PhD Coaching Blog — PhD

I keep this little statue on my book shelf, and as you can see she's looking out at the world in which I live.  I bought her many decades ago when I was making changes in my life and it suited my mood at the time. Contemplative. Today, I was looking at it again and realized that it's just as relevant now as it was earlier in my life and career.  So I moved it from a lower shelf to give it pride of place on the top shelf to help me focus on what I'm going to do next.  ...

On International Women's Day, I sent a message to all women PhD candidates who are pulled in so many ways as they manage their studies.  But it's not just women, of course.  Juggling studies, work and home is something that all grad students have to do.   I know that the stresses and challenges of completing a PhD program are experienced by everyone who starts the journey.  I’d like to send a few words of encouragement to you too, with one or two suggestions for making it to the end. First, some of the happiest students are just focused on their...

      Expecting to be dawdling over your thesis in 2024?   To help you avoid that, I invite to join me for a four-week series of tutorials on how to write a “Good Enough” thesis, starting January 25th. Why?  Well, did you know that the average thesis takes eight years to complete? I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that PhD programs are excessively long and that doctoral students take too much time. In spite of the best of intentions, too many find themselves failing to reach the end of their studies, and there are probably several...

  Graduate Pathways to Success Model When you're planning to build something, like a doctoral thesis, it's a good idea to create a model that shows how all the pieces connect.  I'm very proud of the model that I created for the Graduate Pathways to Success program at the University of British cancel, and I saw it was still in use when I visited for a special event this week: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/current-students/professional-development Also pleased to see that I'm still being given credit for my work with GPS: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/current-students/professional-development/about-gps Of course that may change shortly, because the special event was the retirement...

  The question I posted on my recent LinkedIn  page was can you complete a PhD if you live with Dyslexia.  And my answer was Yes!  I hope you’ll take a minute to read what I said, and let me know if you want to discuss. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7132954873876123649/