Most professional development programs encourage exploration of your interests and career options. But career and life decisions are inextricably connected.

In this workshop, we adapt the strategies in the best-selling book Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans to your experience as a PhD student, whatever your stage or discipline, to help you begin the process of designing a satisfying, integrated, coherent life both during and after graduate school.

We’ll invite you to reflect on what you’ve learned about yourself through academic, personal, and professional experiences and to consider your goals and values as well as key questions regarding future possibilities to begin paving a path to a joyful, well-designed future.

Facilitators:
- Laura Murray, GradTLC
- Kate Thorpe, GradTLC

This event is hosted by the Princeton University Graduate School as part of the 2025 GradFUTURES Forum, a weeklong professional development conference for graduate students offering opportunities for meaningful professional growth and exploration of futures within and beyond the academy. With many inspiring keynote speakers, interactive workshops, career panels, and networking receptions, the 2025 GradFUTURES Forum is open to the broader graduate community at Princeton and beyond.

Sponsorship of an event does not constitute institutional endorsement of external speakers or views presented.