Are you not making progress in your writing and research projects? Do you want to get unstuck and make progress? In this episode, I discuss five reasons why you may be stuck and give actionable tips to get going.
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Are you not making progress in your writing and research projects? Do you want to get unstuck and make progress? In this episode, I discuss five reasons why you may be stuck and give actionable tips to get going.
Visit our website and sign up for updates: https://www.womenfaculty.com
Welcome to the thriving academics Podcast. I'm Ulya Tsolmon, a professor and certified coach. And I share insights on how to create your best work and live your best life. If you want to go from surviving to thriving without sacrificing what's important to you, then listen on To find out how. Hello, my friends. So this episode is for those of you who are stuck in your research and writing projects and want to get unstuck and get the work done. So today, we're gonna talk about the energy that you're creating to get your work done. So if you feel dread about your work on a regular basis, I hope today's episode can help you get unstuck and make some progress in your projects. So let's talk about research project and writing project as examples for the kind of work that can really cause dread. So to start off, research, by definition is full of uncertainty. So we are creating new knowledge, things the world doesn't even know yet. As Albert Einstein once said, If we knew what it is that we're doing, it would not be called research would it? So research is inherently unknown and uncertain. So this very uncertainty can really get people stuck in several ways. If you feel like you're stuck in your research, and cannot seem to bring yourself to make progress on it, listen on, this could be helpful for you. So I'm going to ask you a series of questions. And if you find yourself doing these following things, then it means that you may have created a very difficult situation for yourself, that is not really conducive with doing research. So the first question is, do you obsess about the ultimate result of your projects? So things like its eventual publication, eventual success? Maybe the impact of this project on your career progress and etc? Second question, do you use very dramatic terms when you're describing your to do list? So things like I have a lot to do? I have so much things to do. I am very behind. I'm so behind. So do you use this dramatic terms? Third question. When you think about your to do list for the day, do you have a very long list of very big categories? Or maybe it's a short list of a one big categories, such as work on the project? Or work on the data? Or collect data? Or do a literature review? Or worse yet, write the paper work on my paper? So do you have these big categories? When you're thinking about your daily to do list? So the fourth question is, when you are thinking about your project, does your mind frequently wonder what other people may think about your project? So do you find yourself agonizing over other people's opinions? So this opinions of colleagues, co authors, editors, reviewers, other people? Okay, and then the last question is, a you afraid of making mistakes, and you really try to avoid making mistakes. So one way that this can materialize is when you think and focus mostly on preventing the mistakes rather than exploring your ideas. So when you're sitting down to do project, you know what proportion of your thoughts are about preventing mistakes, of weeding mistakes, versus exploring the ideas that you have. So if your first thought when you have an ideas, whether it's wrong or not, or if you stop and examine your ideas for mistakes, rather than exploring your ideas further, then that could be a clue that you avoid making mistakes. So if you answered yes to most of these questions, then most likely your nervous system is typically in overdrive. And the energy that you're creating for your work is mostly fear. So what is wrong with thinking about the you know, the ultimate results that and saying that you have a lot of things to do? Thinking about big categories of things to do, worrying about other people's thoughts and opinions and avoiding mistakes. They all seem to be very reasonable things to do. But the problem is that the focus on these items are really creates uncertainty for your brain. And uncertainty creates fear. Your brain hates uncertainty. So the, the default answer that your brain tries to answer to the uncertainty is with a negative bias. So it tries to go to the worst case scenarios. And when you are considering all the worst case scenarios, obviously, that creates fear. So let me break this all down. So first of all, the first question was, do you obsess about your ultimate result about you know the fate of your project, so obsessing about the ultimate results and worrying about whether things will work out or not really sounds reasonable, but it's actually pretty useless, because the ultimate result is mostly out of your control. So you cannot really control whether research project ultimately works out or not, but your brain really wants a certainty around it. But you cannot give that to your brand. And the moment so who knows what the editors and reviewers will say or do, you cannot have control over the ultimate results. And then your brain tries to deal with this uncertainty by thinking about the worst case scenarios. So when you're thinking about the ultimate result, you're not really most likely you're not really fantasizing about your papers getting accepted. But most likely, you're worrying about what happens if your paper gets rejected. So then you cause yourself to feel fear. When you're using pretty dramatic terms such as I have so much to do, when you're thinking about your project, you brain really cannot quantify. So then it creates again, uncertainty and it imagines the worst. So some of the things that it might imagine is that you are suffering and struggling under the weight of your tasks. And obviously, that is not desirable, and then you feel fear. Next, when you think of your tasks in really big, vague categories, you are introducing again, uncertainty to your brain. So what does actually doing a lit review mean Exactly? Like do you what do you imagine? Do you imagine yourself sitting covered with hundreds of books and papers, and hundreds of ideas you need to organize? So this big, vague categories of things to do can create thoughts of never ending work, a lot of work suffering, and just not getting done. And then because of this thinking, then you cause yourself to feel fear. When you worry about what other people think, you worry about something that you can never find out for sure. So how can you predict what other people will think? And how can you find out for sure you just you just can't, especially for people with whom you have social distance, for example, grant reviewers or journal editors, and you know, especially those reviewers who are anonymous, how can you know, and predict what they will say, then you again, introduce uncertainty to your brain and your brain fills that uncertainty with, you know, with negative bias, really anticipating criticism and rejection. And when you go into these worst case scenarios, then you cause yourself to feel fear. And finally, when you focus on avoiding mistakes, the entire premises fear based if you make a mistake, something terrible will happen. So you try to avoid it, and you're in fear mode. So, what is wrong with fear? Fear is a terrible energy to do anything, especially things that are new and uncertain like research. So, when your brain perceives fear is hardwired to either fight flight or freeze. So, fear is a very useful mechanism for survival and the nature intended for for for the brain to use these basic responses to fear to ensure that we survive. So either you are in defensive mode, when you feel fear trying to fight the imminent danger, or you're running away from predator for example, or you are paralyzed, like one of those animals that play dead in the presence of danger late, you can't do anything. So this freeze response can be very common. So a fear is a terrible energy for creating and exploring new stuff. So when you are trying to do your research and explore something new, you are exploring the uncharted territory, you're basically fighting nature to get work done, if you have caused yourself to feel a lot of fear. So when you fight nature, nature typically wins. So what can be done given that fear is not a great energy to do research with? So remember that research is this exploration of something new, it's full of uncertainty and thrill. The key to making progress in research is to manage the fear. So we need to really manage our brains, we need to calm the nervous system down and let it know that we are not in immediate danger of for survival. One way to do it is to remove the uncertainty and offer certainty to our brains. So let's go through the five things that we just talked about, obsessing over the ultimate result using dramatic terms when thinking about our work. And also thinking about the big categories, the categories of work to do, and other people's thoughts and trying to avoid mistakes. So first, instead of obsessing over the ultimate result that is not completely under your control, focus on the small intermediate results that are directly under your control. So instead of thinking about the papers, ultimate fate, focus on the piece you're working on today, your brain thinks it can affect the ultimate outcome way in the future by obsessing over the end result. But that is not true. The only way you can control your output is by focusing on the immediate, bite sized task. So thinking about the outcomes that involve other people or outcomes that are far in the future are not very useful, even though your brain thinks that it's useful, but it's not. No one knows what will come out of the project in the future, the only way we can find out is once we get to the future, then we can find out what you know what happened. But ahead of time, nobody knows. There is no simulation in the world that has been made. There is no artificial intelligence. Like there's no way to know what will happen. So but what we know for sure is what you can do today, in the next hour. So what is the next doable step focus on that your brain will seize on the certainty of the task and focus on that is that is going to be much more productive than obsessing or thinking and worrying about the ultimate results. That's up to other people. That is way in the future. And there's a lot of moving parts. Nobody knows what's going to happen. But what you know, for sure what might happen is the task that you're working on, or you're planning to work on in the next hour. So when you use a dramatic terms, like I have lots to do and behind that gets your brain spinning. So instead of using dramatic terms get very factual and specific. Instead of saying I have lots of things to do, say I'm planning to work for two hours today. By making it specific, you offer your brain certainty. Two hours is two hours. Who knows what lots to do actually means. So do not let your brain focus on uncertainty. help guide your brain into very certain specific factual things. I'm gonna plan to work for two hours today between 10am and noon. Next, instead of thinking about your to do list in big and vague categories, such as you know, doing lit review, or doing data work or writing, break the project into doable steps. So break the tie Ask him to doable steps. So instead of saying that you're going to do lit review, and imagine yourself sitting, you know, covered with hundreds of books and articles, why don't you say, I'm gonna read paper X, and write one sentence summary how it relates to point y. Now your brain appreciates a certainty and it's eager to focus on that task. So give your brain certainty instead of thinking in terms of vague big categories on your thinking about your to do's. Next, instead of focusing on what other people may think, which I said, we cannot know ahead of time, or even ever focus on what this project means for you. So why are you doing this? What is so exciting about this project? What do you want to know? What do you want to contribute? Remove the uncertainty of other people's opinions and focus on the certainty of your own thoughts and desires and motivations as it relates to the project. And lastly, instead of trying to avoid mistakes, focus on really getting fast feedback from others. Somebody who is overly focused on not making mistakes is a person who sits on their projects for the longest time without sharing, some call themselves perfectionist. But one of the biggest learnings I've had in my research career is that research is a community effort. One does not go into a solitary cave, to create work in solitude, and then suddenly emerge screaming you recall, a good researcher trust their own intuition. They do the work, and most importantly, they solicit feedback. Often, good research is a community effort. Find people you trust, who can give you timely feedback, often, you can create a reading group in which you exchange favors of giving one another feedback, find people you can trust, to share your work very often. And this focus from avoiding mistakes to seeking feedback can create a very different energy. You basically going from fear to curiosity in this communal sharing of ideas and building of the ideas. Just remember that your brain works better on cognitive tasks, when it's not focused on trying to either flee, or when it's frozen or paralyzed. So pay attention to the energy that you created when you're doing your work, and especially the work that is new that hasn't been, you know, done before. And you are creating something that the world hasn't seen before. Innovation requires this safe space, where you can be courageous and exploratory with your ideas. And this exploration cannot be fueled with fear. Fear is not good for research endeavors. So remember, that you may be causing yourself fear, and really shutting your brain down by, you know, focusing about things that you cannot control, by being very vague about the things that you that you would like to do, and, and also being very cautious about avoiding mistakes. Remember to focus on the very immediate, doable results you can create today. Get very factual about your tasks don't claim you'll have so much to do. Get factual about what can be done today. Break the big project pieces into smaller, doable steps. This is very important. The tasks need to be doable within the timeframe that you assign yourself. Anything that is bigger or unattainable. Your brain will get into uncertainty immediately and it will start questioning whether you can do this whether you have enough time you already behind so maybe it's not a good idea. So just make sure that the next step is small, it's doable. Give your brain certainty. Stay out of other people's heads and focus on what you want this project to be and why you are doing this. Get in your own head get out of other people's head and get fast feedback. Don't focus on avoiding mistakes. This is a huge fallacy that a lot of accomplished people have is that making mistakes is is a bad thing. Actually, to get to better quality work, you have to go through steps of making mistakes. And how do you do that is create that safe space in which you can make mistakes, find trusted people who can give you timely feedback, fast feedback, frequent feedback, so that you can improve your work through that feedback. Okay, so that's all I have for you today. If you're stuck in your research, project or writing project, just ask yourself these five questions. Are you focusing on the things that are beyond your control, and also implement the steps that I have suggested? Give your brain certainty, move it from uncertainty to certainty, remove fear, give yourself space to explore and innovate. Okay, that's all I have. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and share with your colleagues. Have a beautiful day. Until next time, create your best work and live your best life. Hey, if you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more about all the things we talked about, check out women faculty.com Where we take these concepts and apply them. Come join us and do your best work and live your best life.