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.*

Links

The Researcher Well-Being Project

Join the Researcher Well-Being Group

You 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.

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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!

One of the most frustrating moments in a PhD or academic career is reading through your first draft—only to realise it’s a mess. It doesn’t flow, the arguments feel clunky, and now you’re stuck figuring out how to fix it.

In today’s episode, I’m sharing practical techniques to help you transform that rough first draft into a polished manuscript—without the overwhelm and self-criticism. Whether you’re writing a thesis chapter, journal article, or conference paper, these strategies will make revision smoother, faster, and far less painful.

Links I refer to in this episode 

How to shorten your work 

How to handle negative feedback

What to do when you get contradictory advice

How to break work down into chunks 

How to improve your writing (with Dr Katy Peplin)

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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!

Want more people to read your research? This week, I’m joined by Tony Stubblebine, CEO of Medium, to explore the benefits of writing for a general audience. We’ll discuss how sharing your ideas beyond academia can boost your visibility, strengthen your writing skills, and position you as an expert. If you’ve ever wondered whether anyone will actually read what you write—or how to reach more people—this episode is for you!

Find out more about Tony Stubblebine and some of his most popular articles here

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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!

Do you ever wonder why you’re even doing this? Whether your research actually matters and whether the world actually cares? In this episode I’m telling you exactly why I believe your work matters, no matter what you’re researching. I’ll also tell you what bits (that we often worry about) don’t matter! This episode is designed to listen to whenever you need it, so make sure you save it somewhere for those days when you’re struggling!

Links I refer to in this episode 

What to do when you want more reassurance

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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!

Do you ever feel like you’re only succeeding because you’re working more than is healthy? That you are subsidizing your work at the expense of your wellbeing? Then today’s episode is a must listen! I welcome Andy Brown, author of The Emotional Overdraft and we chat about what we mean by an Emotional Overdraft, how to know if you have one, and what to do about it.

Links I refer to in this episode 

You can find out more about Andy Brown and The Emotional Overdraft here

Find out the extent of your emotional overdraft by completing this assessment

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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!

Doing a PhD and even working in academia can be a lonely business. Sometimes we just don't feel like we've got the support we need around us. In this episode, I am going to identify six different types of social support that I think all academics need and give you some ideas to start assessing where you think you are at the moment. From there we’ll identify some steps forward that you can take, so that you can get the social support that you need.

Links I refer to in this episode 

You can find links to Dr Lilia Mantai’s research here

How to build your own academic community

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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!

Do you find yourself putting stuff off because it’s not due yet or never reaching some goals because they don’t have a specific deadline at all? Is the only thing that actually gets you moving that slight panic associated with a looming deadline? If so, this is totally normal but it can mean that work feels very pressured and that we don’t always do the things that we want to be doing in the long term. In this episode, I will talk about how we can reduce our dependence on deadlines and how we can use start dates to organise our tasks instead.

Links I refer to in this episode 

Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

How to do role-based time blocking

Total Workday Control by Michael Lindenberger

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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 chat with Dr Gertrude Nonterah, founder of The Bold PhD. She shares her own experience of transitioning from an academic career to an industry position and starting her own business that supports people with PhDs to build their personal brand and find jobs outside academia. She also shares some of the hints and tips that she has gathered through speaking with hundreds of academics, that she wishes all PhD students knew! 

Links I refer to in this episode 

Dr Gertrude Nonterah on LinkedIn

The Bold PhD 

55 academics reveal PhD student secrets you won’t learn in school! 

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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!

Changing plans can feel daunting, especially when you’re committed to a specific path and you’re not sure what is the “right” decision. In this episode, we dive into why it’s so hard to shift gears, why adaptability is essential for success, and how to navigate change without losing momentum. You'll also hear about a major update I’m making to my membership programme—offering insights that could inspire your own big decisions. Whether you’re rethinking your PhD research goals or looking to build resilience in your everyday life, this episode is packed with practical tips and real-world examples to help you embrace change with confidence.

Links I refer to in this episode 

How to make decisions that you love

How to go from idea overload to clarity

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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 coach Swagata, a PhD student navigating the intense overwhelm and exhaustion of her final months of writing up. If you’ve ever felt the pressure of looming deadlines, struggled to balance rest with productivity, or found yourself trapped in guilt for taking a break, this episode is for you.

What’s inside this episode?
✨ The challenges of finishing a PhD – Swagata shares her honest experience of overwork, guilt around resting, and feeling like her energy isn’t enough to meet the demands of writing up.
✨ Practical time-management strategies – Together, we explore actionable ways to organise her time effectively, so she can focus on what truly matters without burning out.
✨ Reframing unhelpful thoughts – I help Swagata identify and challenge thought patterns that are making her PhD journey more painful than it needs to be, offering insights that can help you, too.
This episode is packed with relatable struggles and realistic solutions for any PhD student feeling overwhelmed. You’ll gain practical tips to ease your workload and mindset shifts to approach your final months with more clarity and confidence.

👉 Listen now to discover how to tackle overwork, embrace rest guilt-free, and finish your PhD without sacrificing your well-being.

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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.