Explore every episode of the podcast The PhD Life Coach
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.35 What to do when you don’t stick to your systems | 27 Apr 2026 | 00:36:44 | |
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 use your systems more consistently (and recognise what you’re already doing). If you’ve ever ditched a new planner after two weeks, this episode is for you!
**** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 4.34 How to understand your own procrastination (a special coaching episode) | 20 Apr 2026 | 01:03:42 | |
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.
**** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 4.25 How to do difficult tasks | 16 Feb 2026 | 00:21:59 | |
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 find it easy, or that it “should” be achievable and it’s a problem that it’s not. In this episode we’ll think of different reasons why a task might be difficult, and go through some simple steps forward that both reframe how we think about these tasks and help us navigate a way forward. If you liked this episode, you should check out my episode on what to do if you feel stuck. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.31 How to get back into work after a break | 15 Apr 2024 | 00:33:04 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! It's that time of year when academics and PhD students are coming back after Easter/Spring break and trying to get back into the swing of uni life. Whether you spent the holiday having a "real" break, catching up on work you wanted to do, organising work you wish you didn't have to do, or just procrastinating, this is the episode for you. We'll think about why feeling the dread makes it hard to get going and what you can do instead. Let's start the new term as we mean to go on! **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.30 How to break your work down into chunks | 08 Apr 2024 | 00:33:21 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! If you have items on your to do list that you aren't doing, you need this episode! We're going to talk about how to break your work down into manageable chunks. Everyone says we should do this, but no one really tells us how to do it. What is a manageable chunk anyway? How big should it be? What should that look like? What type of chunk will make it easier for us to get started? If you're procrastinating or overwhelmed by your to do list, I'm going to help you figure out how to break down your work into easy, manageable chunks so that you can get on, get them ticked off, and enjoy your work again. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.29 Seven mistakes academics make and how to avoid them | 01 Apr 2024 | 00:32:15 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Everyone makes mistakes. It's inevitable that we're going to make mistakes. But one of the most important things is to be able to recognize what mistakes we're making, figure out why we're making them, and if appropriate, move away from that pattern of mistake. So in today's episode, I'm going to be telling you seven mistakes that I see lots of PhD students and academics making that I want you to check that you're not making too. Some of them are relevant to everybody. Some of them are a little more focused on people who are balancing teaching and research and all of those things as well. They are all things I want you to check that you're not doing. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.28 How to stop comparing yourself | 25 Mar 2024 | 00:26:22 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! At every stage of the academic journey, people are comparing themselves to those around them and doing it in ways that just doesn't help and where they end up feeling guilty, feeling frustrated, feeling hopeless. Whether you're a first year PhD student looking at the rest of your cohort wondering if you're doing enough or whether you're some kick ass senior professor who's smashing their career, we're still looking across to other labs going, Oh, well, they, you know, they have still got more grant income than me. They still got more publications than me. It's so sad. And it doesn't have to be like that. So today we're going to be thinking about how to stop comparing yourself to others and what to do instead. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.27 How to plan when you hate planning (special coaching episode) | 18 Mar 2024 | 00:58:04 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! In this episode, you get to hear a live coaching session with Laura! Laura is a part time PhD student who has tried every planning and task management tool possible! She shares that she finds it stressful to even think about planning and is worried about how to manage the last couple of years of her research. I coach her as I would in a private coaching session and we reach some great insights about how Laura is already planning way more than she gives herself credit for and how she can keep developing her skills. Perfect for anyone who has ever been self critical, worried about planning or fed up of never finding the perfect system! **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.26 How to manage your energy | 11 Mar 2024 | 00:33:35 | |
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 because time passes. We can organize our tasks within time, but we can never manage time itself. It's the one commodity we have very little control over. But that's okay. Because actually time management is rarely the issue. Our issues are usually around energy management and focus management, yet there's much less support out there for this. So that's why I'm recording this podcast. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.25 Five things I still struggle with that might surprise (and reassure) you | 04 Mar 2024 | 00:32:54 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! This week in the podcast, I get real! Some of my clients have told me that they sometimes find the idea of implementing new systems intimidating and they worry they will "fail". In this episode I tell you about the things that I still struggle with and how I got to be ok with that. It's perfect for any perfectionists out there, ideal for anyone who has tried a thousand systems and now considers themselves permanently disorganised, or anyone who beats themselves up. Let me know what you think! **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.24 How to plan using "boss mode" | 26 Feb 2024 | 00:33:12 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! If you struggle to plan your time and organise your tasks, this is the episode for you! I'll be sharing what I mean by "boss mode" and showing you how this can help you plan your tasks, stay focused, manage overwhelm and minimise procrastination. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.23 What to do if academia feels unfair (special coaching episode) | 19 Feb 2024 | 00:52:41 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! This is the first in a series of episodes where I share a real life coaching session! In this episode, I talk with Ruth, a PhD student, who worries that succeeding in academia relies on having connections, rather than the quality of your work. She agreed to be coached for the podcast and we discuss why this bothers her, how it affects her work, and reach some conclusions that will help her move forwards. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.22 What to do if you want more reassurance | 12 Feb 2024 | 00:25:49 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Wouldn't it be nice if sometimes someone just told us that we were doing a good job, that we were enough, that we were doing things well enough and that they were proud of us. And yet so often, that doesn't necessarily happen in academia. Lots of us feel that our supervisors could give us more reassurance, our collaborators or heads of school could give us more reassurance, and it's really hard to keep pushing yourself to work as hard as we all do, when we feel like we're not getting the praise and reassurance from other people that we think would really help. In today's episode, we're going to be thinking about what you can do about that. And, clue, it's not all about asking other people for reassurance. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 4.24 How to identify options when making a decision (a coaching episode with Claire!) | 09 Feb 2026 | 00:59:15 | |
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 ideas. Listen in as we discuss her situation and identify a path forward. If you want to be on the podcast in the future, make sure you’re on my newsletter to hear about future chances to volunteer! If you liked this episode, you should check out my episode on How to make decisions you love and this episode on how PhD Students Can Network Smarter & Avoid Career Panic with Dr David Mendes from Beyond the Thesis **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.31 Eight things that PhD students and academics can learn from The Traitors | 05 Feb 2024 | 00:31:43 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! This is the first time I have ever had to put a spoiler warning on my podcast. I'm so excited. If you have an intention to watch series two of the UK Traitors and you haven't yet seen it, please go listen to a different episode! **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.20 How to improve your writing (with special guest Katy Peplin from Thrive PhD) | 29 Jan 2024 | 00:45:18 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! How to be a better writer is one of the most common questions asked by PhD students and academics of all levels. While there are tons of useful "how to write" books on the market it can be difficult to translate this learning into actually improving your own writing. In this episode, I talk with writing coach Dr Katy Peplin about ways that you can support yourself to get better at writing and look after yourself at the same time! Hope you enjoy - there's some great advice! Here are some links if you want to hear more from Katy: Free: Work more intentionally toolkit Paid: Your Guide to Running a Writing Group **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.19 How to stop procrastinating (part 2) | 22 Jan 2024 | 00:21:18 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Last week we talked about how to manage procrastination in the moment, using my NICE model - that's super useful but are there ways we can prevent procrastination happening so often? I think so, and in this episode I share how building a clearer relationship with your past and future self can really help! Check it out and let me know what you think. To find out more about working with me, go to www.thephdlifecoach.com **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.18 How to stop procrastinating (part 1) | 15 Jan 2024 | 00:27:45 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! It's the biggie! Procrastination! The bane of everyone's lives and common at every level of academia. In this episode, I will help you understand why we procrastinate and then introduce a quick and easy model you can use to help you reduce your procrastination. This episode ended up being way too long, so I've split it in half and you can have the second half next week! **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.17 How the PhD Life Coach university membership supports students | 08 Jan 2024 | 00:45:44 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! In this episode, I'm chatting with Tara Wittin, Head of the University of Birmingham Graduate School and Danielle, who is one of the participants in my university PhD Life Coach membership programme. We talk about how the membership works, what benefits the students get from it, and how it fits with the other student support available at the university. Whether you're a student or an academic, have a listen and hear why consistent long-term coaching support is so important for all PhD students **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.16 How to achieve your goals using the self-coaching model | 01 Jan 2024 | 00:37:26 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! It's new year. We've all got goals. We've all got new year's resolutions and we all have faint memories, maybe strong memories of all the previous times that we've tried to achieve things, and it's just not worked. If that's you, if you have a long history of not achieving the things that you set out in the new year, or achieving different things, or still achieving them but beating yourselves up for all the other things you didn't do, you are in the right place. We're going to be thinking about how we can use self coaching to make sure that we actually achieve our goals this year. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.15 Seven things we can learn from Santa | 25 Dec 2023 | 00:26:21 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Santa completes the biggest project of the year every single year, delivering all those presents all around the world, and I think we can learn a lot from how he does it. This is slightly tongue in cheek, but I still think there's some important lessons in here for anyone studying or working in academia! **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.14 How to stop feeling guilty when you rest over the holiday | 18 Dec 2023 | 00:36:13 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! I've spent so many holidays where I've kind of intended to do some work but not really planned when or what, and then didn't really feel like it at the time, so I didn't, but I felt guilty about the fact I wasn't working because really I should, in inverted commas, be working, and then I also wouldn't do any of the really fun stuff that I wanted to do either because I should be working so I shouldn't do that stuff. But then when I did work, I'd feel guilty about the fact that I wasn't resting and really I probably needed to rest and I wasn't spending more time with my friends and family and doing the other things I'd intended to do over the holidays. And it just turns into this big pile of guilt where whatever you do, you just feel bad about it. And you don't get either the work done or the rest, or the quality time with your families. And just finish the holiday feeling a little bit like well, I don't know where that went. And now it's turn time and we're back on again till Easter. It's not a good feeling. I know you felt it too. I don't feel it anymore because of some of the things I've put in place. So let me share those with you today and let's figure out how not to feel guilty over the Christmas break. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.13 Why you should act without thinking | 11 Dec 2023 | 00:24:33 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! On this podcast and in my coaching sessions, I spend a lot of time talking about thoughts. Talking about how the thoughts that we have shape our feelings and actions, and how we can intentionally modify our thoughts, not to just make stuff up, but to focus on thoughts that we already believe, but that we know serve us better, in order to feel better, do the actions we intend to do and achieve our goals. So there's lots of focus on thoughts. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.12 Five things you probably need to hear right now | 04 Dec 2023 | 00:22:56 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! If you're listening to this in real time, it's the beginning of December and we are on the final run in to the winter holidays. One of the things that has really stuck out to me recently is how many of my clients need to hear the same things. So this week I'm going to be talking about five things that I think you need to hear right now! Let's go! **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 4.23 How to manage tasks that are not on your To Do list | 02 Feb 2026 | 00:23:52 | |
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 to do list retrospectively can be a great strategy for your motivation, organisation, and future development. Let’s get control of our tasks and our weeks so that WE decide what gets done. If you liked this episode, you should check out my episode on Why you should never cross things off your to do list and what you should do instead. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.11 How to manage your emotions when everyone is stressed | 27 Nov 2023 | 00:40:50 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! If you're trying really hard to kind of look after yourself and stay on top of your own stress levels, but you're finding yourself surrounded by other people who are stressed, other people who are complaining, then this is the perfect episode for you. We are going to be thinking about how can you manage your mind when those around you are losing theirs without needing to push them out of your lives, without needing to solve their problems, how can we study our own emotions and look after ourselves, no matter what is happening around us? **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.10 How to do academia with ADHD (with guest Dr Alex Conner!) | 20 Nov 2023 | 00:55:00 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! In this episode, we're going to be talking about all things ADHD with special guest Dr Alex Conner from https://www.adhdadult.uk/. So whether you have it yourself, you think you might have it, you sometimes wonder, or whether you work with, know, or love people who do have ADHD, then you are going to learn so much about how to support yourself and how to support other people. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.9 How to network (with guest Dr Jen Polk) | 13 Nov 2023 | 00:52:55 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Do you hear the word networking and just think that this is the most awful thing ever, or that you're really bad at it, or that you shouldn't have to do it, or it's really hard, or it's not the right time? If so, you are going to love this episode because we're going to tell you all the reasons you're wrong. I have a guest with me, Dr Jen Polk, and we are going to be talking all things networking. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.8 How to prepare for your viva | 06 Nov 2023 | 00:40:14 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Have you got your PhD viva coming up soon? Or is it something that you're already starting to dread even though it's a few years away? If so, this is the perfect episode for you. We're going to be thinking about all the stories about PhD vivas, how we can prepare for them, and how we can look after ourselves in that process. You get to decide how we do this and I'm going to help you figure out how. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.7 How to plan your week (with special guest, ex client PhD student Marie!) | 30 Oct 2023 | 00:40:31 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! In this episode, an ex-client Marie is telling us about the "perfect weekly meeting" that she developed during our time coaching together. She uses this to set the tone for her week and it's really changed how she feels and how she gets stuff done. It's so much more than a to-do list, and instead really gets to the core of how to start a week with intention. Hope you find it useful! **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.6 How to coach yourself (and why you should) | 23 Oct 2023 | 00:36:42 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! If you're a regular listener, you're going to have heard me talk about self coaching, about exploring the thoughts that we have and the impact that they have on our emotions and our actions and the things that we achieve. I thought it would be really useful to have a single episode where I actually take you through the principles of self coaching, why we do it, how we do it, and how you can start incorporating it into your lives and the benefits that you might see when you do. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.5 How to shorten your written work | 16 Oct 2023 | 00:38:35 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Every single one of us will have written to a word count at some point in our academic careers. Often as undergraduates, the struggle is to write enough words to hit the word count, but as we get further through our academic careers, the challenge increasingly becomes to stay under the word count. So if you've ever struggled to shorten your work to meet the requirements of your submission to your degree program or to a journal, then this is the episode for you. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.4 Nine things I learned from organising our wedding that you can apply to your PhD | 09 Oct 2023 | 00:34:27 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! When was the last time you learned something outside of your academic work that you then used within your academic work? I think it's time for another one of those tenuous links between two things that are seemingly unrelated, but actually are connected much more than you think. So in this episode, I'm going to be talking about nine things I learned planning my wedding that might be useful in your PhD too. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.3 How to manage your supervisor (or boss) | 02 Oct 2023 | 00:25:52 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Our professional relationships with the people who supervise or manage us can have huge implications for how much we achieve and how much we enjoy our academic work. Yet often we can be quite passive about it - "they are how they are" and we just have to cope with it. In this episode, I'll share some straightforward ways that you can "manage" the people above you to make it more efficient and more fun for everyone involved. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.2 How to manage negative feedback | 25 Sep 2023 | 00:33:50 | |
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 what we're going to be talking about in today's podcast. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 4.22 What to do when your task is taking longer than you thought | 26 Jan 2026 | 00:36:29 | |
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 do - we “just” need to get it done. In this episode I’ll explain why it’s not that easy, and I’ll give you a series of quick questions to ask yourself to understand what has happened, why and what options will help you address it. Crucial listening for anyone who finds their timelines get out of control and/or for anyone who supervises someone with these issues. If you liked this episode, you should check out my episode on What to do when you can't judge how long things take. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 2.1 What to do if you already feel behind | 18 Sep 2023 | 00:20:54 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Welcome to Season 2 of the PhD Life Coach! In this first 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 goals with less pain. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 41. Seven things I've learned this year that might help you too | 24 Jul 2023 | 00:21:13 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! In this final episode of the 2022/23 academic year, I reflect on seven things that I have learned since starting this podcast. Whether it's managing perfectionism, staying consistent or building community, there's loads that you can apply to your own journey. After this, I'll be taking a short break and returning at the beginning of September. There's 41 episodes up for you now so perhaps revisit some of the ones you've missed, or that you've found particularly useful and I'll see you next year! **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 40. On Being Unreasonable in academia with guest Kirsty Sedgman | 17 Jul 2023 | 01:14:24 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! In this episode, I welcome Kirsty Sedgman, academic and author of On Being Unreasonable. We talk about Kirsty's fascinating route into her current academic role and what encouraged her to write a book about unreasonableness. We also discuss the tricky subject of what is considered "reasonable" within academia and how we can push boundaries to create our own meaningful paths. She mentions several other scholars, including Eleanora Belfiore’s work on cultural policy practice, Jess Thom co-director of Touretteshero, Ellie Mackin Roberts and her TikTok work, Salamander Street Press, and Howard Zinn and his work on civil disobedience. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| BONUS - start your day! | 13 Jul 2023 | 00:09:19 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Do you start your day not clear on what the priorities are and just feeling indecisive and unmotivated? We all do sometimes. What we often need in that moment is to be a bit reflective, think about what we need, get clarity on our tasks and remind ourselves why we do this. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 39. How to prepare for your academic summer - structure and freedom | 10 Jul 2023 | 00:28:56 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! This is the second of a 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. In this episode I talk about another episodes of my podcast: How to use role-based time-blocking **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 38. How to prepare for your academic summer - acceptance and resistance | 03 Jul 2023 | 00:30:35 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! 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 in a short series of 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 combining some "acceptance" with some "resistance" so that this doesn't feel more painful than it needs to! In this episode I talk about some other episodes of my podcast, including: - How to rest during the holiday period - How to be your own best supervisor - How accepting where you are is the first step to getting where you want to be - How to make decisions you love
**** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 37. What is an academic adjacent career and why might you want one? | 26 Jun 2023 | 00:53:11 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! When PhD students (and even academics) think about their career options, it often gets divided into "academic" or "non-academic" careers. In this episode, my guest Holly Prescott, a careers consultant for PGRs, talks about academic adjacent careers. She explains what they involve, why people should consider them and we discuss some of the issues that sometimes hold people back from discovering, and moving into, these interest careers. In this episode, Holly talks about: - her theatre company Ottisdotter and their latest production Lady Inger - her blog, PostGradual and an article on academic adjacent careers and the podcast Research Adjacent with Sarah McLusky. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 36. Why we should be more proud of ourselves (and how to do it) | 19 Jun 2023 | 00:25:36 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Lots of people struggle to feel proud of themselves, even when on paper they look really successful. In this episode, I talk about why this is, why it can cause problems and how to develop a habit of being more proud of yourself. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 35. How I finished my PhD in just over two years (& why I wouldn't recommend it) | 12 Jun 2023 | 00:40:47 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! People often ask me how to finish up a PhD quickly but not many people know that I did exactly that. In this episode, I consider why people worry about finishing quickly enough and share some reasons why it was possible in my case (sneaky preview - none of it was because I was cleverer or better than anyone else in my cohort...) I also discuss the downsides of speeding through and what I think people could do instead. This is my most personal episode so far so hope you enjoy! **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 34. What I learned about task transitions from doing triathlons (badly) | 05 Jun 2023 | 00:27:51 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! So many clients tell me that they struggle to transition between different types of tasks, particularly when it comes to fitting writing into their regular days. In this episode, I'm talking about my not-very-illustrious history of attempting triathlons and what I learned about "transitioning" between the different sections of the race. If we're going to time block effectively (and not just tell ourselves that it "doesn't work for us"), then we can pick up some really useful tips from triathletes to use in our every day lives. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 4.21 How much should I work per week in academia | 19 Jan 2026 | 00:27:38 | |
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 question - how much should I be working - with a more nuanced answer than you will get from most people! If you worry you do too much or not enough, then this is the episode for you.
If you liked this episode, you should check out my episode on how to stop wasting time by trying to be too efficient. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 33. How to do role-based time-blocking | 29 May 2023 | 00:32:40 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! You may have heard of, or even tried, time blocking before. It can be a great way to take control of your to do list and get things done, but it can also get really overwhelming. Role-based time blocking is a streamlined version, designed specifically for roles (like academic jobs) that have lots of different components. Check it out, and discover why I'm committing to NOT making a bunch of tiny personalised hats.... **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 32. How to seek the help you need | 22 May 2023 | 00:21:21 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! It can be so hard to ask for help, especially if you believe that you don't deserve it or that you should be able to solve the problem yourself or that there's nothing anyone can do to help. In this episode, I talk through the thoughts that you can cultivate to make seeking help feel a little easier. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||
| 31. How to spot, and stop, all-or-nothing thinking | 15 May 2023 | 00:28:28 | |
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! If you find yourself thinking that everyone else has it together, or that you'll never finish your paper, or that you always procrastinate, this is the episode for you. These are examples of "all-or-nothing thinking" where we take a really black and white view on the world and forget to see all the shades of grey. The problem with all-or-nothing thinking is that it feels pretty rubbish, encourages us to focus on our "fails", and makes it harder to change our behaviour. In this episode, I help you figure out how to spot all-or-nothing thinking in yourself, and give you some tips to deal with it. **** I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need. | |||