Take Your Time
Take your time as you finish your thesis. You’ll never make it perfect but you can be proud it’s as good as you can reasonably make it.
Take your time as you get ready for your viva. Plan your prep and give yourself space to do the work without stressing or rushing.
Take your time in the viva. You don’t need to speak as quickly as possible – you can think, you can be clear and you can respond confidently.
Take your time after the viva to breathe and appreciate what you’ve done. Getting a PhD is not something that everyone does; at the very least it marks you out as someone capable and determined.
If you can, when your PhD is complete, take some time to think about what you’ll do next.
PS: the Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical starts on Monday! A daily post from the archives all through the summer while I take a creative break after seven years of Viva Survivors 🙂