Well, I have shared what I set out to share with you now and I have decided to bring this blog to a close. It’s been a great experience and we’ve had nearly 50,000 views of the blog to date!
Increasing your productivity will greatly improve your chances of graduating with distinction and being attractive to employers; you not only won’t worry about tenure but will look forward to it; you will get raises and promotions; you will be the recipient of admiration, respect, and freedom; and you will be generative and make important contributions to your field, colleagues, and students. This is all in addition to the sheer sense of satisfaction that comes from excelling in one’s career. Of course there are no guarantees in life; however, learning and living the principles of enhanced productivity is the most likely way to ensure prosperity in academia.
What three principles do you need to remember to be prosperous? The framework for this blog has been principles of PEP, which stands for priorities, efficiency, and prevention. I will review each and point you toward some of the key blog posts I have made in each category.
Priorities
Regarding priorities, I discussed how we need to put first things first by making research both important and urgent. The importance of research can be enhanced by choosing a topic you feel passionate about, and the urgency of your research can be strengthened through goals, and by delighting in deadlines.
Efficiency
You can speed up and improve your writing by applying the suggestions about speeding up your writing. Efficiency can be improved by beginning several projects at different stages to both increase your total number of manuscripts and decrease waiting time for collaborators and reviewers. Finally, create multiple streams of passive income (publications) by teaming up with other scholars. This teamwork will help you improve your work even as you spend less time on it.
Pitfall Prevention
Remember all of these strategies will be for naught if you don’t take preventative action against the many pitfalls that commonly beset the best-intentioned researcher. Among these pitfalls are those that come from inside yourself such as perfectionism and burnout. However, there are equally harmful foes that come from without that you must ward off in order to ensure your prosperity, including distractions and rejection.
Applying PEP to Your Career
Finally, there are some specific ways to enhance academic prosperity at different stages in your career. One post documented how undergraduates may apply principles of PEP. I also discussed how graduate students can make the transition from a student mentality to a professional mentality and how they can be better mentees and mentors.
Parting Words
It’s been an absolute blast to run this blog and I hope that you have gained something valuable from it! If you have experienced an increase in your professional success as a result of something you read in the blog, I’d love to hear about it. Please post a comment about it or email me (natemlambert@gmail.com). You can gain access to much more content through my book, Publish and Prosper and I encourage you to check it out! I wish you nothing but prosperity for your professional career! Remember, however, that no amount of professional success can compensate for failed family relationships. I planned a 6-week trip to Hawaii last summer and it was the happiest time of my life! Nobody on their deathbeds ever said they wished they had spent more time in the office. Make sure to put your family first if you want to be truly prosperous in life.