From Scattered Ideas to a Focused Research Plan
Now that the new year has started, many researchers are no doubt thinking about their research plans for the months ahead. With everything going on, it can feel harder than usual to focus, plan, or hold big-picture questions.
I was in a tenure-track faculty role for three years. When I started, I already had some existing projects and collaborations (part of the reason I felt the university was a good fit for my work), but I also wanted to launch new initiatives to gain momentum for the lab.
However, the challenge was that I lacked strategic direction. Most of the activities I said 'yes' to were things I felt I should be doing as a new faculty member, rather than actions that fit into an overarching, coherent vision for my lab. As a result, it felt like I had a jumble of competing priorities and scattered ideas vying for my attention.
Three Projects That Helped Me Understand the Cost of Misalignment
To be clear, I really enjoyed working with all my collaborators. The people were fantastic. The issue wasn’t who I worked with, but rather that the projects themselves weren’t always aligned with my long-term vision for my research, coupled with the fact that I didn't have a very strong vision to begin with!
My lab focused on the brain organization for reading and language in children and adults, with an emphasis on learning challenges and bilingualism. These three projects fell well outside that focus, but I said yes to them anyway.
Basic visual processing study. I agreed to direct a component of a project on basic visual processing because it seemed like a quick way to get my EEG lab running and to help students gain hands-on experience in data collection.
EEG in clinical populations. I joined a grant team for a project in a clinical setting, hoping to network with other researchers and build connections for future collaborations.
Student-driven social impact project. A student wanted to extend a class assignment into a publication. The project was meaningful and aligned with broader social issues I care deeply about, but it wasn’t connected to my lab’s core focus.
In each case, the project itself was valuable and interesting. But by saying yes without a clear framework for alignment, my attention and energy were pulled in directions that didn’t serve my main goals.
A Clearer Roadmap
It could be argued that these weren't poor choices. There were good motivations behind them. But all three did contribute to me feeling like my research was scattered and that the bulk of my time was spent doing a bunch of random projects that diluted the 'brand' of my lab. As a consequence, I lacked momentum, and I felt like I was stretched too thin. Of course, these weren't the only factors -- there was also a global pandemic going on -- but I can trace some of the origins of my exhaustion and burnout to this feeling.
At the same time, I said yes to a number of projects that did fit into a larger plan, and I'm glad I did. However, looking back now, I can see that a clearer roadmap would have gone a long way toward refining my confidence when making decisions about where to focus my energy.
With this roadmap in hand, I could have asked myself a few simple questions before committing to new projects:
Does this align with my long-term vision?
Does it move my core research forward?
What am I saying no to by saying yes?
Asking these questions can create a sense of calm and clarity, helping you make choices about projects, collaborations, and requests with purpose. Even small steps toward alignment can dramatically boost how confident and energized you feel about your research.