On this podcast and in my coaching sessions, I spend a lot of time talking about thoughts. Talking about how the thoughts that we have shape our feelings and actions, and how we can intentionally modify our thoughts, not to just make stuff up, but to focus on thoughts that we already believe, but that we know serve us better, in order to feel better, do the actions we intend to do and achieve our goals. So there's lots of focus on thoughts.  In this episode,  I'm going to turn that...

If you're listening to this in real time, it's the beginning of December and we are on the final run in to the winter holidays. One of the things that has really stuck out to me recently is how many of my clients need to hear the same things. So this week I'm going to be talking about five things that I think you need to hear right now! Let's go!

If you're trying really hard to kind of look after yourself and stay on top of your own stress levels, but you're finding yourself surrounded by other people who are stressed, other people who are complaining, then this is the perfect episode for you. We are going to be thinking about how can you manage your mind when those around you are losing theirs without needing to push them out of your lives, without needing to solve their problems, how can we study our own emotions and look after...

In this episode, we're going to be talking about all things ADHD with special guest Dr Alex Conner from https://www.adhdadult.uk/. So whether you have it yourself, you think you might have it, you sometimes wonder, or whether you work with, know, or love people who do have ADHD, then you are going to learn so much about how to support yourself and how to support other people.  Just to give you a heads up though, before we start there's one very short mention of suicidal thoughts when we're...

Do you hear the word networking and just think that this is the most awful thing ever, or that you're really bad at it, or that you shouldn't have to do it, or it's really hard, or it's not the right time? If so, you are going to love this episode because we're going to tell you all the reasons you're wrong. I have a guest with me, Dr Jen Polk, and we are going to be talking all things networking.  Find out more at www.thephdlifecoach.com

Have you got your PhD viva coming up soon? Or is it something that you're already starting to dread even though it's a few years away? If so, this is the perfect episode for you. We're going to be thinking about all the stories about PhD vivas, how we can prepare for them, and how we can look after ourselves in that process. You get to decide how we do this and I'm going to help you figure out how.

In this episode, an ex-client Marie is telling us about the "perfect weekly meeting" that she developed during our time coaching together. She uses this to set the tone for her week and it's really changed how she feels and how she gets stuff done. It's so much more than a to-do list, and instead really gets to the core of how to start a week with intention. Hope you find it useful! 

If you're a regular listener, you're going to have heard me talk about self coaching, about exploring the thoughts that we have and the impact that they have on our emotions and our actions and the things that we achieve. I thought it would be really useful to have a single episode where I actually take you through the principles of self coaching, why we do it, how we do it, and how you can start incorporating it into your lives and the benefits that you might see when you do.

Every single one of us will have written to a word count at some point in our academic careers. Often as undergraduates, the struggle is to write enough words to hit the word count, but as we get further through our academic careers, the challenge increasingly becomes to stay under the word count. So if you've ever struggled to shorten your work to meet the requirements of your submission to your degree program or to a journal, then this is the episode for you. Ironically, it's also one of...

When was the last time you learned something outside of your academic work that you then used within your academic work? I think it's time for another one of those tenuous links between two things that are seemingly unrelated, but actually are connected much more than you think. So in this episode, I'm going to be talking about nine things I learned planning my wedding that might be useful in your PhD too. You can find out more about working with me at www.thephdlifecoach.com

Our professional relationships with the people who supervise or manage us can have huge implications for how much we achieve and how much we enjoy our academic work. Yet often we can be quite passive about it - "they are how they are" and we just have to cope with it. In this episode, I'll share some straightforward ways that you can "manage" the people above you to make it more efficient and more fun for everyone involved.  If you want to get a full transcript or find out more about working...

When did you last get some negative feedback? As PhD students and academics, we get negative feedback quite often, either comments on drafts of papers, rejections from journals, applying for jobs, all sorts of things. We get bits of negative feedback and it can really hurt. So what do we do when we experience negative feedback? What do we do with the fact it hurts and how could we perhaps do something different in the future? That's what we're going to be talking about in today's podcast.

Welcome to Season 2 of the PhD Life Coach! In this first episode, I talk about feeling behind! It's easy to spend a lot of time telling yourself that you're behind your own plan or you're behind other people. Neither feel good and neither help us make more progress.  I'll talk through why these sort of thoughts hold us back and give some ideas about what to do instead. None of this needs us to be a super human - the tips are simple and achieveable, and help us move towards our goals with less...

In this final episode of the 2022/23 academic year, I reflect on seven things that I have learned since starting this podcast. Whether it's managing perfectionism, staying consistent or building community, there's loads that you can apply to your own journey. After this, I'll be taking a short break and returning at the beginning of September. There's 41 episodes up for you now so perhaps revisit some of the ones you've missed, or that you've found particularly useful and I'll see you next...

In this episode, I welcome Kirsty Sedgman, academic and author of On Being Unreasonable. We talk about Kirsty's fascinating route into her current academic role and what encouraged her to write a book about unreasonableness. We also discuss the tricky subject of what is considered "reasonable" within academia  and how we can push boundaries to create our own meaningful paths.  In this episode, Kirsty Sedgman talks about her book On Being Unreasonable: Breaking the rules and making things...

Do you start your day not clear on what the priorities are and just feeling indecisive and unmotivated? We all do sometimes. What we often need in that moment is to be a bit reflective, think about what we need, get clarity on our tasks and remind ourselves why we do this.  But it's so hard! When you're already in a funk, it's so difficult to regulate yourself like that. I know! I try and fail often.  To support you, I've made a start the day video that can guide you through it instead!...

This is the second of a two part series about thriving in our academic summer. This time we consider the balance between structure and freedom and how to plan a summer that meets all of our needs.  In this episode I talk about another episodes of my podcast:  How to use role-based time-blocking You can find a transcript at www.thephdlifecoach.com/podcast and also find more details about working with me

The summer period can be particularly stressful for academics, whether it's because you miss the structure of "normal" term or because you don't feel like you even GET a summer any more. This is the first in a short series of episodes considering how we can make the summer ours again and enjoy this part of the academic year. Today we're talking about the benefits of combining some "acceptance" with some "resistance" so that this doesn't feel more painful than it needs to!  For a transcript...

When PhD students (and even academics) think about their career options, it often gets divided into "academic" or "non-academic" careers. In this episode, my guest  Holly Prescott, a careers consultant for PGRs, talks about academic adjacent careers. She explains what they involve, why people should consider them and we discuss some of the issues that sometimes hold people back from discovering, and moving into, these interest careers. 

Lots of people struggle to feel proud of themselves, even when on paper they look really successful. In this episode, I talk about why this is, why it can cause problems and how to develop a habit of being more proud of yourself.  Find the transcript at www.thephdlifecoach.com/podcast

People often ask me how to finish up a PhD quickly but not many people know that I did exactly that. In this episode, I consider why people worry about finishing quickly enough and share some reasons why it was possible in my case (sneaky preview - none of it was because I was cleverer or better than anyone else in my cohort...) I also discuss the downsides of speeding through and what I think people could do instead. This is my most personal episode so far so hope you enjoy! 

So many clients tell me that they struggle to transition between different types of tasks, particularly when it comes to fitting writing into their regular days. In this episode, I'm talking about my not-very-illustrious history of attempting triathlons and what I learned about "transitioning" between the different sections of the race. If we're going to time block effectively (and not just tell ourselves that it "doesn't work for us"), then we can pick up some really useful tips from...

You may have heard of, or even tried, time blocking before. It can be a great way to take control of your to do list and get things done, but it can also get really overwhelming. Role-based time blocking is a streamlined version, designed specifically for roles (like academic jobs) that have lots of different components. Check it out, and discover why I'm committing to NOT making a bunch of tiny personalised hats....