Getting the most out of your time
Posted: January 8, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized 7 Comments »Dr. O and Gerty-Z recently blogged on how they allocate time in their day to various activities. I’m consistently trying to figure out how to make the most of my working hours, since between having two kids and a full plate at work, I struggle to get as much of the vitally-important stuff done as possible. Vitally important stuff=writing grants and papers (teaching is in this category for the semesters that I teach). Important stuff=making sure everything in lab is running fluidly and troubleshooting problems. Less important stuff=dept service.
I’m now starting my third year on the TT and have secured funding. My publications have been light over the last 2 years since the majority of my post-doc work was published right as I left. I still have ‘extra’ data sitting around from then that I can analyze and write up but am less inclined to do so when preliminary data have been coming in from my lab members. We do have one paper from my group currently in review and I have one from post-doc that has been giving me issues which I need to flip–but, when you look at my CV it is noticeably light over the past 2 years–only 3 papers published, and two of them were reviews.
I have been focused on writing grants and since opening my lab have put in 5 federals and 3 locals. Now the focus must turn to getting papers out, and that is the plan. Where’s my bar? In good years I would like to aim for 3-5 solid data pubs per year*.
Based on recent experience, though, I am not sure this is possible. My lab members are all very young and inexperienced with writing for publication. I can write decently fast when I need–not as fast as some, but I can get a paper written within a month or less. I’m the kind of writer that doesn’t need to revise too much after the first draft. I know, there are issues with this strategy but old habits are hard to shake.
The point of this string of thoughts is that I am wondering how I can learn to produce papers and grants at the same time. I am limited to daycare hours, and I am not going to sacrifice my health any longer (ie working late into the night, not working out, etc). I am convinced there is a way to be smart about being productive. And still be highly productive at most things rather than a ‘cluster’ producer like I have been — one year I had 6 papers published, five of them first author. It’s just how I’ve rolled. And I’m re-thinking this–I’d like to show more consistency over time.
Thoughts?
*I’m assuming here that the experiments are panning out and the data are interesting. Huge freaking assumption.
This is a thing that I am constantly struggling with, too. This summer I am going to push my students to start writing up some of their stuff that is pretty close. I think I could write faster (or at least more efficiently) than they can just starting out. But I can’t be the one that writes all the papers out of the lab. I have also been trying for grants at the expense of papers this first year.
I wrote a post about choosing between writing grants or papers a while ago, and got some pretty useful comments: http://scientopia.org/blogs/gertyz/2011/05/21/grants-v-papers/. But I am interested to hear if anyone has thoughts about how to more productive
Oh yeah, thanks for posting that link…
I was told by a fairly prominent investigator in my field that in her opinion, about one data-driven paper per year in a respectable journal is considered productive for a junior faculty. Among these respectable publications, having at least one in a high-profile journal is even more desirable.
I think 2/year in respectable journal is the norm in my field, and 3+ is considered superstar. I might be putting my expectations up a little higher than reality can handle.
Yeah, I’m feeling these growing pains too. I’ve decided for the first couple of pubs that I will write them-they gotta get out the door. However, if one of my students primarily gets the data, then that person will write it up…..It’s going to be a true test of patience on my part. Right now I find myself prioritizing pubs over grants, because I’m light and then my grant will get summarily killed in study section accordingly. I feel like it’s all a big gamble. I’m just hoping my dice are still lucky…..
I find it I am split between wanting it to be a teaching experience for students to put the first draft together vs the desire to get it finished sooner. As long as things are rolling along I can be patient I guess.
The 2-3 a year is the expected number we are told for the P/T.
I like having some collaborative papers where I can be the contributor that sometimes end up moving along faster and fill in the gaps in terms of papers per year.
I’m in awe of your “I won’t work late into the night” stance. Need to figure out a way to get there without it coming by default through burnout.
Number of papers is discipline specific. In my field 3 journal papers would be fine. Having funding is a plus. I won’t claim to have answers as I’m feeling rather burned out by my hectic pace. Just wanted to wish you the best.