August 2022

Carlton Fong is an assistant professor in developmental education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas State University’s College of Education. He recently served as chair of the Motivation in Education Special Interest Group and was an awardee of the AERA Fellowship Program on the Study of Deeper Learning. The following is adapted from a recent Twitter thread posted by Fong.

Are you new on the tenure track? Here are some tips on research productivity that I shared earlier this month when I met with new Texas State University College of Education faculty. They will help you become a “W.A.T.C.H.ful” scholar while on the clock.

Write (almost) every day. Make it non-negotiable. It’s worth doing even if you write just 50 words. Meetings, teaching prep, and emails stack up, so having a set time each day (weekends optional) made me feel productive and ensures that writing doesn’t become "out of sight, out of mind."

Accountability! Join a writing group, in person or on Zoom. I had to admit how much help I needed to focus on writing, so joining a group with co-authors, other early career researchers in my field, in my college, and with my students saved me many times. We do challenges on Zoom where we just write and do Pomodoros.

Track progress. Monitor your papers to ensure a pipeline. To ensure that I have a healthy pipeline of work at various stages, I use a simple Google Sheet to just keep track of all my projects. I also used this sheet during my annual tenure reviews to show my work and trajectory.

Collaborate. Do this judiciously and strategically. I'm a control freak. I often like to drive projects and, overall, this is good, especially for showing that you can be an independent scholar. However, there are times when collaborating is hugely beneficial, just choose wisely.

Hatch a plan. Plan out monthly goals and writing projects for the year. Set monthly goals building up to larger publication goals. For me, daily/weekly goals were too pressuring and unsustainable. Monthly goals were the right balance of focus and flexibility. I use a text file with project goals for the next six months.

I encourage others to share their ideas and suggestions on my original Twitter post.