Emotions killing your intellectual productivity
I have written much about intellectual productivity on this blog. If we were machines running mechanical tasks, our productivity would be high. Alas, we are human beings who get depressed or anxious. Even being excited about a new result can deprive you from productivity momentarily.
I am bad about my emotions. I have a bad temper. I can literally scare people during meetings—or so I have been told.
However, I have learned a few things:
- Your own work will rarely generate lasting disturbing emotions. As a researcher, I sometimes waste time on dead-ends and get depressed. More rarely, I get overexcited over a world-changing result—which never ends up changing the world, after all. However, these emotions are relatively easy to deal with. Even having your work being rejected—which happens to all of us—is something you can recover from quickly, given some experience. Science is not an emotional roller-coaster. At least, not for me. Mostly, I just grind through, patiently.
- Most disturbing emotions come from my personal life or the rest of my professional life. Chairing committees, or participating in school politics is particularly difficult.
I have some coping strategies:
- I read good novels.
- I cook.
- I drink red wine.
- I garden, even during the winter.
- I take my week-ends and evenings with my family.
- I focus on research and teaching. They are both more rewarding and emotionally more stable than service or management work.
- It is easier to organize a large conference than it is to chair even a small department. Simply because you are more independent from the results, emotionally. Service work is usually more rewarding and less difficult the further away it is. So, if you must get involved, avoid local committees.
Montreal, Canada 
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Thanks Daniel for sharing your coping strategies. I like reading, cooking, teaching, mentoring and researching too.
I enjoyed reading your posts and have since subscribed to your blog.
I found networking with other educators highly rewarding. I have just created a new social/learning network aiming to share and discuss topics relating to technology, higher education and learning.
Would you mind me inviting you to join our network on http://connectivismeducationlearning.ning.com/ ?
Please feel free to visit my blog
http://suifaijohnmak.wordpress.com for comments too.
John
Comment by Sui Fai John Mak — 20/1/2009 @ 18:08
i am amused at people who still don’t know about meditation ..
Comment by gregorylent — 21/1/2009 @ 7:22
@gregorylent
Oh! Yeah?
Then we should see plenty of successful Buddhist scientists.
It doesn’t appear so…
Comment by Kevembuangga — 21/1/2009 @ 11:49
“Thank god I am brain damaged.. I thought there was something wrong”.. I truly am.. and it is really harder to control my emotions now.. but at the same time I feel I have nothing to loose now. It is true that emotions don’t last, but you have to let them out.. and what I do aside from doing only the research I like, is takind the time to read, cook pastry, go fishing and sleep in the afternoon. You are so efficient afterward. I tell you it is really worted.
Comment by Aude — 27/1/2009 @ 21:30
Interesting post.
I just had a paper rejected and I feel like all of my energy is drained. I find that going back and fixing up old work hurts my momentum. I hope this gets better with experience!
Comment by Steven — 29/1/2009 @ 7:45