James Hayton, PhD

In a PhD (or academia in general), there’s always pressure to perform. To get the results, to write them up and get them published.

But by putting too much pressure on results in the short term, it’s easy to neglect the need for practice; the need to work on skills without worrying too much about the end product.

Let’s use a sports analogy. If you spend all your time in competitive matches, you might develop a certain toughness; an ability to keep on grinding away, but without actually getting better. You’ll have some wins, but you’ll never reach the top.

Under the pressure of performance, you can’t experiment and adapt. You can’t work on basic technique when you have to react right now; your performance will stay at the level you can already perform instinctively.

It’s in the times between matches, away from the pressure of performance that you can work on skills. In sports there is a clear separation between practice and performance, but in PhD work, where you have to arrange your own work in a way that’s conducive to developing your research skills, you have to create that separation.

Take some time out and work on the basics. It will pay off in the long run.

See also

Raising the bar

What is it?

A free webinar on how to cope with writer’s block. Actually, it’s about dealing with the many underlying causes of writer’s block (because writer’s block is a symptom, rather than a condition in itself), but that would be a bit awkward as a title.

When is it?

Tuesday 22nd January at 2 pm UK time. The webinar will last around 90 minutes, including plenty of time for Q&A

What if I can’t make it live?

You can register anyway and you’ll get a link to the recording

How do I register?

Just click below!

There are so many external factors that can affect your PhD progress, but perhaps the single most important factor is how you react to them, internally.

If you panic, or disengage, or get angry, or complain, or interpret events in a way that makes them impossible to deal with, then it doesn’t matter what tactics you use; nothing will work. But if you can face whatever happens with calm determination and creativity, you can deal with almost anything.

The Neuroscientist-turned-Buddhist-monk, Matthieu Ricard, describes the ideal state of mind as being like the deep ocean; even if there is a storm on the surface, the depths beneath remain undisturbed.

Legendary basketball coach John Wooden had a different take on the same idea; he demanded that, following a match, those watching shouldn’t be able to tell whether they had won or lost from his players’ demeanour.

In other words, whatever’s happening externally shouldn’t affect your basic attitude. This takes practice.

See also

Patience and persistence

The invincible mindset

One of the many reasons why doing a PhD is so hard is that there is no single, consistent method of teaching PhD students how to research and write.

If you want to learn a language, for example, there are systems in place to help you do so. People have figured out how to break languages down and help you practice (and, crucially, those teaching systems are shared). You don’t have to figure it all out yourself (although you can), and teachers don’t have to invent their own way of teaching because there are frameworks they can use. The same is true for learning to drive a car or perform brain surgery or countless other skills.

For PhD students, the guidance you get depends enormously on your supervisor. But they’ve most likely had very little training in how to manage and mentor you. The way they do things will be determined by their personality and the experience they went through.

There are some superb supervisors out there. It’s just a shame it’s such a lottery.

See also:

Who you work with is just as important as what you do

Is your PhD supervisor a facilitator or a barrier?

If you’ve ever opened a PowerPoint presentation on a computer other than your own, you may have seen the text get all messed up.

This happens when you use fonts on your own computer that aren’t installed on the computer you present with. PowerPoint will then substitute your font for another. Sometimes it still looks OK, other times the spacing of the text gets completely ruined and your presentation looks amateur.

To avoid this, embed the fonts you use in the file along with your presentation.

In PP for Windows, go to File > Options >  Save, then scroll down and check “embed fonts in file”

On a Mac, go to Preferences > Output and Sharing > Save, then under Font Embedding, select “embed fonts in file”.

See also

How to design outstanding PowerPoint slides

How to format your PhD thesis using Microsoft Word

If you’re doing a PhD, you probably want to make a difference in the world.

This is a good thing. It’s good to have a goal that’s bigger than yourself. But it can also be a trap if you try to fix everything you think needs fixing. By trying to fix everything, you end up finishing nothing.

Even those who have revolutionised their fields haven’t done so all at once. They’ve done so by patiently and persistently addressing one problem at a time.

See also:

What to do when your PhD project gets too big

Raising the bar

Very often, writers get stuck. Most people call this writer’s block, and there are various ways people suggest to overcome it.

But writer’s block does not exist…

This video is an excerpt from The Writing Course: A comprehensive, step-by-step guide to becoming a better writer and writing your PhD thesis.

See also

The Writing Course

How to Overcome Writer’s Block

You didn’t start a PhD because you thought it would be easy. You knew it would take time, and you knew it would involve difficulties along the way.

But, still, it’s easy to get frustrated when things don’t go your way.

During my own PhD, I felt demotivated because I wasn’t getting results as quickly as others were. I got frustrated when experiments didn’t work, and I never fully invested myself because I didn’t want to take the risk.

Of course, these responses were the opposite of what was needed. It was only when I slowed down and started doing things carefully, without worrying about the end result, that my fortunes changed.

I developed the patience to do things slowly and the persistence to keep trying. And, crucially, I maintained these attitudes when I faced challenges throughout the rest of my PhD.

The challenges you face in your PhD are really just tests of your patience and persistence. How will you respond?

See also

The invincible mindset

Dealing with research stress

This is the year when I’ll finally do [complete the blank].

Whatever it is you intend to do this year, if you haven’t started moving towards it yet, do something about it today (even if it’s just a small step).

It’s easy to set goals for the future, but it’s equally easy to think of reasons why you can’t do it yet. You don’t have the money. You don’t have the time. You don’t have the experience or the skills. You need to finish [complete the blank].

Conditions will never be perfect. There will always be more urgent needs. There will always be competing demands on your attention.

Nothing can stop you if you really want to do it. But you have to do something about it today.