Gordon Smith

All Good Things (Come to an End)

When I first sat down to write the materials for the Stress-Free PhD Programme I was motivated by a desire to share everything I myself had learnt about the process of writing a PhD. I had learnt things the hard way, as we often do, but so much of the struggle seemed unnecessary with hindsight. Other PhD researchers must have had the same struggles? Why weren't people talking about this more? They must have found solutions along the way?? There had always been rumours about how hard it would be to write a PhD, and I even got advice to [...]

December 29th, 2025|
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Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time

Tell me: how do you structure your PhD workday? Are you following a general 9-5 schedule, assuming you’ll finish your work during those hours (and if not, you’ll squeeze in a little or a lot of extra time in the evenings or on the weekends)? How do you know you are making progress? Do you use word count or other metrics to keep track? I have come to realise that academic productivity is -- and always will be -- non-linear. In the face of this inconvenient truth, we adopt all sorts of systems and conventions in an attempt to keep [...]

July 17th, 2025|
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Are You Overthinking Your PhD?

Earlier this year I ended up in a strength assessment workshop for professionals in a social club in Cape Town. Think tennis courts, bowling and croquet greens (really!), a cricket pitch, a ballroom, a swimming pool with a view of Table Mountain, a sushi bar, palm trees, the works! I was invited by my friend and Cape Town host Gen. After a fantastic visit in 2023 I am trying to make my trips to Cape Town a regular feature, and this year I succeeded and I was back in town. A place had opened up in this workshop she was [...]

September 30th, 2024|
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8 Lessons from Academic Failure

When my former EUI colleague and friend Andrew Glencross asked me whether I'd be interested in co-authoring a piece on failure and derailment in academia my answer was an immediate yes. That was two years and endless revisions ago, and last weekend we finally received the email to say our article has been published! Our contribution is part of a forum on "Dead-Ends, Disasters, Delays? Reflecting on Research Failure in International Studies and Ways to Avoid It" in 'International Studies Perspectives' and you can find it here. In the article, we reflect on our own academic journeys and the pivotal role [...]

September 4th, 2024|
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Pick the Right Supervisor

Do me a favour? Pick the right supervisor. It is THE power relationship that matters when you are writing a PhD, and its impact not only on your work and career, but also on your wellbeing should not be underestimated. If you are looking for a PhD position, don’t just start with the university, the reputation of the department or the field. People matter, and academia is built on personal networks. Being part of the right ecosystem so to speak, is everything. I’ll tell you a story to illustrate. I thought I had all this supervision business covered when I [...]

February 23rd, 2024|
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‘How to Write a PhD’ with Cassandra Frear

I met Cassandra when she was part of the first round of the Stress-Free PhD programme, where we met weekly online with the group. She is based in Philadelphia, and I remember all too clearly the culture shock: when I introduce the idea of writing a PhD more efficiently by working fewer hours, it tends to be a leap even for Dutch or other European PhDs, but for a US PhD candidate to embrace these insights about the importance of being idle is next level! A few months ago she wrote me to say she’d be reviewing the course materials [...]

January 19th, 2024|
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LIBRARY

Free Resources Library

I have compiled some free resources for you to download. An e-book, a short course with encouraging emails to nudge your writing productivity alive, and a worksheet with a mini-course to create an effective and very zen work routine.
Leave your email to get access.

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