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Tag: enough

Nathan

All Your Hours

Daily Post

Something like 5500 to 6000 hours of work might go into a full-time PhD journey.

(that might be more hours as well if you’re a part time researcher…)

Thousands of hours of reading, writing, making notes, practical work, meetings, seminars, learning, developing, growing, creating and making and improving – and thinking.

So many hours of thinking.

When you bring all of that together and really consider how much you’ve invested into your journey then you will find some confidence for your viva.

 

PS: The many hours of your PhD journey lead to significant original contributions in your thesis. The latest Viva Survivors Select, The Contribution Issue, explores contributions from many perspectives. Take a look if you’re looking for more viva prep or confidence building help!

Nathan

Needing More

Daily Post

A PhD candidate can feel like they need more of lots of things.

More prep. More time. More work.

More papers in your bibliography. More results in your research. More page in your thesis.

What might it take for you to feel like you have enough?

Nathan

“The Perfect PhD”

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What do we mean when we’re thinking about a perfect PhD?

Candidate? Research? Thesis? The journey?

In some ways it doesn’t matter: there’s no perfection to be found!

There’s good: you can recognise what you do well, what you’re capable of, what you present well in your thesis and how it all ties together in your PhD experience.

There’s difficult: you can consider the challenges, the obstacles overcome, the struggle to write and more.

There’s better: you can reflect on what you have made better both in your research and in yourself – and possibly even see where things could be better still but aren’t yet.

There’s good, there’s difficult, there’s better – and there’s enough.

There’s no perfect in your PhD, but there is enough to show that you are a good researcher. There’s enough to show you have made a contribution at your viva.

Nathan

Prepared To Pass

Daily Post

You can be ready to succeed at your viva without being perfect.

You don’t need to have read every paper or considered every idea. You can’t anticipate every question or comment your examiners will have. You don’t need to have done it all. You don’t need perfection.

You need enough. You need to know enough, have done enough and be enough.

You can’t be perfect. You can be prepared.

 

PS: I’m exploring the practicalities of viva prep and lots more at my live 3-hour Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026. Attendees get four-week access to a recording of the session and follow-up materials too. More details at the link – and you can save £10 on registration with code VSMARCH2026 before Sunday 8th February 2026. Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Anti-Perfect

Daily Post

You can’t write a perfect thesis from a perfect piece of research that then leads to a perfect viva experience.

I can understand aiming for perfection and trying to make something as good as possible but working towards “enough” is probably more sensible.

You can define enough. Enough has a quantity: enough research, enough words, enough work to get ready. You can plan for enough. You can work for enough.

No corrections doesn’t mean that your work was perfect.

Enough. You are good enough. You have done enough. Do enough for prep and do enough in your viva. Perfect is a distraction and you can do better. You can do enough.

Nathan

Explaining Enough

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How do you define what “enough” means for a contribution to knowledge?

How do you know that you have read “enough” to have a good understanding of your research area?

How do you feel like you are capable “enough” as a researcher in your field?

How do you explain to someone that what you have done is “enough” for your thesis – or your PhD?

 

These are hard questions. It’s unlikely that your examiners will ask you them directly. Being able to think through and consider how you respond to them will help a lot as you get ready for your viva.

Think it over, talk with your supervisor and talk with friends. When you know how to explain that you have done “enough” you’ll feel better about responding to questions more generally in the viva.

Nathan

By Now…

Daily Post

… you must be good at what you do or you wouldn’t still be doing it. You are not the person you were when you started your PhD. The things you have learned and done over the past few years put you in a good position for meeting the challenge of your viva.

It might be that you have weeks or months to go until your viva, or maybe even more, but you have time to get ready. The stage you’re at right now is a good foundation to build on. By now must recognise that you’ve made a contribution. There might be more to say or other things to do, but you can’t do everything.

Your examiners are expecting to see a good contribution made by a capable candidate. It’s helpful, to begin with, if that’s what you can see in yourself and your work.

Nathan

More Than Enough

Daily Post

Thousands of hours of work.

Probably hundreds of papers read.

All the many, many attempts to do practical work related to your research. Depending on your field or discipline that could be experiments, interviews, simulations, observations, conversations, field work, lab work, library work and office work.

And then all the time spent writing, reading, re-drafting, editing, proofreading, spell-checking, re-writing again and again and finally feeling ready to submit.

(or at least able to submit!)

Throw in some viva preparations and you have done more than enough and then some more to be ready for your viva.

If you’re not ready for the challenge then who is?

Nathan

Your Best Is Enough

Daily Post

If you can honestly say that you tried hard, learned lots and did the work for your PhD then that’s enough. If you can say that despite challenges and obstacles, setbacks and worse, that you did your best throughout your PhD then that’s enough.

Your determination, knowledge and capability helped you to keep going. That will help you to get ready for your viva.

Ultimately, it’s what will lead you to succeed in your viva.

Your best is enough.

Nathan

Effort

Daily Post

What did you learn in order to get through the first year of your PhD?

What did you figure out about your research area before you were halfway through your PhD journey?

What challenges did you overcome along the way?

How many pages does your thesis have?

How many chapters?

How many references in your bibliography?

How many days did you show up to do the work of your PhD?

 

Perfection isn’t possible in a PhD. Luck is only a very small factor in success. When you really reflect on the last few years, you only got this far through sheer effort.

And when you reflect on what all that effort means you can see why you’ll succeed at your viva too.

 

PS: I’ll be exploring success and how you achieve it at the viva at Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Thursday 5th December 2024. Lots more as well: expectations, examiners, viva prep – they all feed into confidence and success. Find out more about the session here.

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