEST HITS - How to prepare for your academic summer - acceptance and resistance 13.07.2026 32m

  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 can make the summer ours again and enjoy this part of the academic year. Today we're talking about the benefits of combini...
• 4.45 Some common misconceptions about self improvement - and what to do instead 06.07.2026 30m

  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 timeblocking. In this episode, I share five things you may well be misunderstanding and what I think you...
• 4.44 How to do a PhD later in life (a double coaching episode) 29.06.2026 58m

  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 experience, the impact of other commitments, and even some regrets. Both take some tangible next steps away ...
• 4.43 How I made an idiot of myself (circa 2011) 22.06.2026 13m

  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 you don’t need to be sensible or perfect to succeed in academia! If you liked this episode, yo...
• 4.42 How to plan time off when you’re busy 15.06.2026 29m

  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 will only feel guilty if we do. In this episode I take you through a process of deciding what you nee...
• 4.41 What to do if you fail an annual review or milestone 08.06.2026 35m

  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 confused to clear with a plan to move forwards. Even if you’ve always passed in the end, it’s essential...
• 4.40 Why you should body double and how to do it well 01.06.2026 29m

  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, synchronous or asynchronous, and can be for any tasks that you want support in getting done. In this epi...
• 4.39 Nine things I learned about academia from watching reality competition shows 25.05.2026 33m

  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 hearing in coaching. So in this episode I ramble my way through nine specific and hopefully useful exa...
• 4.38 How to get through the next steps post-thesis submission (A double coaching episode!) 18.05.2026 1h 4m

  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-viva) describes the difficulties of getting changes done while navigating the transition out of acad...
• 4.37 How do I stop beating myself up in hindsight 11.05.2026 30m

  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 discuss a philosophical model I came across called the Justied Decision Perspective and in what ways ...
• 4.36 How do I know if my work is good enough 04.05.2026 30m

  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 understandable (spoiler - it’s not your fault!) and why it can also be so debilitating. I suggest inste...
• 4.35 What to do when you don’t stick to your systems 27.04.2026 36m

  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’t stick to your systems. We identify WHY you might be finding it difficult, and WHAT you can do to u...
• 4.34 How to understand your own procrastination (a special coaching episode) 20.04.2026 1h 3m

  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 students, and get some specific tips to help you with your procrastination. If you liked this epis...
• 4.33 How to cope in academia with menstrual dysfunction (a double coaching episode!) 13.04.2026 57m

  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. This is a must-listen for everyone, whether you have these symptoms yourself or you care about and/or ...
• 4.32 How to do tasks you’ve been putting off (a special double coaching episode!) 06.04.2026 42m

  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 focus. We discuss why we often procrastinate planning, how we avoid working on tasks that involve ac...
• 4.31 How to get going on work without external accountability 30.03.2026 25m

  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 version of my answer to her. I’ll discuss why external accountability helps, how we can put these fra...
• 4.30 How to write when you’re confused 23.03.2026 23m

  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 of “thinking writing” and give you some specific tasks to experiment with. I don’t promise to stop yo...
• 4.29 Why you shouldn’t wait for a polished draft 16.03.2026 25m

  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 about) why waiting for a polished draft is a fundamentally flawed policy and what we should do instead....