Getting My Life Together: Taking Control of Publication Commitments

Are You in Publication “Debt” (i.e. Piles of Publications Owed or Overdue)? 

• Have you promised to write far more articles, book chapters, books, op-eds, blogs, and other publications than you possibly have time to complete?
• Do you say “yes” to every publication invitation that comes across your desk or email?
• Are you afraid that if you say “no” to a publication invitation, then you may never receive an invitation again and your career will suffer?
• Are you equally interested and enthusiastic about every invitation that you receive – making it feel impossible to say “no” to any of all those appealing invitations?
• Do you start out saying “no” to some invitations in an effort to protect your time, only to find that you are dealing with people who do not respect your “no” - leaving you sucked (suckered?) into writing something that you have neither the time nor the interest in finishing?
• Is your health being affected by the amount of work that you owe other people (high stress, tension in your body, headaches/migraines, difficulty sleeping, fatigue, skipping meals)?
• Does the very thought of taking inventory of everything you have promised to write feel overwhelming and anxiety producing?
• Do you fear opening your email because you are anticipating reminders about past due items?
• Are you afraid that other people are thinking or saying horrible things about you because you are so overdue on your deadlines?

 
If you answered in the affirmative to any of the above questions, then you are in publication debt.  As someone who recently got out of publication debt, I know the feeling. 
 
Like many academics, I am frequently invited to contribute to publication projects.  Oftentimes the invitation comes a year or two ahead of the deadline, making me feel like I have all the time in the world to get it written.  Over time I observed the vicious cycle of constantly agreeing to write new things while already working on (or behind on) previous writing commitments.  This left me feeling stressed and perpetually behind.

Below I outline the strategies that I used to take control of my publication commitments.
 
ASSESS
I took inventory of all the invitations I accepted over the years and felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of accumulated publication commitments I made (on top of my own projects).
 
Next, I determined what I could realistically get done (keeping in mind all of my other personal and professional responsibilities).  I used my Eliminate/Negotiate/Delegate strategy:
 
ELIMINATE
There were several publications I agreed to write and then had to withdraw from.  It was VERY hard to pull out of these publications after agreeing to them.  Everyone involved was very gracious and understanding.  But the discomfort of the process itself was a strong reminder to be more careful and mindful before saying yes. 
 
NEGOTIATE:
There were several publications I agreed to write and then had to negotiate deadline extensions.  Again, everyone involved was very gracious and understanding.  The extensions gave me more time to finish things up and get them off of my plate.
 
DELEGATE:
There were several publication invitations that I declined.  But I was happy to recommended other potential authors.  I am counting this as “delegating” here (though I usually use this term to describe getting help on projects or paying someone to take on certain tasks like permissions, proof reading, citations).
 
RESULTS
Having taken inventory of what I owed and then using my Eliminate/Negotiate/Delegate strategy, I was left with a more manageable list of publications to finish.  In the end, it took me FAR longer than I anticipated to payoff my publication debt (even after cutting down the list substantially).  Fortunately, I am still on research leave this semester (which provides the time I need to finish my book manuscript on Simone de Beauvoir).
 
I am no longer in publication debt.  I am making great progress on the Beauvoir book.  I have a self-imposed deadline for submitting the book to the press.  And now, having learned from my previous mistakes (of saying yes to too much), I am declining new publication invitations until after the book is submitted to the press.