Daily viva help for PhDs
Five minutes is enough time to do something to help your viva prep.
There are many viva prep tasks that take more than five minutes but five minutes can be enough to make a difference.
Have five minutes spare and feel like you need to do something productive for your viva prep but don’t know what? Try one of these:
Or maybe just rest. That’s OK too!
I always make sure I have a plan for Monday before I stop work for the weekend. It helps me to motivate myself at the start of the week.
Whenever I’m about to wash the dishes I check to see if there’s any leftover hot water in the kettle from the last cup of tea. Even a small amount can save some water and gas from running our boiler.
I use a piece of software called TextExpander to help with regular writing tasks. Simple keyboard shortcuts create strings of social media tags, my email signature – even whole emails for sending to university finance departments! It saves a lot of time.
I love life hacks and little things that save time or effort. I don’t have anything like that to offer for the viva. Everything you need to do for the viva takes exactly the time or effort needed. You can’t shortcut reading or annotating. You can’t write a summary using an easy method. A mock viva can’t be halved with one weird trick – and neither can the real viva!
There are small viva prep tasks – sticking in bookmarks to your thesis, making lists and the like – but these aren’t hacks. There’s no room for shortcuts – and no need for them either.
Take your time. There’s no need to rush. There’s no need to work smarter or harder.
Use the opportunity of the submission period to get ready for the viva, and use the viva to succeed.
“What’s the most important thing I can do today that would make tomorrow better?”
I’ve had that question stuck on the wall at eye-height next to my desk for as long as I can remember. I saw it in a book or a blog post years ago, liked the provocation, and have used it as a reminder ever since.
Focussing on the most important aspect of the prompt sometimes leaves me trying to do great, big things. Most of the time I think about little tasks, any small things I can do, that will make tomorrow better for me.
I look ahead and think, “What would help Future-Me? What would make my tomorrow better?”
There are lots of big, important things you have to do to be ready for your viva. There’s a lot that goes into finishing your PhD journey. But within a busy day, as an act of kindness for Future-You, consider what you could to do help your tomorrow.
Look ahead and think, “On the path to my viva, what could I do today to make tomorrow better?”
What little things could you do regularly to help yourself on the lead up to submission and the viva?
There are big things involved in viva prep that take lots of time and focus – but remember that every action you choose to take, little or big, can help you to be ready for your viva.
There are big tasks involved in finishing a thesis and preparing for the viva. Sometimes, though, you can make a difference by thinking as small as “How could I make this one percent better?”
Think small!
You need to think big to get a PhD done. As your viva gets closer there’s a place for thinking small too.
My daughter has an advent calendar every year at Christmastime. Normally her aunt buys her a toy calendar: every day from the first of December to Christmas Eve she opens the little door and gets a little person or an accessory building a festive scene. Every day she builds up the scene, and also increases her excitement – and ours! – that it’s almost Christmas.
In the same way, I think a little daily viva prep is useful for most candidates to feel ready for their viva. I’m not suggesting it’s the only thing to do; some activities – like, say, sitting down for a mock viva or making a mind map – are too time-intensive or complicated to be classed as “little”. But finding something to do every day to engage with your thesis, to reflect on your research or to prepare yourself in some way is valuable.
A little daily work can really build confidence for the day. Maybe, like an advent calendar, it can also build anticipation for the event rather than apprehension.
I’m a fan of the “three easy wins” productivity idea: simply put, start your day by getting three little victories. Clear that email out of your inbox, write down that short paragraph or check your blog feed for new posts. Just do three simple things that don’t require a lot of work. These little efforts add to your overall sense of achievement for the day. They move you along in the right direction.
Viva prep can seem overwhelming to some: it can feel like a lot to do before you might be ready for the viva. If this is how you feel, let me suggest three easy wins to get you started:
Three easy wins, probably ten minutes in total. A great start to viva prep. After this, just keep going. You’ll get where you need to be.