It's December tomorrow, which means there is just one month left to meet my 2010 goals. I failed miserably on whatever New Year's resolutions I made, but I do have some goals for the next month that are attainable, if a bit lofty.
1. Submit a commentary piece based on the meeting we hosted in October. Today I finished a draft and sent it to the coauthors. This has to get done quickly no matter what, since timely publication is vital.
2. Submit the paper that got rejected this summer to a different journal. I revised it and got comments back from my coauthors over break, so now it's time to dive back into it. There's more work to do than I expected, but it's not insurmountable.
3. Write a manuscript for a special issue associated with the meeting I attended in September. I have a decent draft from my thesis, but right before Thanksgiving I got new data to incorporate into it. I want to have a complete draft to give to the coauthors before winter break so I can deal with their comments before the January 31 submission deadline.
4. Continue helping PI revise a major paper that needs to be submitted -- when else? -- before winter break. The data were collected before I started in this lab, but the manuscript was a total mess. We've been working on it together for several weeks and it's looking a whole lot better, but there's still plenty of work left to do.
5. We completed a major field sampling a couple of weeks ago. I need to get the protocol in place so that technicians can get sample processing underway. It's unclear how involved I'll be with the processing, so I might need to make time for that, too.
6. Finalize the protocol for the lab experiment that was giving me grief earlier this year. It kind of went by the wayside between late summer travel, the meeting we hosted, and the field work. I know PI is very anxious for me to make progress on that project now.
So that's what's on my plate for the next few weeks. I'm hoping that sharing here will give me some accountability, and I intend to post updates throughout the month. I really want to accomplish all of this before January, so I think I'll be able to do it!
4 comments:
oh yeee... I wonder if I can even find my little promises from last year. I think it was something in the lines of "feeling happier and less worried" among the first ones. Hm.
Your goals seem like they are attainable, althought quite a few in this short time before new years... Good luck! but remember, if you were to finish them in Jan it's not the end of the world (andholidays and vacation are nice sometimes too ;) )
Blogger ate my comment! Argh! 2nd try.
Seems like a lot to me.
Here's the order I'd suggest doing it in, based on my own experience with what pays off vs. the types of traps I fall into (trap #1: helping other people before I help myself):
1. first-author scientific article
2. first-author commentary/special issue articles
3. protocols for your project (s)
4. helping your PI with other manuscripts (assuming your are not co-first author or co-corresponding author)
ok let's see if this posts - good luck on getting everything done!
Wow, that's an ambitious list - but everything sounds interesting and useful, at least!
Good luck with everything, and I hope your co-authors are as on the ball as you are!
Yeah, you guys are right that it's a lot of goals for a short time. But they just all need to get done, dammit! I think the only saving grace is that none of these things have to get done from scratch. Most are well on their way.
MsPhD, you make a good point about prioritizing my own first author stuff. I doubt it will work out that way in the end, but it's good to be cognizant of what's most important for my career.
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