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The PhD Life Coach
Whether you're a PhD student or an experienced academic, life in a university can be tough. If you're feeling overwhelmed, undervalued, or out of your depth, the PhD Life Coach can help. We talk about issues that affect all academics and how we can feel better now, without having to be perfect productivity machines. We usually do this career because we love it, so let's remember what that feels like! I'm your host, Dr Vikki Wright. Join my newsletter at www.thephdlifecoach.com.
Episodes
147 episodes
4.08 How to stay focused when a lot’s going on - a special coaching episode
In this episode, I talk with Gabriela, a student in my PhD Life Coach membership. She is taking a few weeks off to get married and is struggling with getting distracted, worried that she’ll feel guilty while she’s away, and that she’ll dread co...
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Season 4
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Episode 8
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52:26
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4.07 Why you need an instruction manual
When you buy something like a car or a piece of technology, you get a manual - it explains what you need to do routinely to keep the product running well and helps you troubleshoot common issues. Today we consider what would go in YOUR instruct...
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Season 4
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Episode 7
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25:42
4.06 I answer listener questions
Today I’m answering listener questions in the same way that I answer questions for students in my memberships. People have submitted questions about all aspects of PhD Life and I’ve selected 7 to talk about today - for each question, I help you...
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Season 4
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Episode 6
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48:37
4.05 How to send that scary email
Today I’m sharing a real life coaching experience we had in the membership this week. One of the members came to an online coaching session because she had a “scary” email to send and she realised she’d been procrastinating for what felt to her...
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Season 4
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Episode 5
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24:51
4.04 How to prioritise when you have competing challenges - a coaching session with Predrag
In this coaching episode, I’m chatting with a part-time, international student who is juggling full time work, a family, a disability, and a PhD that started many years ago. Predrag contacted me for help with prioritisation and time management....
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Season 4
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Episode 4
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1:01:01
4.03 How to mentor anyone in academia with Dr Maria Lamonaca Wisdom
Whether you’re a PhD student or an academic, we need to be thinking about how to make mentoring more effective and enjoyable for everyone involved. This week I’m talking with author and university leader Dr Maria Lamonaca Wisdom about her new b...
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Season 4
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Episode 3
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54:13
4.02 How to take better notes
Pretty much all PhD students have a vague (or very strong) sense that they’re not taking “good enough” notes. Yet for most of us, we’re not really clear what good enough notes would actually be like, and often have really unrealistic expectatio...
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Season 4
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Episode 2
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24:10
4.01 How to use your existing expertise when you feel like an imposter
Feeling like you know absolutely nothing is perhaps the worst part of doing a PhD. You know you need to become an expert but often you feel like a complete imposter. One great strategy is to identify areas of your life where you DO feel more co...
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Season 4
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Episode 1
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22:42
3.48 What to do when you don’t make time for yourself (special coaching episode with Gillian)
Today I’m coaching Gillian who is a member of The PhD Life Coach membership! She has been making great progress on her procrastination during Q2 of the membership, but asked for coaching around making time for herself. She lives with her parent...
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Season 3
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Episode 48
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1:02:11
3.47 What to do if you’re lonely in academia
Loneliness in academia is so common yet so rarely talked about. In this episode I’m going to get honest about some of my experiences of loneliness, share why I think academia can be a particularly lonely place, and give some tangible tips that ...
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Season 3
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Episode 47
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26:34
3.46 How to prepare for a difficult meeting
If you put off having difficult conversations or get frazzled just thinking about it, then you need to bookmark this episode! I am going to give you my three step process for preparing for a difficult meeting. You’ll learn how to manage your ow...
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Season 3
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Episode 46
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29:37
3.45 How to write your discussion when you don’t know how (special coaching episode with Becci)
Today I’m coaching Becci who is writing her final thesis discussion chapter. She told me “I feel like I don't really know what I'm doing and I'm just flailing around in the dark spewing out thousands of words and wondering what my point even is...
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Season 3
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Episode 45
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57:23
3.44 Understanding how power affects student-supervisor relationships
Today we’re thinking about the relationships we have with our supervisors/advisors. These are one of the most complex and important elements of your PhD experience yet we rarely consider the nature of the relationships. In this episode, we thin...
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Season 3
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Episode 44
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27:30
3.43 Answering your questions – balancing different commitments, academic role models and surviving publish or perish culture
Today I’m answering listener questions! We hear from people who are feeling pulled in different directions for a variety of reasons, a student who feels she lacks academic role models, and another feeling pressured by a publish or perish cultur...
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Season 3
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Episode 43
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31:06
3.42 What to do if you are considering leaving your PhD – a special coaching episode
Today you get to hear a real coaching session with a listener, Ruth, who is considering not finishing her PhD. We talk through the reasons and I take her through a process to help her make a decision that works for her. This is a great episode ...
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Season 3
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Episode 42
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46:55
3.41 Thriving with autism in academia: Advice for students and universities
In this episode, I’m joined by Jess Dineen, who is both a PhD student and a neurodivergent consultant, speaker, coach, and founder of NeuroNatives. We discuss the strengths and challenges of being in academia with autism, how autistic people ca...
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Season 3
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Episode 41
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52:24
3.40 How to read academic papers more quickly
One of the most common comments I hear from PhD students is that reading always takes longer than they expect. In this episode, I share four elements that you need to take into account when deciding how much time you are going to give an articl...
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Season 3
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Episode 40
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39:59
3.39 How to get ahead when you’re feeling behind
In this episode, best selling author Sophie Hannah shares her “Book Ahead” method for managing multiple projects when you already feel behind. Born in the midst of a particularly busy year of writing, the first iteration of the Book Ahead metho...
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Season 3
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Episode 39
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40:19
3.38 Nine things PhD students need to tell themselves more often
Most PhD students and academics spend a lot of time telling themselves they’re not doing enough, they’re behind or they’re not good enough. Even if you truly believe that’s true, constantly having those comments in your head makes everything fe...
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Season 3
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Episode 38
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32:37
3.37 Why academics need to think like entrepreneurs
In this episode, I welcome Dr Ilana Horwitz, author of the new book, The Entrepreneurial Scholar. Being entrepreneurial isn’t just about starting a business — it’s about thinking creatively, seizing opportunities, and applying academic skills i...
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Season 3
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Episode 37
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52:23
3.36 Why you shouldn’t always do your best
If you are bored of being told “just do your best” and not knowing what that means, then this is the episode for you. We are gonna talk today about why you shouldn't be trying to do your best all the time, what the problems are if you do try an...
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Season 3
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Episode 36
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21:35
3.35 How PhD Students Can Network Smarter & Avoid Career Panic with Dr David Mendes from Beyond the Thesis
Struggling to figure out your career path after your PhD? In this episode, David Mendes—host of the Beyond the Thesis podcast—shares expert tips on using networking to map out your job market early. Learn how to have strategic career c...
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Season 3
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Episode 35
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45:35
3.34 Why making halfassed decisions is making your PhD harder
We don’t usually think of a PhD as a decision making process but it really is. We decide what research we do, how we do it, how we report it, and we make hundreds of decisions a day about what order we will do work in, what opportunities we wil...
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Season 3
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Episode 34
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18:11
3.33 How to make your week more effective
If you start your weeks strong but usually end disappointed, then this episode is for you! I’m going to be sharing how everything improved for me when I separated “boss me” from “implementer me” and used that idea to understand why I felt so fr...
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Season 3
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Episode 33
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25:44
3.32 How to work out why you procrastinate and what to do about it
Pretty much every PhD student struggles with procrastination yet the advice is often very generic. In this episode, I talk about a theoretical framework that helps us better understand why each of us, as individuals, procrastinate so that we ca...
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Season 3
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Episode 32
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32:33