The PhD Life Coach

Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!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 conversations, explore industry roles, and avoid last-minute decision panic. This conversation offers practical steps PhD students can take to better understand their options and plan with confidence.Links:Beyond the Thesis with Papa PhD (David’s podcast)Connect with David on LinkedInDavid’s Skool.com link****I'm Dr Vikki Wright, ex-Professor and certified life coach and I help everyone from PhD students to full Professors to get a bit less overwhelmed and thrive in academia. Please make sure you subscribe, and I would love it if you could find time to rate, review and tell your friends! You can send them this universal link that will work whatever the podcast app they use. http://pod.link/1650551306?i=1000695434464 I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need.

Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!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 will take up and refuse, and who we should ask for support. In this episode, I share the problems that happen we only vaguely, half-heartedly make decisions – and as usual, let you know what we need to do instead. ****I'm Dr Vikki Wright, ex-Professor and certified life coach and I help everyone from PhD students to full Professors to get a bit less overwhelmed and thrive in academia. Please make sure you subscribe, and I would love it if you could find time to rate, review and tell your friends! You can send them this universal link that will work whatever the podcast app they use. http://pod.link/1650551306?i=1000695434464 I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need.

Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!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 frustrated at the end of the week. I’ll identify the most common issues so you can see which resonate most with you and give you some specific ideas to try out this week! Sign up for the webinar on 23rd April 2025 here****I'm Dr Vikki Wright, ex-Professor and certified life coach and I help everyone from PhD students to full Professors to get a bit less overwhelmed and thrive in academia. Please make sure you subscribe, and I would love it if you could find time to rate, review and tell your friends! You can send them this universal link that will work whatever the podcast app they use. http://pod.link/1650551306?i=1000695434464 I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need.

Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!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 can make more tailored plans to support ourselves. I also explain why it’s totally understandable that you procrastinate and why we know it’s a modifiable behaviour – i.e. you can change!You can find the link to the Svartdal and Lokke paper here.****I'm Dr Vikki Wright, ex-Professor and certified life coach and I help everyone from PhD students to full Professors to get a bit less overwhelmed and thrive in academia. Please make sure you subscribe, and I would love it if you could find time to rate, review and tell your friends! You can send them this universal link that will work whatever the podcast app they use. http://pod.link/1650551306?i=1000695434464 I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need.

Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!This week I’m joined by Dr Marissa Edwards, one of the editors of the Research Handbook of Academic Mental Health. We chat about why higher education can be a uniquely stressful environment, why some researchers may have particular challenges, and how we can look after ourselves while we navigate our academic careers.  Links:You can find out more about Dr Marissa Edwards here and connect with her on LinkedInHer book is the Research Handbook of Academic Mental Health.We also mentioned Dr Zoe Ayres’ book Managing Your Mental Health During Your PhD. If you found this episode useful, you might also like these: Are you in an emotional overdraft? Overcoming overwhelm and overwork in your PhDCreating positive academic environments – insights from sport psychology****I'm Dr Vikki Wright, ex-Professor and certified life coach and I help everyone from PhD students to full Professors to get a bit less overwhelmed and thrive in academia. Please make sure you subscribe, and I would love it if you could find time to rate, review and tell your friends! You can send them this universal link that will work whatever the podcast app they use. http://pod.link/1650551306?i=1000695434464 I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need.

Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!In this episode, we welcome Krystina François, a third year PhD student and current member of The PhD Life Coach membership. Krystina shares her experiences of doing a PhD with chronic illness, coming to terms with being disabled, and how she balances the needs of her PhD with looking after her health. We have a mini coaching session about her writing schedule, which is relevant for all PhD students, as well as hearing her recommendations about how universities could better support students completing their research with health challenges. If you found this episode useful, you might also like these: How and if to work when things feel uncertainHow to stop feeling guilty when you restHow to seek the help you need****I'm Dr Vikki Wright, ex-Professor and certified life coach and I help everyone from PhD students to full Professors to get a bit less overwhelmed and thrive in academia. Please make sure you subscribe, and I would love it if you could find time to rate, review and tell your friends! You can send them this universal link that will work whatever the podcast app they use. http://pod.link/1650551306?i=1000695434464 I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need.

Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!In this episode of The PhD Life Coach podcast, Dr Vikki Wright explains why chasing ‘perfect efficiency’ is actually making your PhD harder. Many students think that taking flawless notes or writing excellent first drafts will save time — but this mindset often leads to procrastination and stress. Instead, Vikki reveals why starting imperfectly is the key to progress. She explains that writing is part of the thinking process, reading evolves with your understanding, and connecting with others can be the most effective use of your time. If you're overwhelmed by the pressure to be ‘productive’, this episode will help you work smarter — not harder. Ideal for PhD students and academics feeling stuck, behind, or anxious about their thesis. Listen now to learn how embracing imperfection can help you finish your PhD with less stress.Links I refer to in this episode:Why you shouldn’t read when you’re writingWhy perfect plans fail: embracing imperfection in academic writingHow to get started on a taskHow to use the do know don’t know list****I'm Dr Vikki Wright, ex-Professor and certified life coach and I help everyone from PhD students to full Professors to get a bit less overwhelmed and thrive in academia. Please make sure you subscribe, and I would love it if you could find time to rate, review and tell your friends! You can send them this universal link that will work whatever the podcast app they use. http://pod.link/1650551306?i=1000695434464 I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need.

Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!If you dread presentations, or would just like to be a bit more confident when speaking, then this episode is for you! Linda Ugelow, author of Delight in the Limelight, is talking about why so many of us struggle with public speaking and what we can all do to improve. If you listen carefully, you’ll also find out what happened when I was live on stage in a wetsuit too 😊 You can find out all about Linda here or follow her on TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, or YouTube. You can also buy her book, Delight in the Limelight or find it on Audible. You can get her Speaker Preparation Checklist to feel grounded, focused, and energized when you speak.  If you want a giggle, you can also watch my FameLab disaster video and my response****I'm Dr Vikki Wright, ex-Professor and certified life coach and I help everyone from PhD students to full Professors to get a bit less overwhelmed and thrive in academia. Please make sure you subscribe, and I would love it if you could find time to rate, review and tell your friends! You can send them this universal link that will work whatever the podcast app they use. http://pod.link/1650551306?i=1000695434464 I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need.

Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!In this episode I answer three questions from listeners on different topics, but that are all loosely connected to the idea that we want to be able to “do it all”. I give Julia some tips on writing up a PhD with small children, I advise Susan on how prepare for her comprehensive exams, and I give Sajini some ideas about managing overwhelm when balancing writing up with working as an international student.  Interestingly, these are all topics that I don’t have direct experience of, but stay with me as I apply our mindset principles to these very real challenges. ****I'm Dr Vikki Wright, ex-Professor and certified life coach and I help everyone from PhD students to full Professors to get a bit less overwhelmed and thrive in academia. Please make sure you subscribe, and I would love it if you could find time to rate, review and tell your friends! You can send them this universal link that will work whatever the podcast app they use. http://pod.link/1650551306?i=1000695434464 I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need.

Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show!All research can be stressful but if your topic is inherently distressing, it becomes even more important to look after your own wellbeing. In today’s episode, I welcome Dr Tina Skinner and Sarah Warbis who are experts in researcher wellbeing. They talk about how researchers can support themselves and, even more importantly, what support institutions should be putting in place to ensure that those conducting research in distressing topics get the help they need. Whatever your topic, there is a useful advice about caring for your own wellbeing. *Please note that there is brief mention of some distressing topics from the start.*LinksThe Researcher Well-Being ProjectJoin the Researcher Well-Being GroupYou might also be interested in this new research by Dr Mary Quinton on Best practices for supporting researchers’ mental health in emotionally demanding research across academic and non-academic contexts.****I'm Dr Vikki Wright, ex-Professor and certified life coach and I help everyone from PhD students to full Professors to get a bit less overwhelmed and thrive in academia. Please make sure you subscribe, and I would love it if you could find time to rate, review and tell your friends! You can send them this universal link that will work whatever the podcast app they use. http://pod.link/1650551306?i=1000695434464 I also host a free online community for academics at every level. You can sign up on my website, The PhD Life Coach. com - you'll receive regular emails with helpful tips and access to free online group coaching every single month! Come join and get the support you need.