Welcome to 2022! We are now roughly six weeks in and I thought I would welcome the new year by providing you with a video recording of a workshop I ran last year in April (I always seem to be a little late to the party on this blog!). In this video I discuss: 1. Things to consider about note-taking 2. The Cornell Method 3. The Index card method/Zettelkasten 4. Literature review matrix As always, you can read how I take notes here on my blog (Nvivo for a literature review: How and why and The way I take notes for my PhD). Here are the main considerations you should know prior to choo ..read more

If you look for advice about the PhD process it largely seems to be ‘what I wished I’d know at the start’ or ‘what I wish I knew before starting my PhD’ etc. I thought I would go a little differently and list what I wish I had known about the final year. What follows is a list of my reflections on the final year of my PhD. When reading, remember I am in Australia so we usually have a 2-4 year program and no comprehensive exams/vivas. We find a supervisor, get into the program and work on our project straight away. Our examination process does not include a viva, we await reports from two exami ..read more

I cannot write this post without addressing one question: where have I been? I last wrote a post on this blog in December 2020 (it is now September 2021!). In that time, I have finished, submitted and passed my PhD! I am now Dr Smithers. In the last six months of my PhD I worked full time while trying to finish writing/editing chapters. I do not recommend this. Naturally, I couldn’t keep up with everything and this blog was left alone for a while. Although I was working full time, I could not afford a thesis editor to review my manuscript. I was fairly confident with my writing, but scoured th ..read more

Often there is a myth perpetuated about doing a PhD, and that myth is that you must eat, sleep and breathe your thesis. This usually means working long hours and on weekends. But is this productive? I argue it isn’t. As I have moved through my PhD journey I have reflected many times on the value of my PhD and how at times, this PhD became linked to my identity.  Throughout my PhD I have tried to create a seperate and productive life outside of my PhD. This has meant taking on teaching work, ensuring I have a work-life balance and time away from my PhD. I have tried to create a work-life b ..read more

I have recently come into two new roles that focus on student support (NUPSA Vice President and Student Peer Advisor). In both these roles, I have realised that many students do not know the wealth of knowledge which is available to them on both the university campus and online. This list is compiled with my own specific university experience in mind. If you are in another country (not Australia) you may not have these resources. But I encourage you to reach out to your university and see if they have these available. I have used every single one of them at some point in my PhD. Here are some ..read more

I recently made a YouTube video about my experiences with Nvivo for the literature review. I realised when I was making this video that I needed to update my post a little about NVIVO. This is for a few reasons: NVIVO 12 looks different to NVIVO 11 for Mac. In fact, now NVIVO 12 looks very similar to NVIVO for Windows. I am further into my PhD so have more perspective on its use I now have a Youtube Video where I explain in more depth! What are my thoughts on NVIVO now? I still love it. It has been invaluable for me during the writing and updating of my literature review and in writing my da ..read more

Often, PhD students imagine their journey to be linear and then it ends up with pitfalls and successes: This post is about when you get into the dips, or as I call them, pits of despair. Sometimes when you are in a lull you don’t know how you got there, or how to get out. This can be spurred by external issues (see How I avoided a PhD meltdown) or issues directly related to your project. I have found when I am in the pits related to my PhD visualising helps. This only really works when it is an issue related to my PhD. Some issues I have had are: being overwhelmed by the data, where do ..read more

In this post I thought I would share how I plan my days/weeks in my PhD. This process evolved over time for me, and is the culmination of workshops/googling/other blogs. Gantt chart Personally, I actually hate Gantt charts! Yes, I do think they are good for long term planning. Yet, a lot of people have them and don’t actually do anything with them! Usually every candidate tends to have a gantt chart, but doesn’t actually use it to make smaller, achievable chunks. So I use mine to plan my weeks. Long term weekly planning I use my Gantt chart every 2-3 months to make a weekly plan. This weekly p ..read more

I like to consider myself quite prepared and organised, but when I suddenly had interviews that needed transcribing, I realised I didn’t know much about it at all. I then undertook a magical journey of finding the right way of transcribing, that worked for me. I have detailed it here for those who are looking to read more about alternate methods of transcription. Attempt 1: Using voice-to-text, speaking the interview out loud I had read online that voice-to-text options are the way to go for transcribing. I did a quick google and found otter.ai which is a voice-to-text transcriber. Otter ..read more

In high school I was really bad at taking notes and studying. So much so that I barely got into a university degree! In my undergraduate I slowly learnt tricks for studying and remembering all the things I had to do. But when you begin a PhD, it is quite honestly a whole new ball game. The things you read you will need to be able to find, and remember in two or three years time! Everybody has a different process, but I thought I would outline mine in this blog post. I’ll begin with a confession; the thought of PDFs in folders has always scared me.  To me, the idea of knowing what a f ..read more