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Nathan

Eight Years

Daily Post

April 18th 2017: I published the first daily Viva Survivors post.

April 18th 2025: today!

What’s in-between? A lot of words.

 

It’s been one of the best decisions I’ve made to do this daily blog. It helps me to think through what I need to say at work, finds new ways of exploring the viva, unpack questions that people ask and also just help me think.

I’ve had almost 3000 attempts to say something helpful. I’ve been writing Viva Survivors for over twice the length of my PhD journey.

After eight years a few things occur to me:

  • Writing a daily blog isn’t a lot of work so much as it is a lot of practice.
  • Writing a daily blog is a great way to develop ideas.
  • Writing a daily blog is not a fool-proof plan for fame and fortune!

And writing a daily blog for eight years is a lot like a PhD in many ways: the amount of work required is enormous but spread out over a long period of time. It can be easy to tell yourself at the beginning that it’s impossible because the scale is vast – but it’s also easy to tell yourself at the end that you just kind of bumbled your way to success because you can’t remember so much of what you’ve done.

In both cases you can only do it by doing it. It only exists because someone did the work.

I’m very happy to be eight years in on this ongoing project and looking forward to many more. I hope the same is true for you dear reader, whoever you are and whatever your project.

Thanks for reading!

 

PS: On this eighth anniversary post I have to mention the first issue of Viva Survivors Select – my curated zine series drawing from the daily blog archive! Issue 01 shares twenty posts from 2017 on viva prep, confidence and the viva process. It feels great to start an exciting project like this but it’s made doubly exciting by doing it around the anniversary of the blog. Check out the issue here – and again, thank you for reading 🙂

Nathan

How I Do This

Daily Post

The most common question people ask me about Viva Survivors is, “How do you write and publish a daily blog?!”

Here’s the short version:

  • I write everything myself: no out-sourcing, no guest-posts. I write posts weeks in advance, not on the day of publication.
  • I’m organised: I have notebooks that capture ideas. I have plans for the coming weeks of what posts are going to be written for which days. I also have a wallchart with lists of topics in case I find myself wondering what to write.
  • I have a general workflow: I try to have at least two weeks of posts ready at all times, in case of illness or problems. I have a pattern for how I work: I draft seven posts on one day, then come back to edit them the next.
  • I have tech and services to support me: Viva Survivors is a WordPress site that is simple and works well. I use Buffer to pre-write tweets to post to my Twitter account.
  • I keep records: I have a big spreadsheet that tracks post titles, dates of publication and word counts. I’ve published every day for nearly four years and seeing the records of this is a big motivator.

A spreadsheet isn’t the only reason I’m motivated to keep going though! Knowing I can help people helps me to write on days when I’m tired, distracted, bored or stressed. Knowing that a few hours later I’ll have a few more posts written gives me a boost.

 

How did you do your research? What methods and processes did you use? What tools or techniques? What and who supported you?

The how isn’t always as fun to explore as motivations or outcomes – the why and the what – but how you did your research will come up in your viva. Reflect on the how of your research in the weeks leading up to your viva and you’ll be prepared to explore it with your examiners.