One thing I have realized I do not enjoy as a researcher is having to leave my chamber of curious exploration to document what I have discovered when I am yet to be convinced of these discoveries. Many researchers struggle with getting started with writing completed research, and it is even more difficult to report research that is not yet completed. But doing this laborious exercise is important.

First, documenting what you have discovered can help you see how far you have come in answering your research questions and thus help recalibrate your journey toward answering those research questions. Second, documenting and presenting or discussing your work can help you get input from second and third minds, and sometimes, these inputs can help solve open problems or rethink one’s approach to solved problems.

However, frustration may arise when you put the heavy weight of your fulfillment from documenting on the second point above. Meaning that you allocate getting a lot of your anticipated documentation fulfillment to be based on the quality of outside input received.

When you do this, outside input feels vital to you, and not getting it the way you anticipated would hinder attaining all the positive feelings you hoped for, and you will fall into the zone of ‘unmet expectations’, which can make used energy seem like ‘wasted energy.’ Because we love research but loathe the feelings of wasted energy and unmet expectations, one of the essential keys to research fulfillment is thus energy and expectations management or expectations and energy management.

The amount of energy you put into a task depends on why you do the task and what you expect to get from the task. Your evaluation of how you’ve expended your energy often depends on the extent to which your expectations were met. Thus, our level of expectation fulfillment relates to how we spend our energy. However, sometimes, these two things are not directly proportional. You give in a lot of energy, but the return is rather low, making you wonder if the activity was worth it and if you should have allocated your energy or expectations differently.

Well, here is a reflection on tips I have received or thought of at different points and how they can help manage energy and expectations.

Ideas on how to manage energy and expectations

1. Let the minimum possible rationale/ outcome be the first drive of your energy. Do research simply because you enjoy doing it. In our scenario of documenting research, the minimum possible rationale would simply be documenting. As we’ve established, first attempt at writing is in itself a mountain that always needs a climb. The first documentation would probably not be the greatest (like with most writings) but it is an evidence of what is possible and that can be exciting to see.
   
2. Celebrate or enjoy the moment of achieving your minimum outcome. If you wait only for the big moments before you give yourself a pat, it will be a long, drudging wait. So, give yourself a moment to feel good when you accomplish that challenge for the first time. Take a smiley walk – the walk you take alone and are really smiley and you know passersby are probably wondering what’s going on with you. Give yourself a rub on the shoulders, tell someone about your accomplishment even though you think it is simple and ridiculous, or write it in your journal. Do this because you never know when the next feel-good moment will come, and as humans, we need these moments to survive.
   
3. Communicate expectations. This applies when you have to share your work with others. It helps to concisely indicate where you would appreciate their input. State clearly that, “in this section, this is what I will like you to examine for me.” This regulates your expectations by assigning weights differently to their input. It means you want their input in area A, whereas receiving their input in area B is only supplementary and does not necessarily contribute to how you feel about the work at that moment. Not guiding the input of others leaves room for distraction and sometimes others focus on areas that are less crucial for your progress at the moment.
   
4. Ration your energy and lower your expectations when it is not possible or easy to communicate expectations, e.g., while submitting for publication or presenting at a conference. At presentations, you can communicate expectations by indicating current areas of doubt, questions, etc. But in general, ration your energy in these scenarios based on the quality you aim to give and lower your expectations of what you would like to receive.
   
   Suppose you desire to give a ballistic presentation, prepare your slides as such, noting, however, that your audience may have different perspectives on the style of presentation and, importantly, because sometimes conferences don’t always assign us to what we would think as a perfect audience for our content. In that case, it is best to set a low expectation regarding the discussion you hope to receive from the audience.
   
   Setting a low expectation here also means preparing for the brutal questions regarding your research just in case these rear their heads.

The research journey can be a long, unpredictable ride. Thus, our best chance of reducing frustration requires removing elements such as improperly managed energy and expectations that can easily cause frustration. In summary, to manage energy and expectations, follow a strategy that looks like M2CRL: use the minimum possible rationale as drive, celebrate the achieved minimum outcome, communicate expectations, ration energy, and lower expectations. With this strategy, hopefully, we can all try to manage our energy and expectations and continue to enjoy research.

Tough reflection here, but it sounds like ideas that make sense and are worth using.

Updating this article after a stressful situation that put a dent in my fulfillment level, I have tested this approach and I am impressed at how much better I felt after using it. So, yes, M2CRL.