Hiiiii, I’m Vic, and in this Doctoral Diaries episode I’m doing my classic back-to-school prep for Fall 2025 as a second-year PhD student at the University of Toronto. This time of year always feels like a weird mix of anxious + excited energy, so I break my reset into three buckets that actually make a difference for me: my physical workspace, my digital workspace, and my mindset. The goal isn’t to become a brand-new person overnight—it’s to set up systems that make it easier to show up consistently when the semester gets busy. First, I focus on my physical workspace—basically, making my desk setup support focus and flexibility (because my brain needs options). Then I do a digital clean-up and re-anchor everything in my “PhD Headquarters” in Notion, plus a Google Docs/Drive system so I’m not constantly hunting for files when I should be writing or prepping. Finally, I do a mindset reset with reflection prompts: what worked last year, what didn’t, and what I want to protect this semester (hello, balance). If you’re heading into grad school, undergrad, or you just want a life reset, I hope this gives you a calm, practical starting point.