How to finish your PhD

The final year of your PhD is all about pushing towards submission of your thesis. And in order to reach that point, you need to go through a process of consolidating and finalising the various aspects of your work. This requires a change in your approach, because if you just carry on doing the same things, you’ll never actually finish.

0:00 Introduction
0:24 The problem (the more work you do, the more potential work you create)
1:28 What it means to submit your thesis
3:00 The tipping point
4:11 This determines the amount of stress in the final months of your PhD...
4:47 The fear of making wrong decisions
6:15 Practical steps to help you get closer to submission
7:45 A quick thesis-writing tip

[wilsoncheung]

Hi, James, this video just stopped me wasting more time on digging further details for the thesis in my final year in my doctoral engineering program. (the last year in allowable time frame) 🙏

[rabhibariza]

We really need you keep giving better tools to make reasearch easy for us ❤

[MarcusBarrick]

@James Hayton. Your videos have been helping alot while writing a book. Over the last several months I noticed many similarities in process of writing nonfiction books compared to a PhD thesis. Thought you'd want to know there's a whole other market that would appreciate your take.

Besides the linearity with experimentation leading to writing (as writing a book can sometimes be exploratory in writing)

[emmafmaurice]

I've been in the final year for 18months. It's my 7th year of phd. My stress and anxiety are out the gate. The editing is gruelling. My supervisors just recommended another 3month extension and I'm beginning to think I don't have the goods to get it over the line 😢