Keeping going with research to avoid becoming redundant

[Marasme]

I ve accumulated a number of management and leadership roles, which are high profile and research adjacent, but not necessarily serving me well in term of keeping me "current" with my research profile.

I still publish, but more serendipidusly and vicariously than before, which means that I have a slimming research profile.

The leadership and management takes most of my time, alongside with teaching and service. Even when I block time to think about research and write (ideally strategically, focusing on outputs that are coherent with my school research strategy), I am too winded to engage my brain and end up procrastinating / marking / feedbacking. Completing anything seems so daunting, and I despair a bit when i see colleagues churning stuff out - I m def not a completer finisher, I know my weaknesses, but I also know that I am no less efficient than colleagues - so WTH do I do wrong?

How do you prioritise research and research writing whilst managing all your other roles? I have so many ideas but so little time to make then actually happen.

I can't see how i ll get invited to present any keynote or plenary in a year or two based on my current dwindling output.

I suspect that your colleagues simply do less than you - they reduce their teaching and service more, and put less into leadership and management, delegating more to others. I have gradually moved towards this approach, noting that high performance in leadership roles is often not rewarded and that those who stand firm on reducing their teaching/service due to major leadership get bigger reductions in loads.

What has really helped me is pairing up with other like minded colleagues.
Having the partnership brings purpose, commitment, enthusiasm and accountability.
it also makes the process of submitting bid, conference presentations and papers a bit less scary. Find a buddy to work with!

A few things that I do

• keep one day per week (my work from home day) to focus only on writing & research. I don't allow any meetings on that day and use the time only to work on papers or grants.
• work on the stuff that i'm interested in (ignoring things like my dept research strategy). the thing that interests me is also most motivating so that helps me get going
• get words on the page. doesn't matter if they are rubbish as long as they are on the page
• collaborate. work with phd students or collaborators or anyone who is nice & interesting. having another person with a deadline and another person to chat to is a great motivator

Final question - where do you want to be in 5 years? do you want to be recognized for your research and leading a big grant? Or maybe you actually enjoy the leadership & management, and might want to be a HoD / Dean / bigger leadership role and leave the research behind. Plenty of people do that and it can be a great option, especially if you do it as a deliberate choice rather than just drifting into it.