Everything you need to know to succeed in your PhD, for just £25
The Painless PhD is a weekly video course created to guide you through your PhD and show you exactly what is required in order to succeed.
Preview
>>>Click here to get access to the course<<<
What’s the idea?
The painless PhD is built upon a simple idea; that just because a PhD is difficult, that doesn’t mean it has to be painful.
Stress: the badge of honour?
It does not have to be this way…
The first step is acknowledging the stress. Check the list below…
PhD stress: signs you should not ignore
- Constantly feeling you can’t work hard enough
- Feeling overwhelmed by the workload
- Felling like you are not working to your true ability
- Inability to focus
- Feeling like nothing you do has any impact, and that you have no control
- Feeling that even easy things have become difficult
- Constant fear of failure
- Feeling like you don’t belong on a PhD program, and that you will be “found out”
- Physical or mental exhaustion
Your PhD won’t be painful, if;
- You understand at a fundamental level what you are trying to achieve
- You know how to cope with the unpredictability of research
- You know how to manage your mental resources
- You know what is required at each stage
- You know how research works
- You know how to communicate effectively
If you understand these things at a fundamental level, then you won’t need to fight against your PhD. It will still take work, but if your effort is directed in an effective way then it need not be painful!
Your personal guide
And if anything isn’t covered, just ask!
Q+A
The course is interactive. Ask questions in the comments section, and I will respond to all. If your question is really good, I will make a video on it!
How does it work?
The course started in early January, with a new video added every week.
After you join, you will have access to all the previous videos, and you will be notified by email when a new video is released.
Each module covers a specific theme, from fundamental principles through to the thesis defence and beyond.
>>>Click here to get access to the course<<<
Module 1: The fundamentals
- 101: What is a PhD?
- 102: The nature of PhD research
- 103: The Thesis and the nature of writing
- 104: The psychology and stress of a PhD
- 105: The Three Month Thesis (part 1)
Module 2: Literature
- 201: Getting started with academic literature
- 202: Building your bibliography
- 203: Preparing to write
- 204: The literature review
Module 3: Planning and executing research
March 2013
Module 4: Psychology, stress, procrastination!
April 2013
Module 5: Academic writing and effective communication
Module 6: Getting the thesis done
Module 7: The Thesis Defence and Beyond
>>>Click here to get access to the course<<<
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im a doctoral student in interior architecture , actually im not in deadline but i wasted my time on a topic which considered by my supervisor. finally he decided to stop this topic because it wasn’t related to interior architecture. so im stuck on topic. I lost my self-confidence and i have just one years and half time to finish my phd. how can i chose a topic? and i always asking my self can i finish this phd?
Hi,
Very useful videos. Could you please make your website print completion certificate so the university can count it as learning hours
Glad to see u back James! Was really beginning to wonder about not seeing any emails from you in recent weeks. I trust that you are well.
So great to have you back James!!! We missed you
hope all is well. Your website is brilliant and your advice, lessons and tips have been instumental in my learning!
to Marv Brilliant (if you’re still tuning in) — congrats on successfully finding your way into Philosophy!
I’m not a community college student, but my father taught at one for thirty years. They’re super important, and it’s great that you found your passion there.
The kind of questions you’re asking, though, are huge — how to go about writing a dissertation — and what PhD programs (and everything that leads up to them) are designed to lead you to (though not necessarily *through*). In other words, you’re asking James to be your professor. In a different field. Doesn’t work.
Your best bet is doing a Bachelors — maybe at a State school with a scholarship? — and then applying to a PhD program. Otherwise, you’re putting the wagon before the horse.
If you want to (or feel you have no choice but to) go it alone, I’d say start by going through all the info you can on this website.
The book “The Craft of Research” may help too, as well as “Doing Research” by Saunders, Mossley, MacDonald Ross, and Lamb.
But most importantly — talk to your instructors about your desires, especially those in whose classes you did well.
Good luck!
Hi,
Has anyone heard of / from James? I’m interested in the coaching, and just found this website at my “11th hour”; however not sure if I should fill out the (extensive) application questionnaire or keep looking.
Thanks all! (and James, if you’re reading… the advice you have up has been super helpful thus far…)
-S.
I singed up with James Hayton and only received the automatic reply. I wonder what happens to him
Seems saviour for the students at last stage, but could not get any response from James while inquired through emails… How to get this service, any experience from the members?
Does anybody know what happened to James? It seems like the website has not been updated for a long time. I wonder if anyone could try to get in touch with him by phone.
Hi Serena – I share your concern! I hope he’s okay!
Hi, I’ve just signed up and ave received no confirmation. My password isn’t working either.
Hi James. Hope everything is ok.? Would love to watch the next couple of videos.
Hi there James, like Rachael, I too hope everything is okay. I am certainly looking forward to the next installment of videos – your website has been invaluable in my PhD journey!
Hello James! I have tried numerous approaches to writing and time management and I can say that they were not as helpful as your very insightful and practical lectures on the process. You actually teach about how to get things done. I am writing a lit review right now and I am really looking forward to your new videos. Thank you!
I’m finding these videos very useful, but there hasn’t been a new one for quite a while now,Will they start again soon?
Hi James! I have just watched the preview you provided and I felt a bit relieved that things were explained in a different way that I used to learn about them. I am a 3rd year full-time PhD (and although the maximum I can be in this program is 4 years, I was supposed to finish it at the end of this year). However, the current status is that I have not yet started the writing up, and I am not also very happy with the data I’ve got so far (although the supervisor said it is good enough for a PhD). So I am writing to ask you what would it be your opinion on writing and submitting a thesis in a such a hurry (i.e. 9 months from now on for the full process (i.e. finishing analysing the remaining data, writing the thesis chapters, drafting, submitting and re-drafting, editing and submitting? Should I ask for an extension (say 1 year more?!) Just to mention that I have a good idea of the outcome. Thanks
DEAR Sir
Hope doing well, unportunatly I am one of the new starting my Thesis Topic is ( Impact and Effect of Higher Education on Skill Labor on Afghanistan Market.
So, Kindly request you to write me some from the interdiction parts would be highly appreciated you
Hi, I’m enjoying your teaching. However, I am unable to access the material on my laptop. I can get the videos on my iphone, but the videos do not show up anywhere else. I make sure I am not logged in on my phone when I try to get the videos on my computer….
-Hannah
I’m adding a download link and different video formats so this should be fixed very soon.
Hello, can I ask when module 6 & 7 will be online? Thanks
I don’t have an exact date yet. I’m producing one video per week but may be able to speed that up over time. What I may do is record a few quick ones for each module so there is at least something available on each topic.
Hey James,
I started my PhD in August and have been going in circles with my first publication and losing a lot of confidence and drive lately. Your website and videos have been helped a lot lately and I now know I have to take a different approach & mindset to my PhD in order to successfully complete it. Thanks!
Thank you very much for that great site, I am first year PhD student (international student), I found communication skills is very important in our field and how to present your work effectively, my concern is how to interact with people to get the most of communication ?
I wanna cry also when my brain has no space to work. I bought lot of problem-solving text books from Amazon just for dealing with the uncountable knowledge in my field and finding an effective time management. It is too late in my education problem that it is not an important master thesis if to compare it to another work. By the way, I wanna share the limitation I encountered and I have bit question here. Thank you so much James. “Can you suggest about Time-Management? Do you agree with well-known Time Management text books in the market , Is it applicable for PhD time management?”
Any time management technique will work for a few days, and you will get a boost, but unless you address more fundamental things then old habits will come back and then you’ll feel worse for not sticking to it.
All I ever advise people to do is slow down, focus on one problem at a time and take time to think. To do this, you have to push all other problems to one side with the confidence to know that you will get to them later.
Of course that’s easy to say, harder to do, but the first step always is to slow down and simplify what you are doing.
Thanks you very much James!! I am going to be your subscriber this week
I see that you have a lot of videos explaining the process, but what about choosing a thesis topic? How do you choose one? Are there good / bad thesis topics? Can you know at the outset whether your thesis topic is the best one for you?
I was going to cover this in module 3. I’ll put together a quick video next week to give you some starting principles though.
when I try to view the videos I get the message
html5 video file not found
any ideas?
garry
Hi Garry, I think I know what the problem is. I need to convert the videos to different formats (right now they are mp4), so if your browser does not support mp4 then it won’t work. Did it work on a different computer?
I will fix this over the weekend and email you to check that it works. Thanks for letting me know!
hi James,
Awesome site and have just signed up. Since i was making the payment via paypal out in the Aussie bush where my research is based i’m not sure if the payment went thru but I seem to be able to log in with my details to your site. Can you please advise. Thank you.
OK, I’ve just checked the system… I will email you!
Hi James,
I’m visiting after coming to see your seminar this morning at the OU. (I was the only person who raised their hand to being a psychologist!)
Wow. The timing is uncanny: I’m a part-time student and need to finish my thesis in June this year. I only started writing in December :/ I’ve been struggling horribly with the *fear* of the thing and find it very very hard to get beyond that. When you were talking about how this can be so common in a PhD I nearly cried – it sounds like a cliche but I thought it was just me.
Today the biggest message for me was around knowing that I’ll be ok – whether I pass, fail, give up, or succeed magnificently, I’ll be ok. And that has cleared a lot of the directionless panic already. So thank-you very much for that!
Oh, and I’ve signed up for the Inner Circle
Steph.
Hi Steph,
Glad you found the talk useful (and that I got away with the psychology part!)
James
Hi James,
I digged your videos and they are all good. Nicely done!
Cheers,
Stephan
Thanks Stephan!
Well done
Waiting for your modules. Nice titles
Thanks
Well done, thank you for sharing this it is actually very helpful and has helped to explain a lot for me.
You’re welcome! Glad it has helped
Hi, I have signed up but can’t remember my password… or login details…
No problem, I have emailed you with details
If I were to write a dissertation on the future of mankind, where would I begin?
to Marv Brilliant (if you’re still tuning in) — congrats on successfully finding your way into Philosophy!
I’m not a community college student, but my father taught at one for thirty years. They’re super important, and it’s great that you found your passion there.
The kind of questions you’re asking, though, are huge — how to go about writing a dissertation — and what PhD programs (and everything that leads up to them) are designed to lead you to (though not necessarily *through*). In other words, you’re asking James to be your professor. In a different field. Doesn’t work.
Your best bet is doing a Bachelors — maybe at a State school with a scholarship? — and then applying to a PhD program. Otherwise, you’re putting the wagon before the horse.
If you want to (or feel you have no choice but to) go it alone, I’d say start by going through all the info you can on this website.
The book “The Craft of Research” may help too, as well as “Doing Philosophy” by Saunders, Mossley, MacDonald Ross, and Lamb.
But most importantly — talk to your instructors about your desires, especially those in whose classes you did well.
Good luck!
Where do I begin to assimilate the topic I’m interested in? For instance, if I want to write a dissertation on the future of mankind, where do I begin? What are the average number of pages required to complete a dissertation?
Followup from previous comment: What are the average number of pages required to complete a dissertation?
Why don’t you find a course to do, then ask them what the requirements are?
I am not a doctoral student; however I will graduate from community college at the end of the year. My passion is Philosophy, and I attained A grades throughout three course. I would like to attempt to write a dissertation for my own benefit to determine if I can achieve this enterprise. Please advise. Marv Brilliant
How can I advise? You haven’t asked a question!