Three Easy Wins
I start most working days with “three easy wins” for my productivity: before I get stuck into the harder stuff and deeper thinking I do three things that help me feel like I’m already making progress. A walk is often...
plan your prep
Prep Is A Workout
Viva prep is a series of tasks and activities that help you towards being ready for the specific challenge of your viva. From that perspective, I think it’s fair to think of it as a workout: you’re exercising specific mental muscles,...
Another Little Announcement
(The Big Announcement is coming on Tuesday 16th May!) I’ve written a short and helpful guide to getting ready for the viva and you can help me publish it – in fact, I would be very grateful if you did!...
Keep It Simple Smartypants!
To do research and write a thesis you have to be pretty smart. You must know lots and understand many complicated and complex facts. However, to get ready for your viva you don’t have to do anything especially complicated: Make...
Oxygen Mask
Make sure your oxygen mask is fitted before helping others… It’s the instruction given in aeroplanes in case of emergency, and used as a metaphor to encourage people to make sure they have what they need before assisting others. The metaphor...
Can You Take A Day Off?
How about today? Or tomorrow, if you already had plans for today. If not then, when? Look at your plans for viva prep and make sure you have rest breaks built in. Time to relax and recover on the days...
Viva Prep Heuristics
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to preparing for the viva. As every thesis and candidate are different, and every set of circumstances for viva prep are different too, so every person has to decide for themselves how best they are...
Be Kind To Yourself
Plan your prep. You’re busy, you’re tired and you have 101 things to do. Plan your prep so that the work doesn’t add to any stress and pressure you already feel. Accept your mistakes. Typos and clunky sentences don’t mean...
Pages & Pages
There are so many pages in your thesis. The pages contain the best of your research, told as well as you can; they hold facts and/or figures, opinions and conclusions, details and digressions and everything that you think is needed...
One Weird Trick
I can’t believe I’ve never shared this before! It’s this one weird trick that helps with the viva!! One thing that universities, examiners and PhD graduates don’t want you to know!!! Whatever discipline you are in, however long you have...