Daily viva help for PhDs
You can’t be overprepared for your viva, but you can be overinvested. You can do too much by doing more than is needed.
Through uncertainty or worry you could easily spend more hours, do more tasks or obsess more than is required.
Keep it simple. Plan ahead. Don’t fill your days. Figure out the core tasks required and do them when the time comes.
Not too much, just enough – just like your thesis, your research and you.
Thinking about how to prepare for the viva stresses some candidates. There can be lots of factors at play.
I have work, I have kids, I have so little time, I’m tired, I’m stressed, what to do, when to start, where to focus and so on.
I can’t answer every possible concern, but my advice generally comes down to four short thoughts:
Engaging with prep doesn’t need to be much harder than that.
To date, there’s probably over 101 posts on this blog about viva prep. I’ve explored this topic a lot, but you don’t need to do 101 things to be ready for your viva.
Keep it simple. Cut through stress and worry with something as simple as a to-do list. Keep taking small steps to get to where you need to be.