This workshop series is designed for doctoral candidates who want to move their dissertation towards submission in a more focused and realistic way. It addresses the issues that most often delay completion: unclear structure, weak planning, endless rewriting, difficulty handling feedback, and uncertainty around submission, the defence, and what comes next.

The problem:
The last stage of the PhD is not only about handing in the thesis. It also brings up new fears and new decisions. Many doctoral candidates feel anxious about the defence, unsure how to prepare for critical questions, and deeply unsettled by what comes after the PhD. For some, that uncertainty becomes one of the reasons they delay submission. Staying inside the PhD can feel safer than stepping into the next phase.

How does the workshop help:
This workshop addresses both sides of that final stretch: preparing for the defence and thinking seriously about what comes next. We talk about practical ways to make submission feel less overwhelming, how to approach the defence in a focused and realistic way, and why it helps to think about the future before the thesis is submitted rather than after.
In the first exercise, participants brainstorm possible objections, critical questions, or limitations that may come up in the defence and work on strong, thoughtful responses. By this point, most students know the weaknesses of their own dissertation very well, but far fewer know how to respond to them calmly and convincingly. In the second exercise, participants look ahead and develop a more concrete sense of what life after the PhD could look like. Through structured reflection and an adapted ikigai exercise, they sketch out both a Plan A and a Plan B, so that the future feels less abstract and less threatening.

Participants will leave with:
Prepared responses to likely defence questions, plus a first draft of a Plan A and Plan B for the post-PhD phase.

Each workshop combines input with concrete exercises, so that participants leave not just with ideas, but with tools and decisions they can immediately apply to their own dissertation.