The advice I wish I'd had on day one

Most PhDs don't fail on the science, they drift on the structure around it. Sort this in your first months.

• Agree expectations with your supervisor early: meeting cadence, response times, authorship, and what a 'finished' chapter actually looks like.
• Read your institution's regulations: timelines, the go/no-go, required milestones, and whether your thesis is a monograph or article-based.
• Build your supervisory team deliberately, typically 1–2 promotors and 1–2 co-promotors. Know who decides what.
• Start the conversation about your external assessment committee early; good members get booked up a year ahead.

Your supervisors are your most important resource. Make every meeting count.

• Bring a one-page progress note and a short list of decisions you need, don't improvise.
• Send an agenda beforehand; capture action items with owners; share the notes afterwards.
• Meet regularly: every 3–6 months formally in the early years (more often informally), then at least yearly with the wider committee.
• Get substantive feedback in writing, and ask which comments are must-fix versus nice-to-have.

Writing is thinking. The single biggest predictor of finishing is writing regularly from the start.

• Write from day one, don't wait until you 'have results'. A few protected sessions a week beats rare marathons.
• Turn each study into a paper as you go; in an article-based thesis those papers become your chapters.
• Keep a research diary: decisions, dead ends and why you chose what you chose. Future-you will thank you.
• Write the introduction and general discussion last, once the studies have settled.

A study stalls silently. Make 'what's next' impossible to lose sight of.

• Plan backwards from your defense date and reserve the final 6–12 months for writing-up and revisions.
• Break each study into concrete tasks; review progress against your timeline every month.
• Resist scope creep. A PhD is a beginning, not your magnum opus, 'good and finished' beats 'perfect and unfinished'.
• Track every manuscript through the review lifecycle; revisions and resubmissions always take longer than you expect.

The end game rewards people who prepared for it months in advance.

• Confirm your committee composition against the rules well before submission.
• Circulate the full draft early enough for real feedback, not the week before the deadline.
• Prepare for the defense as a conversation about your contribution and its limits, not an exam to survive.

Burnout ends more PhDs than bad data. Protect the long game.

• A sustainable pace beats heroic sprints. Build in rest and keep a life outside the lab.
• Find peers, isolation is the quiet risk. Talk about setbacks; they're universal.
• Keep a 'done' list, not just a to-do list. Progress is easy to forget and worth celebrating.

Dutch PhD regulations are stricter than most candidates expect. These are not optional, missed deadlines can delay your defense by months.

• Register in HORA FINITA within 3 months of your start date. This is the national PhD registration system used at all Dutch universities.
• Sign your Training & Supervision Agreement (OBP/TSA) in your first months. It locks in meeting frequency, authorship rules, and what a finished chapter looks like, invaluable when tensions arise later.
• Submit a Research Data Management Plan within 6 months (required at UU, RUG/UMCG, and most Dutch institutions). Your graduate school has a template.
• Complete the Research Integrity course early, it's mandatory and takes time to schedule.
• Know your go/no-go deadline: typically ~12 months at UU, 12–18 months at RUG/UMCG. Confirm with your graduate school, not just your supervisor.
• At RUG/UMCG (GUIDE graduate school): you need 30 ECTS in your training programme across courses, conference presentations, and teaching. Log activities as you go, reconstructing them at year 3 is painful.
• At UU: credit requirements vary by graduate school (GSLS, SGPL, GSH, etc.). Some have stricter course requirements than others, check your specific school's regulations in year 1.
• Compose your assessment committee at least a year before your target defense date. Senior professors' calendars fill up fast.
• Apply for your defense slot via the rector's/doctoral board office 3–6 months in advance. Good slots go quickly.
• Propositions (stellingen): 6–10 theses, typically 3–4 from your research + 3–4 from your field + 1–2 societal. Your promotor must sign off. Start drafting them in year 3.
• Print your thesis 3–4 months before your defense. Popular Dutch printers: GildePrint (Enschede), Ridderprint (Ridderkerk), Optima Forma (Rotterdam), Ipskamp (Enschede). Order ~200–250 copies.

The relationships you build during your PhD last your whole career. Go to things. Get on planes. Show up.

• Attend at least one national conference per year, they're affordable, you'll meet your whole field, and presenting a poster counts toward your training credits.
• Get an oral presentation on your CV before year 3. Practice in lab meetings and smaller venues first.
• Apply for an international conference trip each year, most graduate schools, NWO, and your department have small travel grants (€500–2,500). Apply early; funds run out.
• Attend at least three defenses of PhD colleagues before your own. You'll learn the format, the questions that come up, and it reminds you that finishing is possible.
• Organize or co-organize a symposium. It counts toward training credits, you control the topic, and it's genuinely fun.
• Attend a summer school in your specialty. Intensive learning + a week with 20 other PhD candidates in your niche = underrated networking.
• Visit a collaborating research group abroad, even a week changes your perspective. Ask your supervisor for ideas and a letter of support for a travel grant.
• Join your university's PhD network: UU has PhD Platform, PhD Networks per faculty; RUG has PhD/i and Jong UMCG. Good for events, support, and finding collaborators.
• Lab retreats, group dinners, and research trips with colleagues are not optional extras, they're what makes a 4-year stint something you'll look back on warmly.