Feeling overwhelmed by your PhD? Your problem might be smaller than it feels

One tiny PhD problem can turn into Godzilla remarkably quickly.

It starts innocently enough, with a slight annoyance like this: “This section of my literature review isn't working.”

Three hours later and you’ve moved the same paragraphs around multiple times, each time making it make less sense than it did before. Great, it’s now academic soup with more bits in it.

Fiddlesticks.

Cue the doom spiral…

“Why can't I sort this out?”

“I should be able to do this by now.”

“Maybe I'm just not very good at this.”

“Perhaps I should quit the PhD, move to the coast and open a small shop selling artisanal soap.”

Woah. 😳

We started with a wonky section of a literature review. How did we get here?!

Well, somewhere along the way, you equated having a problem with one part of your PhD with there being a problem with YOU.

This doesn’t do a lot for your self esteem. You’ve basically just chucked the Imposter Syndrome Crocodile another crispy chicken thigh from your KFC bargain bucket. Let’s try something else.

Imagine a friend doing a PhD came to you with exactly the problem you're currently having.

Would you say:

“Yep. That section's a bit rubbish. You're clearly not PhD material.”

I HOPE NOT. I mean, imagine.

You'd probably say:

“Yeah, that bit IS difficult.”

“Mine took ages too.”

“Are you trying to do too much in that section?”

“Hang on. I think you've actually got two different problems here.”

Interesting, isn't it?

You haven't magically solved their problem by sprinkling a few kind words into the convo but you have reduced the problem to its actual size and stuck a spanner in the catastrophe wheel.

That’s what another person can do for you.

When you've been staring at the same problem for hours, days or weeks, you're standing far too close to it but another person is standing several feet back going:

“Erm... Jane? That's not Godzilla. That's a wonky paragraph.”

Oh. 😂

This is one of the reasons I think being around other researchers matters so much during a PhD and I have a lovely little corner of the internet full of people ready to (very kindly) call you out on the negative self-talk nonsense.

Learn more about that here.

If you’re not into the whole community thing, fair. You might want to sign up for my weekly emails instead. Or as well as. You do you. Here’s the sign up link.