The PhD Life Coach

Odcinki

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  5.01 How to be independent when your supervisor is controlling 05.10.2026 32min

  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 your supervisor. If you liked this episode, you should check out this one on How to use your exi...
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  4.69 GREATEST HITS - How to manage negative feedback 30.09.2026 36min

  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 we do with the fact it hurts and how could we perhaps do something different in the future? That's wh...
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  4.68 GREATEST HITS - Why you should notice the paradox of imposter syndrome 28.09.2026 36min

  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 you are an imposter AND hold yourself to higher standards than you hold other people. I’ll discuss the...
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  4.67 GREATEST HITS - How to manage your energy 23.09.2026 35min

  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 management compared to how often we see people talking about time management, and it just doesn't make sense b...
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  4.66 GREATEST HITS - Why you deserve a life outside academia 21.09.2026 31min

  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 being rescued by people half my age. I also talk about how you can coach yourself to believe that you deserve...
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  4.65 GREATEST HITS - How to use a Do Know Don't Know list 16.09.2026 25min

  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, they don't know, they don't know. It comes up all the time at every level of the academic journey, whether you're a PhD student o...
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  4.64 GREATEST HITS - What to do if you already feel behind 14.09.2026 22min

  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 instead. None of this needs us to be a super human - the tips are simple and achieveable, and help us move towards our g...
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  4.63 GREATEST HITS - Eight ways you’re secretly procrastinating 09.09.2026 32min

  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 in this! I suspect we all will... If you liked this episode, you might also like this episode o...
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  4.62 GREATEST HITS - How to work out why you procrastinate 07.09.2026 31min

  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 that you procrastinate and why we know it’s a modifiable behaviour – i.e. you can change! ***...
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  4.61 GREATEST HITS - How to Stop Wasting Time by Trying to Be Too Efficient 02.09.2026 17min

  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 the thinking process, reading evolves with your understanding, and connecting with others can be th...
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  4.60 GREATEST HITS - How to make your week more effective 31.08.2026 30min

  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 resonate most with you and give you some specific ideas to try out this week! If you liked this e...
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  4.59 GREATEST HITS - Why I’m banning highlighters 26.08.2026 12min

  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 by playing Stardew Valley **** I'm Dr Vikki Wright, ex-Professor and certified life coach and ...
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  4.58 GREATEST HITS - How to take better notes 24.08.2026 27min

  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 new systems or softwares to improve your notetaking - instead, I talk about how notetaking is your f...
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  4.57 GREATEST HITS - Why you should never read when you're writing 19.08.2026 22min

  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 writing and what you should do instead! If you liked this episode, you might also like th...
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  4.56 GREATEST HITS - How to read academic papers more quickly 17.08.2026 41min

  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 can be much more accurate in how long each piece will take to read and often read it in less time. ...
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  4.55 GREATEST HITS - How to edit your work without hating yourself 12.08.2026 33min

  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 manuscript—without the overwhelm and self-criticism. Whether you’re writing a thesis chapter, journal a...
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  4.54 GREATEST HITS - How to write when you’re confused 10.08.2026 27min

  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...
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  4.53 GREATEST HITS - How Winnie the Pooh can help you manage your mind 05.08.2026 29min

  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 evidence they're true) or we admonish ourselves for having them (ie we tell ourselves "we're our ow...
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  4.52 GREATEST HITS - How to be your own best supervisor 03.08.2026 26min

  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. If you liked this episode, you might also like this episode on how do I stop beating myself u...
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  4.51 GREATEST HITS - How to prepare for a difficult meeting 29.07.2026 32min

  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 episode, you might also like this episode on what to do if you fail an annual review or milestone....