Your research timeline should always include some “cushion” — extra time added even if you think you won’t need it. The one thing guaranteed to be true about any research project is that at least some elements will take longer than you think. If you haven’t yet, consider filling out the 2.2.3: Planning Your Research worksheet in your LPOL Workbook to look at stages where you could build in some cushion time.
There are several ways to be strategic about your research in ways that can help you stay on track, get back on track, and keep moving forward:
Be honest with yourself about your schedule.
Understand yourself and your work habits.
Remember that it’s never too late.
Keep in mind that every little bit counts.
Be Honest With Yourself About Your Schedule
With your research timeline in front of you, compare or overlay it onto the calendar you use for all other areas of your life, whether that is Outlook, Google, or another tool. See how key points in your research timeline, like contacting participants or conference deadlines, overlap with pressure points in the rest of your life. The start of the academic year, family vacations, and healthcare needs can all demand your personal and professional time and energy. Be honest about how likely you are to accomplish major work on your project during those times and tweak your timeline if needed. That doesn’t mean you do nothing on your project during those times, but it does mean you are realistic about what will get accomplished. Maybe instead of committing to analyzing all your data during late August and early September (when most schools return to classes), set a goal to read an article a week toward your literature reviewLiterature ReviewThe process of summarizing, synthesizing and/or critiquing literature around a specific topic/idea. This work can help a researcher understand what has happened before and also how past research intersects and or diverges from other research. A literature review can be a full-length manuscript or a subsection within a larger research article..
Understand yourself and your work habits
Understanding how you approach your work and how your personal context impacts your work can help you identify upcoming challenges so that you can plan for them and keep them from derailing your project.
Exercise
Complete the following exercise in your LPOL Workbook. This exercise will help you check for learning, engage with the material, and work through new ideas.
Using the questions below as a place to begin, reflect on your work habits and context and write down anything that could challenge your ability to complete your project according to your research timeline in the “Possible Challenges” column on the 3.4.1: Project Challenges & Strategies worksheet in your LPOL Workbook.
General Considerations
How do you like to work, in big chunks or little bites?
Is research something you can do during work hours (realistically) or do you need to work on your project outside of regular business hours? If so, do you have a quiet space to work?
Are you self-motivated or do you need an accountability partner to help you meet deadlines?
Are there others around that you can share ideas with and who could give meaningful feedback?
Data Collection & Analysis
Are you confident about your ability to conduct one-on-one interviews or focus groups (if needed)?
Do you have an instrument in mind or do you need to create one? Do you know how to create one?
Do you know how to move from data collection to analysis?
Do you know how to use the analysis tools you’re considering?
Can your institution afford the tool you want or will you need to adapt to a free tool or gain access another way?
Do you have a functional background in statistics or qualitative coding, or do you need to either find resources or a mentor?
Be honest with yourself about you and your work habits
Once you’ve thought about your personal work habits, it’s time to be brutally honest with yourself about how big of an impediment these issues will be for your project. Then in the strategy column of the worksheet, write down what you could do to help address the challenge. (See examples below). Planning ahead for your challenges helps prevent you from being surprised or derailed by them.
Challenge
Strategy
I can never find time to work
Schedule specific time on your calendar for your project to discourage interruptions or other tasks distracting you,
I don’t have a place to work on my project outside of work hours
Find a space to work (e.g., a corner of your house, a coffee shop, a nearby public library, bookstore, or art gallery),
I’m not sure how to analyze this survey data once I have it so that I compare these variables with those
Befriend a statistics guru. Find one on your campus, get recommendations from another researcher, or ask for help in LibParlor classifieds.
Table 1. Created by Nancy Falciani-White for LibParlor Online Learning, 2023.
The strategies that work for you will depend on your specific challenges as well as your project and context. Here are a few additional strategies that could prove useful in a variety of contexts:
Turn your project time into a habit by doing it at a similar time of day or in a particular location.
Develop a routine for a stressful part of your day that distracts from your writing time. Can’t focus in the afternoon because you don’t know what you’ll be doing for dinner? Planning out meals, at least for project days, may help alleviate that distraction.
Set concrete goals for your project at the daily or weekly level. These goals could be setting different word counts, once you’re at the writing stage, but when you’re just getting started, they might mean just working on your project when scheduled.
Schedule a regular accountability meeting, with a single person or a group, as often as you need.
Submit a proposal for a conference or other event that will create a hard deadline for your work if that isn’t already in place.
Create a project music playlist that you listen to every time you work to help you focus and get excited about your work.
It’s never too late
You will get off track, and that’s okay. Just start up again when your calendar clears or the temporary challenge is behind you. It’s never too late to dive back into your project. Missed a deadline? There will be another grant, another conference, another opportunity. Think your data is too old? There’s probably a way to spin your writing that makes the data still valuable.
There are numerous self-management books available that discuss how to avoid the productivity trap, make time for what matters, and accomplish your personal and professional goals. If you want to do a research project for personal growth, or if it’s part of your path toward tenure and job security, it requires dedicated time. But sometimes life happens and job changes, medical diagnoses, and any number of other things get in the way. No matter how important you think this project is, your health and wellbeing are more important. Don’t compare yourself to others who seem to do more, write more, present at “better” conferences. Do what you can do; commit to it and get it done.
Every little bit counts
Working on your project for a little while consistently (five days a week, if you can manage it) is more productive in the long term than waiting for large chunks of time that will allow you to really “dig in” to your project. Every little bit counts. If all you have is an hour-long lunch break five days a week, your project will get done. If you only have time to code one page of a transcript or analyze one variable, it’s progress toward getting your project done.
Regardless of what strategies you try, remember that your research is important. It’s something that is important to you, personally and professionally, and your project deserves to be explored. So it isn’t a question of if it will get done, but rather how it will be done.
Strategies & Techniques
While some strategies for time and project management have been included in the above section, additional techniques and approaches are included in the references section. The “9 Proven Time Management Techniques and Tools” site is a good place to start. Productivity software and apps change frequently, so while those are not included in the references, they are easily found by conducting an internet search for productivity or “time management” tools. Consider adding the year to your search to narrow to only current resultsResultsThe section of a research article where researchers share the results from the research. This section takes the results and directly connects them to the research questions or hypotheses posed at the start of the article. Also can be called “Findings.” .
As you look through the various approaches and tools, know that not all strategies work for all people.
Now that you’ve thought a bit about your own approaches to work and research, use that information to identify 1-2 techniques that might help you stay on track with your project. Just remember that if the first one or two techniques don’t work, just try some different ones! After some trial and error, you’ll figure out the strategies that work best for you.
Topic 1 References
Burkeman, Oliver. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. UK: Vintage, 2022.
Keeping Your Project On Track
Your research timeline should always include some “cushion” — extra time added even if you think you won’t need it. The one thing guaranteed to be true about any research project is that at least some elements will take longer than you think. If you haven’t yet, consider filling out the 2.2.3: Planning Your Research worksheet in your LPOL Workbook to look at stages where you could build in some cushion time.
There are several ways to be strategic about your research in ways that can help you stay on track, get back on track, and keep moving forward:
Be Honest With Yourself About Your Schedule
With your research timeline in front of you, compare or overlay it onto the calendar you use for all other areas of your life, whether that is Outlook, Google, or another tool. See how key points in your research timeline, like contacting participants or conference deadlines, overlap with pressure points in the rest of your life. The start of the academic year, family vacations, and healthcare needs can all demand your personal and professional time and energy. Be honest about how likely you are to accomplish major work on your project during those times and tweak your timeline if needed. That doesn’t mean you do nothing on your project during those times, but it does mean you are realistic about what will get accomplished. Maybe instead of committing to analyzing all your data during late August and early September (when most schools return to classes), set a goal to read an article a week toward your literature reviewLiterature Review The process of summarizing, synthesizing and/or critiquing literature around a specific topic/idea. This work can help a researcher understand what has happened before and also how past research intersects and or diverges from other research. A literature review can be a full-length manuscript or a subsection within a larger research article..
Understand yourself and your work habits
Understanding how you approach your work and how your personal context impacts your work can help you identify upcoming challenges so that you can plan for them and keep them from derailing your project.
Exercise
Complete the following exercise in your LPOL Workbook. This exercise will help you check for learning, engage with the material, and work through new ideas.
Using the questions below as a place to begin, reflect on your work habits and context and write down anything that could challenge your ability to complete your project according to your research timeline in the “Possible Challenges” column on the 3.4.1: Project Challenges & Strategies worksheet in your LPOL Workbook.
General Considerations
Data Collection & Analysis
Be honest with yourself about you and your work habits
Once you’ve thought about your personal work habits, it’s time to be brutally honest with yourself about how big of an impediment these issues will be for your project. Then in the strategy column of the worksheet, write down what you could do to help address the challenge. (See examples below). Planning ahead for your challenges helps prevent you from being surprised or derailed by them.
The strategies that work for you will depend on your specific challenges as well as your project and context. Here are a few additional strategies that could prove useful in a variety of contexts:
It’s never too late
You will get off track, and that’s okay. Just start up again when your calendar clears or the temporary challenge is behind you. It’s never too late to dive back into your project. Missed a deadline? There will be another grant, another conference, another opportunity. Think your data is too old? There’s probably a way to spin your writing that makes the data still valuable.
There are numerous self-management books available that discuss how to avoid the productivity trap, make time for what matters, and accomplish your personal and professional goals. If you want to do a research project for personal growth, or if it’s part of your path toward tenure and job security, it requires dedicated time. But sometimes life happens and job changes, medical diagnoses, and any number of other things get in the way. No matter how important you think this project is, your health and wellbeing are more important. Don’t compare yourself to others who seem to do more, write more, present at “better” conferences. Do what you can do; commit to it and get it done.
Every little bit counts
Working on your project for a little while consistently (five days a week, if you can manage it) is more productive in the long term than waiting for large chunks of time that will allow you to really “dig in” to your project. Every little bit counts. If all you have is an hour-long lunch break five days a week, your project will get done. If you only have time to code one page of a transcript or analyze one variable, it’s progress toward getting your project done.
Regardless of what strategies you try, remember that your research is important. It’s something that is important to you, personally and professionally, and your project deserves to be explored. So it isn’t a question of if it will get done, but rather how it will be done.
Strategies & Techniques
While some strategies for time and project management have been included in the above section, additional techniques and approaches are included in the references section. The “9 Proven Time Management Techniques and Tools” site is a good place to start. Productivity software and apps change frequently, so while those are not included in the references, they are easily found by conducting an internet search for productivity or “time management” tools. Consider adding the year to your search to narrow to only current resultsResults The section of a research article where researchers share the results from the research. This section takes the results and directly connects them to the research questions or hypotheses posed at the start of the article. Also can be called “Findings.” .
As you look through the various approaches and tools, know that not all strategies work for all people.
Now that you’ve thought a bit about your own approaches to work and research, use that information to identify 1-2 techniques that might help you stay on track with your project. Just remember that if the first one or two techniques don’t work, just try some different ones! After some trial and error, you’ll figure out the strategies that work best for you.
Topic 1 References
Burkeman, Oliver. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. UK: Vintage, 2022.
Ellefson, Lindsey. “Use ‘Deep Work’ to Be More Productive.” Lifehacker. July 12, 2012. https://lifehacker.com/use-deep-work-to-be-more-productive-1850632295.
Nurkamilova, Kanzada. “Best Productivity Blogs to Follow in 2023.” Vision Factory. May 31, 2023. https://www.visionfactory.org/post/best-productivity-blogs-to-follow-in-2023.
Silvia, Paul J. How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2019.
University of Saint Augustine for Health Sciences. “9 Proven Time Management Techniques and Tools.” University of St. Augustine. https://www.usa.edu/blog/time-management-techniques/.
Vanderkam, Laura. 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think. New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2011.