I originally wrote this post for the Think Ahead Blog, brought to you by the Researcher Professional Development Team at The University of Sheffield. You can find the original post here. Many thanks to Think Ahead for the opportunity to write this article!
“All we have to
decide is what to do with the time that is given us”.
- J. R. R. Tolkien,
The Fellowship of The Ring (voice of Gandalf)
Successful time management could well be the most critical challenge for
research staff trying to forge ahead in the early stages of their careers. Gandalf’s
words of wisdom may well have been about dealing with the looming threat of
cataclysmic evil, but I don’t think many post-doctoral researchers today feel
too far away from the cutting realities of the ‘publish or perish’ academic
world. I’ve certainly been reminded enough times that a healthy publication
record is a huge part of securing that elusive permanent academic position.
This train of thought
leads me to one conclusion: close the blog post you are working on, step down
from your committees and get that
research manuscript submitted. Your sole job is to produce research, and
everything else pales into insignificance. Right?
Actually, I would argue that a small and considered amount of
‘extra-curricular’ activity, e.g. volunteering on a committee, engaging in
outreach, or even teaching (if that’s not already an integral part of your job),
can greatly boost the rest of your research life.
It’s certainly true that as a research associate (like me for example)
working on a grant for a principal investigator (PI), it’s more that likely
that you are very deliberately employed to produce research as your main job.
Relationships with bosses, and perspectives can vary a lot, making it more or
less difficult for some of us to engage in activities outside research. It’s
certainly the culture of some bosses to expect an almost unerring commitment to
research, to the exclusion of other activities. However, some contracts allow
for a small amount of flexible professional development, and it may be worth
checking yours and your funding body’s rules for clarification if you are not
sure. For example the RCUK owned Concordat to Support the
Career Development of Researchers stipulates 10 days per
year professional development activity for each of us – how you interpret,
negotiate, and use that is up to you.
This is the point at which I ask myself, “what sort of researcher do I want to be?”. Your profile as a
researcher, at any level, depends on how you engage with others. Although
writing scholarly articles is one form of engagement, and one that connects us
with a global community, I suspect there is a large part of our profile that
comes from those extra things we do closer to home.
Professional development is a vital part of the make up of any
successful researcher, and the skills we’ll need as young Lecturers, or
independent Research Fellows (or whatever we would like to be doing), in the
future are relevant right now. Take part in a measured amount of ‘voluntary’
work outside of the normal route of your research and I believe you will develop
these skills and meet some brilliant people along the way.
For example, apart from attending thrice-yearly meetings of the Faculty
of Science Researcher Development Group as a post-doc representative for
Physics & Astronomy, I have also become involved with organizing an Away Day
for post-doctoral research staff. This
has been an eye-opening experience, not least because of the great people I
have met from parts of the University where I would never have ventured to
tread; our team now spans several departments and crosses faculties. These
fantastic, motivated people have inspired me, whilst also showing me a fresh
perspective on the research life of the University – I have quickly learned
things are by no means done in the same way in different parts of the institution.
Organizing an event ‘by the post-docs, for the post-docs’ has allowed me to
think about what it is that I want from my role. For example, our Away Day
theme this year is about communicating your research, and in devising
activities and inviting speakers based on this theme, we as organizers have all
found examples of good practice that we can apply in our own work. Not to
mention experience in managing a mini project and a budget.
Going back to the quotation, getting the balance right and deciding “what to do with the time that is given to
us” is the hard part, and I’ve no doubt that at times we will all wish to
dial down our voluntary activities and concentrate on our research. There might
not be as simple a balance as we expect, though: US science writer Jennifer Ouellette (@JeanLucPiquant
on Twitter) explained in a recent talk (for the American Physcial Society) that the normalized research output of academics
has actually been shown to increase when subjects took on a small amount of
engagement or outreach. Those who
took on too much, however, saw their productivity fall again. So while it
really is about balance, it may not be the case that it’s in the best interest
of our research to minimize all other activity!
One thing that I am certain about is that we are all different, and
success is about finding the balance that works for you and your career.
