You Are Here

Tag: supporters

Nathan

Notes To Yourself

Daily Post, Sabbatical

A practice I return to again and again is to leave a note on my desk to help Future-Nathan get started when they sit down for work. It’s a kindness, a little thing to help me get going. I could be tired or stressed when I next arrive for work – but now I have a prompt to help me get going.

Typically the note might be a little to-do list, or something about the first action I need to take. Consider doing something similar when you finish a viva prep task. Could you leave a Post-it Note for Future-You? A short message to get you started next time. It doesn’t have to be something big, it just has to help.

Three short sentences perhaps: what you just did, what you need to do next and one line of encouragement.

Good viva prep needs people supporting a candidate. Be your own supporter!

 

Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical: I’m taking July, August and September off from new writing to concentrate on other creative projects, so will be sharing a post from the archives every day throughout those months. Today’s post was originally published on September 3rd 2021.

Nathan

Notes To Yourself

Daily Post

A practice I return to again and again is to leave a note on my desk to help Future-Nathan get started when they sit down for work. It’s a kindness, a little thing to help me get going. I could be tired or stressed when I next arrive for work – but now I have a prompt to help me get going.

Typically the note might be a little to-do list, or something about the first action I need to take. Consider doing something similar when you finish a viva prep task. Could you leave a Post-it Note for Future-You? A short message to get you started next time. It doesn’t have to be something big, it just has to help.

Three short sentences perhaps: what you just did, what you need to do next and one line of encouragement.

Good viva prep needs people supporting a candidate. Be your own supporter!

 

Nathan

Thanks!

Daily Post

Lots of people support Viva Survivors in lots of different ways:

  • Thank you if you follow the site via Twitter! I’m floored sometimes by how many followers I have now…
  • Thank you if you subscribe to the blog! When I started sharing a post every day maybe twenty people were subscribed. Now over ten times as many receive a daily message from me!
  • Thank you if you’ve ever supported me via Ko-fi! Since setting it up in February, donors have covered the hosting costs for the site for the year – something which makes me very happy and grateful!

Lots of people support me in lots of different ways. I’m grateful to them all. I’m grateful to YOU for reading this. Thank you.

 

Thank your supporters as you get closer to your viva. You can’t have got this far without being good, but you also can’t have got this far on your PhD journey alone. From supervisors to spouses, peers to partners, friends and family: you’ve had companions for the journey, people who’ve shared the load with you and people who’ve helped you get further.

Don’t forget to thank them.

And don’t forget, if you need to, to ask for more support. Ask for help if you need it. Ask for understanding. Ask for people to listen, or wait, or do something to help you to the viva and beyond. Then do the same for them if they need it.

 

Again, thank you for your support: thanks for following on Twitter, subscribing for the posts and for helping the site via Ko-fi. If you don’t do any of those things, maybe take a look! Thank you 🙂

Nathan

Looking For Support

Daily Post

Who are your supporters for your PhD?

Your supervisors, I hope! Your friends and colleagues from your department, probably. Academics you’ve met at conferences who keep in touch. Internet-people on Twitter and other networks who are part of your community. Friends and family who help you stay grounded. Maybe they don’t get what you do, but they help in other ways.

There are lots of ways people provide support. It all helps. Remember to say thank you!

I’m very grateful for how people have supported Viva Survivors since it began, but in particular since I started the daily blog in 2017. In April the daily blog will have been going for three years, and in a few days I’ll hit the 1000 post milestone!

I’m very grateful for the many ways that people have supported this blog:

  • By telling others it exists!
  • By sharing and retweeting posts that resonate.
  • By using the resources I’ve made and buying ebooks.
  • By subscribing so posts go straight to their inbox.

And in some cases, generously, by telling staff at their institutions about me, and helping me get hired to do viva prep sessions with PhD candidates. I meet nearly a thousand candidates a year that way.

Now there’s one more way you can support Viva Survivors. I’ve started a Ko-Fi page to give people – who want to – the opportunity to financially support the daily blog. Ko-Fi is a little like Patreon and other services; it’s a platform to connect people with supporters. Unlike other services though, Ko-Fi allows for one-off or regular support.

It takes a lot of time to write and publish a daily blog, but it also requires some money too. This blog and any resources will always be freely available: supporting with a £2 donation (one-off or regular) will help cover the running costs of the blog. As more and more people support the blog it could allow me time and resources to provide even more for free here. It could help me to reach more PhD candidates who need support themselves as they finish their PhD and prepare for their viva.

I’m exploring ways to say an extra thank you to supporters; to begin with, anyone who donates can access a free copy of my second ebook, The Viva: Who? What? How? after they’ve donated (details at the Ko-Fi page).

Thank you for reading this post. Thank you for reading my other posts, if you have. Thank you for subscribing – and if you’ve not subscribed to get my daily free posts in your inbox, you can do so here! Thank you for sharing my posts on Twitter and with friends. Thank you to those of you who say nice things about my writing or Viva Survivor sessions!

And if you are in a position to support the blog with a small donation, one-off or recurring, thank you. Thank you. You’re helping me to write more and do more and reach more PhD candidates looking for help with their vivas.

Thank you!