Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! In this episode, we’re diving into a common trap many PhD students and academics fall into: setting word count goals like “500 words a day” or “6,000 words by next month.” While these goals sound productive, they often oversimplify the complex process of academic writing. I’ll explain why relying on word count as a measure of progress can hinder your motivation and overlook crucial aspects of writing, such as revising, outlining, and refi...
Dec 09, 2024•14 min•Season 3Ep. 14
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! In this episode, I answer three thought-provoking questions from PhD students and graduates: Handling Final-Year Disappointment A PhD student asks how to cope with the sense of disappointment that can arise in the final year when you realise your initial goals and ambitions have had to be scaled back. I explain why this is actually a good sign and how to use this understanding to motivate yourself to move forwards. Staying Motivated Post-...
Dec 02, 2024•26 min•Season 3Ep. 13
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! In this episode, I share a fresh approach to planning for PhD students and academics that doesn’t rely on perfection. If you’ve ever felt like planning isn’t for you because you “never stick to it,” this episode is for you. We’ll explore imperfect planning : creating flexible time structures that make it easy to pick back up after things go off track. Tune in to learn: Why expecting perfection derails most plans How to make plans that sup...
Nov 25, 2024•24 min•Season 3Ep. 12
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Whether you’re a regular AI user or prefer to keep your distance, understanding AI’s role in academia is becoming essential. In this episode, I chat with Dr. Jessica Parker, founder of the AI platform MoxieLearn, about the when, why, and how of using AI as a PhD student. We explore where AI can genuinely enhance your research—and where it might fall short. From the best benefits to the biggest pitfalls, and even some thought-provoking que...
Nov 18, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 3Ep. 11
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! I don’t know about you but my brain has so many ideas and thoughts of things I should do, shouldn’t do, mustn’t forget, want to change, or need to make a decision about. I needed a system to get them out of my head but where I knew I would come back to them. In this episode, I’m sharing a system I’ve been testing to help capture and crucially organise and act on ideas more effectively. This process is all about easing mental overload, hol...
Nov 11, 2024•21 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Do you struggle to get back into work after a big deadline? Have issues connecting with your supervisor? Or feel like you don’t even know whether your work is good enough or not? Then this episode is for you! In my second client Q&A episode, I answer three questions from listeners on these topics and give actionable advice if you find yourself in these situations. I even give a little controversial advice to supervisors so make sure y...
Nov 04, 2024•41 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! If you make unrealistic plans and get impatient that you’re not progressing more quickly, then this is the episode for you! I’m going to give you specific tips about how to be more realistic and more patient so that you can be a better boss to yourself! I’ll talk about when you need to be realistic and patient, what thoughts will help and what feelings, actions and results we can then generate. If you like it, check out the rest of the fi...
Oct 28, 2024•26 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! It’s a tough world at the moment. I’ve had lots of clients struggling with job insecurity, family or personal health issues, and the direct or indirect effects of all the bad stuff that’s happening in the world right now. In this podcast, I give some ideas about how you can show yourself compassion, decide what (if any) work you are capable of, and how to support yourself through these challenges times. The emphasis is always on compassio...
Oct 21, 2024•32 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Do you remember what fascinated you about your PhD topic? Sometimes when we’re stuck in the middle of endless studying it can be hard to recall why we even chose this programme. This week in the podcast I’m talking to Rosa Smith from the Brilliant Club about how sharing your research with schoolkids can inspire everyone involved! Rosa talks about how the Brilliant Club works with less advantaged young people in non-selective, non-feeing p...
Oct 14, 2024•39 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! If you struggle to get stuff done when you don’t feel like working, this episode is for you! I’m answering three questions from my listeners: Q1 How do I go from rough notes to writing sentences? Q2 How do I edit when I’m scared I’ll realise it’s rubbish? Q3 How do I get stuff done when I feel unmotivated? I’ll tell you all the ways this is totally normal AND what you can do about it! BTW Do you ever have questions that you’d love to have...
Oct 07, 2024•27 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Sometimes in academia being “strategic” and “ambitious” can feel like criticisms – like we’re building our career at the expense of others or being too “corporate” for a university setting. In reality, being strategic and ambitious is just about deciding what contribution you want to make to the world and why. If you often underestimate yourself, or feel like however hard you work other people are progressing more quickly, then this is th...
Sep 30, 2024•24 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! A lot of PhD students and academics struggle to get started on a task or believe that they can’t start until they’ve got lots of time. In this episode, I show you how to get started on a task, so that you can complete work even when you’re busy, with less drama and stress. I show you how some of your thoughts are holding you back and give you three ways to get started on your key tasks. Links I refer to in this episode How to use the Do K...
Sep 23, 2024•24 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! This week, we’re talking about starting a new academic year! This is NOT about goal setting or new resolutions - instead I'm talking about three ways that you can start the year that are more positive and empowering. These are how to harness your strengths, how to predict the future (and why) and how to modify your environment to support yourself to succeed. These are inspired by my How To Start As You Mean To Go on workshop that I ran fo...
Sep 16, 2024•21 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! We are back for a brand new season and I want to help all of you struggling with procrastination, overwhelm, imposter syndrome, working too much, not working enough, feeling behind, having too much to do or wondering if you want to be doing this at all. In the episode I'm going to give you five FREE ways that I can help you, one nearly free way (ie someone else pays!) and then a couple of options if you're ready to work with me more close...
Sep 09, 2024•19 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Sometimes we can feel like we have to do everything, that everything is urgent, and we don't even know when to start. Sometimes the best approach is to work out how to be efficient, organise ourselves and get stuff done. Other times, it's worth questioning what we're doing and whether it really matters. In this episode we're going to reflect on creating a "summary" of our careers and asking "will this make the summary?" We can use this pe...
Aug 12, 2024•18 min•Season 2Ep. 48
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Whether you have been watching the Olympics or not, we have so much we can learn from Olympians. Don't worry - this is not going to be the usual "you've got to work harder, you've got to grind" toxic mindset. I am going to share nine lessons that you probably haven't thought about before, that you can use to help you finish your PhD and succeed in academia! YouTube link here! **** I'm Dr Vikki Wright, ex-Professor and certified life coach...
Aug 05, 2024•29 min•Season 2Ep. 47
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Sometimes we have the best intentions for the work we're going to do, but we wake up just not feeling it. We're tired, we lack focus, we don't think we're in the right frame of mind to work. Sometimes we beat ourselves up and force ourselves to sit down and work and other times we just give up entirely. In today's episode, Dr Alison Miller, of The Academic Writers' Space, tells us why she believes we should learn to work with the version ...
Jul 29, 2024•48 min•Season 2Ep. 46
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! You ever feel like you get to the end of the week and you have no idea what you did, you've been busy but you definitely didn't do the things that you wanted to get done and the week just seems to have got away from you, then you are in exactly the right place. Today I'm going to be thinking about how to be more intentional so that you achieve your goals and enjoy your life and more resourceful so that you can get the support you need! Th...
Jul 22, 2024•23 min•Season 2Ep. 45
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! PhD students and academics often wonder how to handle contradictory advice and how to decide what to do. In this episode I think about what makes contradictory advice feel so challenging and I give you some questions to ask yourself to help you decide what you're going to do. **** 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 ...
Jul 15, 2024•40 min•Season 2Ep. 44
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! So many people tell me they struggle to plan because things always take longer than they anticipated. They then end up not following their plan because things run over and they get disheartened. Sometimes they stop planning entirely because it feels pointless. If that sounds like you, I've got you! In this episode we'll talk about why it's hard to judge how long things take and how to get better at it, so that we can learn to plan and to ...
Jul 08, 2024•24 min•Season 2Ep. 43
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Procrastinating is when we scroll social media instead of working, right? No! Procrastination is anything that we do to avoid the emotions associated with doing the task we intend to do. In this episode, I will share eight things that I think are often used as procrastination and help you figure out what to do if you recognise yourself in this! I suspect we all will... **** I'm Dr Vikki Wright, ex-Professor and certified life coach and I ...
Jul 01, 2024•32 min•Season 2Ep. 42
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! This is for anyone in academia who struggles with self-criticism and judgement (ie most people!) My series "how to be a better boss to yourself" introduces 10 qualities that we need to nurture in ourselves to support ourselves to achieve our goals and enjoy our lives. In this episode I talk about being more encouraging and accepting of ourselves. We think about why it's important, how to do it, and what impact it would have in our lives! ...
Jun 24, 2024•28 min•Season 2Ep. 41
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! One of the things I hear clients say most often is that they don't know what to do. They either don't know what decision to make in their life, they don't know how to do something, they don't know how to present their argument, how to structure their paper, they don't know which study to do, they don't know, they don't know, they don't know. It comes up all the time at every level of the academic journey, whether you're a PhD student or a...
Jun 17, 2024•27 min
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! If you ever feel disorganised, chaotic or behind, then maybe you need to spend time in "personal assistant" mode! In the episode, I discuss how to help prepare for your future self, to make tasks feel easier, more organised and even more pleasant. I explain how to use this approach to be more productive and help you work more effectively - and why it can feel so good! Links How to be your own best supervisor How to use boss mode to plan H...
Jun 10, 2024•37 min•Season 2Ep. 39
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! If you beat yourself up or tell yourself that you don't know what you should do, then I am going to help you be a better boss to yourself! This is the first in a series of episodes identifying qualities that we all need to try and nurture so that we can be give ourselves the support we need to succeed and enjoy our lives. In this episode I talk about compassion and curiosity! Links - How to stop comparing yourself to others - How to stop ...
Jun 03, 2024•28 min•Season 2Ep. 38
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! So many of my clients this week have been struggling with writing. Now that's not unusual. But what has been unusual is how they've all identified the same issue with writing. They talked about settling down to have a block of writing where they decided what they were going to do. And started writing, and then realized there was a little detail that they couldn't remember, or an argument they wanted to check, or something they just wanted...
May 27, 2024•23 min•Season 2Ep. 73
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Do you have things on your list that you should be doing, but you're not? Are you finding yourself getting distracted by anything and everything? Whether it's distracted by doing other admin y easy tasks, whether it's getting distracted by television or social media, whether it's even getting distracted by cleaning. I'm seeing this all the time with my clients at the moment, and even experiencing it a bit myself, so let's get into it. ***...
May 20, 2024•32 min•Season 2Ep. 36
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! Often as PhD students or academics, we get that feeling of being stuck and unable to do the next steps. In this episode, I coach Danielle, who struggles with feeling "stuck", making decisions about next steps and procrastination. We discuss where these problems come from and identify some steps to move forward. Ideal for anyone who feels that they are behind, overwhelmed or don't stick to their schedule. **** I'm Dr Vikki Wright, ex-Profe...
May 13, 2024•46 min•Season 2Ep. 35
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! This week is one of those really practical episodes where I tell you specifically how I do something - in this case, how I manage my various tasks. This isn't intended as "you have to do it like me", but more an example of how I have worked out a system that works for me and how you can do the same. **** 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 ov...
May 06, 2024•34 min•Season 2Ep. 34
Send Vikki any questions you'd like answered on the show! So many of my PhD student and academic clients are feeling overwhelmed, overcommitted and like they have to do everything. In today's episode I talk about why we should think about our careers in phases, as a way of addressing this. We're going to think about what we mean by phases, what decisions we can make once we know what phase we're in, and how it can change the way we think and feel about ourselves and our obligations and choices. ...
Apr 29, 2024•35 min•Season 2Ep. 33
