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Month: November 2025

Nathan

If Your Viva Is Tomorrow…

Daily Post

…then you still have time to help yourself feel more ready for your viva.

You could do something small like read a favourite section, check a reference one last time or write a few notes to clear your head.

You could select your clothes or listen to some good music or message a friend to confirm that you’re OK.

You could write down what you’ll do in the morning or plan what you’ll do after the viva is finished.

 

If your viva is tomorrow then there are lots of things you could do and probably no need to do any of them. If your viva is tomorrow it’s because there are over one thousand yesterdays when you showed up and did the work.

If your viva is tomorrow then you’re ready. And if your viva isn’t tomorrow then you have time to get ready!

 

PS: If your viva is some time after this week then you might have time to get help at my Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 3rd December 2025! I’ve shared Viva Survivor more than 420 times and it is my comprehensive live session on getting ready for the viva. Attendees also receive access to a catch-up recording and other follow-up materials. Check the link for full details of what to expect from the webinar.

Nathan

Uniform, Armour, Costume

Daily Post

What are you wearing for your viva?

  • Is your clothing choice a uniform? Are you wearing something that you think will help you look like you belong in the viva or academia?
  • Do you hope your clothes will be armour? Are you choosing something to help you feel like you can defend yourself against your examiners’ questions?
  • Or are your clothes a costume? Are you wearing something to help you feel your best?

What resonates with you?

I think that a costume could be the most helpful choice for a candidate. Try to wear something that will help you feel good and at your best. You don’t need to be someone else and you don’t need to protect yourself from the viva process.

Choose something to wear that will help you feel like the best version of yourself.

 

PS: I’ll explore how candidates can feel viva ready in greater depth at my Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 3rd December 2025. I’ve shared this session more than 400 times and it is my comprehensive live session on getting ready for the viva. Check the link for full details!

Nathan

Five Contributions

Daily Post

List five contributions to research that you and your work have made, big or small. For each one, write one or two short sentences to respond to each of these questions:

  • When did you do the work that lead to this contribution?
  • Why was this work something you pursued?
  • How did you approach this?
  • Who, if anyone, supported you in this and what did they do?
  • Where does it fit in your thesis?
  • What does this contribution mean to other people?

Five contributions and several sentences for each then gives a fruitful space for further reflection.

How would you organise them? Chronologically? Can you group them into related categories? Do they have similar impact or area of impact? Did one contribution allow for another?

And, more than anything, can you see that with very little provocation there is a lot you can talk about at your viva when it comes to thinking about the contributions you have made?

Nathan

Say Thank You

Daily Post

Thanksgiving isn’t a UK holiday but I think it’s a nice nudge to remember what someone is thankful for and to encourage the spirit of saying thank you.

Say thank you to your supervisors and other academic supporters for what they’ve done to help steer and guide your progress. Remember that there’s a lot they can do to help you as you finish your PhD journey.

Say thank you to your friends and colleagues in your department for the community that you’ve created together. They can continue that as you get ready for your viva as well. Remember to ask them about their viva experiences to help build your understanding of what to expect.

Say thank you to your university’s researcher development team and check in with them to see what else they can offer to help you get ready for your viva.

Say thank you to family and friends! Make sure they know what their support means to you. Be clear when you ask them for support as you get ready for your viva.

Say thank you to your examiners after your viva. Be thankful for their work, their questions and the discussion that has been integral to your PhD success.

There’s a lot of support around you and a lot of thanks to give out. Passing your viva is down to you and your efforts but you have a lot of help around you before then.

 

And whether this is your first Viva Survivors post or your thousandth, thank you for reading!

Nathan

Talent & Work & Time

Daily Post

Talent, work and time are three related things that help a PhD candidate get to their viva – and help them get through their viva.

You need all three and each of them needs the others.

  • Your talent, by which we mean your capability as a researcher, rests on being developed through your work over a long period of time.
  • The work you do requires ability and a good amount of time for it to be done and to mean something.
  • The time for your PhD journey is necessitated by the work you do and the effort and talent you bring to it.

All three of these are wrapped up in you, your research and your PhD journey. All three of these are behind you, supporting you as you work towards being ready for your viva and then help your success at your viva.

You took the time. You did the work. You have the talent.

That’s how you got this far and it’s how you will succeed at your viva.

 

PS: I’ll be exploring viva confidence, which is what today’s post is all about, at my Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 3rd December 2025. I’ve shared Viva Survivor more than 400 times. It is my comprehensive live session on getting ready for the viva covering expectations, viva prep, examiners and more. Check the link for full details of what to expect from the webinar!

Nathan

Hate To Wait?

Daily Post

If, like me, you find it difficult to wait for things then you need to come up with a few coping strategies for your viva.

If the days leading up to your viva are taking too long what will you do to manage yourself? Can you arrange your prep to pass the hours productively or will you arrange useful distractions?

What can you do to begin your viva day well while you wait for the start time? Decide in advance so that you don’t have to respond in the moment to your feelings.

What will you do after your viva is finished and you’re waiting for your examiners? Again, decide in advance – have a short walk, refill your water bottle, make some notes – so that you are not waiting alone and only feeling nervous.

If you hate to wait then you can also take steps to help yourself as you wait.

Nathan

Viva Prep: Need, No & Nice

Daily Post

A helpful tool I use to wade through work on my to do list is to remember need, no, nice.

  • Need describes all the things that I have to do. This could be time-critical tasks or long-term slow progress work.
  • No is for all of the things on my work radar that are not going to be done, at least for now. It could be an idea I have that isn’t right yet (and might not be right ever).
  • Nice is for the things that sit somewhere in-between. Not essential or needed but also with value to be done if I have time.

These three words help me categorise all the tasks and projects I have on my mind.

 

There are lots of ideas of what good viva prep could include and also lots of thoughts of things that would help. How do you work through what you have to do?

  • Start your prep by identifying the things you need: not just what someone tells you, but what you really feel you have to get done.
  • Figure out the things that are a no for you: maybe you don’t need to read up on your examiners because you know about them already.
  • Decide if anything would be nice: a cool idea for viva prep is to give a seminar to friends and take questions, but it’s not essential prep.

When you set out to plan your prep and have a lot of options you can use these three words to cut your work down and into an appropriate shape for the weeks ahead.

 

PS: I’ll explore how to plan viva prep at my Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 3rd December 2025. I’ve shared Viva Survivor more than 420 times: it is my comprehensive live session on getting ready for the viva, attendees get access to a catch-up recording and some of my publications too! Check the link for full details of what to expect from the live webinar.

Nathan

Socks For Success!

Daily Post

If I ever enter the clothing business or have Viva Survivors-branded apparel I think I would start with socks that helped confidence.

All of the marketing would be very clear: this is a placebo.

The socks are only a reminder that you do good work. You have done well in the past and can do so again in the future.

I wore a pair of my “good day” socks to my viva and among the tiredness and uncertainty they gave me just a little more support. Over the years since I made a decision to only have socks that I could attach that specialness to – and consequently, every day could be a “good day”!

Every day I have a little reminder: my own little confidence boost.

 

Placebos can be very helpful. As Seth Godin says, “A placebo is a story we tell ourselves that changes the way our brain and our body work.” They don’t have side-effects and they work!

Please don’t mis-understand me: of course you need to do the work.

You need to work towards your PhD. You need to do the prep work for your viva. Then find useful things to help remind you of all of that.

Socks or songs, charms or chocolate – what do you need to give you that little extra push to being your best?

Nathan

Know Your Goal

Daily Post

As you prepare for your viva have you thought about the goal you’re aiming for?

How do you define what you want from your viva?

  • No corrections?
  • Easy questions – or at least not too hard whatever that might be?
  • A short viva?
  • Not to feel nervous?

If any of these resonate you have to consider what you can do to work towards them.

Is any of your work at this stage going to help you to receive no corrections? How can you work towards having easy questions or a short viva? Perhaps your prep efforts will help you feel less nervous – although it’s better to work towards feeling more confident through your prep than less nervous.

What’s your goal with viva prep and your viva? What are you hoping for or working towards? And are your efforts actually getting you closer to that goal?

 

PS: I’ll be exploring the viva from more perspectives at my Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 3rd December 2025. I’ve shared this session more than 400 times and it is my comprehensive live session on getting ready for the viva. Check the link for full details of what to expect from the webinar!

Nathan

Same Drive, Different Task

Daily Post

These four words are my new shorthand for thinking about viva prep.

To do viva prep well you need to approach it with the same purpose as the rest of your PhD journey but now bent towards a different goal.

You need to be determined and careful. Engaged with your research. Engaged with the needs of the particular situation of this project (the viva).

You need to show up to work on overcoming a challenge just as you have with many other challenges before. That’s all the viva is: the next challenge you need to work through.

The drive that has helped you with all of the other challenges of your PhD is what will help you with the task of viva prep – and with the task of succeeding in the viva.

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