On Working on Multiple Projects in Tandem

Hey Neurons,

As researchers, we are bound to work on multiple projects, although we of course have our main work that we need to finish. There is a certain balance between our main research project and side projects that can actually turn out to give more results. Over the last few weeks, with a student, I have been exploring this dichotomy and seeing how you can strike a balance between the two.

Part of this article is based on a book I have been listening to Essentialism, and although the book touches on quite common topics, there were a few questions it raises that can help us discern what is most important in our studies or research careers and what should be ignored or left behind.

Q1. If I did not have this opportunity, what would I do to acquire it?

For me, this question resonated a lot, as I have noticed that I have a number of opportunities that on the surface seem great, but when looking more closely mean more work. One example is being invited to speak at a lab. Although I really enjoy giving talks and, of course, meeting people interested in the same work, there is a large time commitment. First of all, the travel to go wherever the talk is. It might be a neighbouring university, but still, this will take about one day. Secondly, the preparation time. In general, I tend to overprepare for talks. I find that when I do this, I enjoy it much more and feel that a talk goes smoother. However, I know from myself that this does mean that I spend a lot of time preparing for even one talk, which again takes time away from research.

When we then go back to the question of what you would do to get a certain opportunity if you did not already have it, often the answer would be not much at this stage of my career. Thus, this means that these commitments are not the priority and will distract from the main work, which is doing actual research. When an opportunity comes up take a moment to reflect on this question and see if the opportunity still seems good.

Q2. What are you giving up when you say yes?

Something that many of us do not consider is that there is a hidden cost associated with every commitment we take on. For example, if you agree to organizing a certain event, it means you will have less time to work on your research projects. In a similar vein, if we say yes to a trip, it might mean we have to miss the birthday of one of our friends. If you are like me and have the tendency to overcommit and say yes to many projects, this might be a good question to ask yourself before you say yes. What are you actually giving up when you take on this seemingly exciting new opportunity?

For me, this question made me realize that especially certain future projects, although really interesting, had to take the backseat for a while. Even though in my head it seemed like a very low commitment to take on, in practice every week I spend almost 10 hours on these side projects. This meant more time away from my main work, often having to work on weekends, and thus a general sense of being behind on a lot of tasks.

Q3. What do you really want from your research career over the next few years?

The final question that I got from the book is to consider what you really want your career to look like in the next few years, and if the path you are taking now, or the opportunities you are saying yes to, support this career or block this career.

What I have found is that a lot of things that I really enjoyed doing as a student, aka student-led projects, are most likely not exactly what I want my career to look like in a few years. When I reflect on my career, I would like a large part of it to be dedicated to research, but also a large part to be dedicated to mentorship, group projects, and helping other, more junior scientists start their scientific careers. As a PhD and a master's student, a large part of the work you do is more solitary, but as a postdoctoral researcher and further, there is a big part of work that you can direct. For example, you can decide that you would like to teach more, give more presentations, or work more time on dedicated experiments. All of these are valid trajectories in a scientific career, however, to balance all of them becomes harder and harder.

🧠 Scientific Reading Challenge

If you are a researcher or student currently, a fun thing that I want to challenge you to do is to add a little more science to your day-to-day. I know many of you are working on reading and learning more about science, and thus, over the coming week, reading one paper a week in the morning or afternoon can be a really fun scientific challenge. Try every morning to sit down for 1 hour with a challenging paper and pay full attention to reading it. If there are certain topics you do not understand, do not immediately look them up, but keep focusing on the paper and reading them.