Grappling with a post-tenure slump?

In our April "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I'm a tenured associate professor (9 years post phd), going through a bit of a post-tenure slump. Life has got in the way of research recently, after the big push to get tenure. I was steadily producing an article a year until about 2020, but the pandemic hit me hard.

That's all context for a specific question: how many hours a week do you, and should you, work on your research? I mean what they call 'deep work', so writing/revising or seriously reading material directly relevant to your work. When I was in grad school I was often told that 20 hours a week is about right for the PhD, but that's 4 solid hours per weekday and I don't think I'm at that now! (I use the pomodoro method and am counting very rigorously, so I'm not including eg bathroom breaks.)

Relatedly, do you tend to have multiple papers in different areas you're working on at the same time, or do you focus on one until it gets sent out, before moving on to another? I've always done the former strategy, but I seem to have ended up with a lot of 'pretty much done' papers in different areas that have been presented at a few conferences maybe, maybe rejected with comments from a journal, but I've not quite pushed them over the line to being published. A nice place to be in some ways, but as I said, it feels slump-y!

Any advice appreciated.

Believe it or not, post-tenure malaise is a real thing. Its existence may be hard to understand or empathize with, especially if you are an academic struggling on the job market or without tenure or a tenure track position. But still, as someone who spent a horrible 7+ years on the market myself, I can attest that post-tenure blues are real. While they were nowhere near the horror show for me that was the job market, I've been through them a few times (they seem to come and go). I don't know if I have any great advice for grappling with it well, other than that I try to find new philosophical issues that interest me and to finally pursue other things in pursuit of a more well-rounded human life that I just didn't have the time or emotional energy to do when I was on the market or seeking tenure.

In terms of answering the OP's questions, I don't have much time for research during the fall or spring semesters due to my teaching load, but I try to work on research pretty consistently during the summer (3-5+ hours a day on the weekdays, I'd say, depending on how inspired or not I'm feeling--sometimes I have research ideas I'm excited about, other times not). On that note, I also usually work on a few different projects simultaneously, as I usually get tired working on the same project all the time.

Anyway, I wish that I had better advice, but again, this is something that I struggle with a bit too! Do any readers have any helpful tips of insights for the OP?

Comments

[Al]

I do have thoughts! Context: I got tenure in Spring 2021. Since then I've published a paper, given a few talks, and written a book. Most of these are in new areas. It helps that I have a lot of freedom in what I teach, so I've gotten ideas by incorporating new readings into my courses. I've also read a little more widely, and allowed myself to follow 'weird' or unconventional lines of thought into new topics.

As far as structuring work, I find the semester is a good time for tinkering around with ideas, and then summers are good for actually getting the heavy lifting done on starting new projects, drafting papers, etc. But keeping lots of active google docs going for lists of possible new projects, and just adding readings and random notes to them, means that when chunks of time do come around I'm usually ready to use them.

Also, conferences are great for generating enthusiasm and ideas. Covid and kids have stopped me from engaging as much as I'd like, and YMMV, but I usually return from them feeling energized and excited.

But lastly: if none of this resonates, you might just need a break. I have friends/colleagues who are just taking a research break, and that's fine. Use the time to bank some service credits for your promotion, or revise courses, or whatever-- then when the inspiration hits, that work will be done and you can spend time on research.

Hope that helps, and hang in there!

[SLAC Associate]

I'm post-tenure at a SLAC, with a modest research output in the half-dozen or so years since tenure (an edited collection, a few articles in good journals in my subfield, a couple of book reviews, etc.). Due to fairly heavy teaching and service committments, I'm lucky if I put in more than 2-3 hours of research time a week during the academic year. Almost all my research time is during summer and winter breaks, when (like Marcus) I try to regularly put in at least 4-ish hours a day writing or revising, often growing to 8-10 hour days of crunch when I'm trying to get a project across the finish line before term starts. Given that minimal level of research time, I've never been able to get much headway trying to do multiple projects at once; only once a project is in a nearly publishable state and submitted somewhere will I turn my attention to the next idea.

As far as getting over the productivity slump, my own strategy post-tenure has been to explicitly target my publications at journals or edited collections where I'm fairly confident of the likelihood of success at time of submission. (Venue is far less important post-tenure and now that people in my field know my name than it used to be!) I find I'm happier with a project that is published in a reasonable timeframe and that I can post on my website than with a paper that is published in a great journal but only after several years and multiple rejections along the way. Since tenure, I've never had a paper rejected and only had one submission that required substantial revisions. Maybe in reality that means I'm aiming my submissions too low, but in my mind at least it makes me feel like I have something to show for the time I've spent.

[Michel]

I can't speak to the tenure/post-tenure aspect. But as far as research work goes I'm reasonably productive. What has worked for me since the start of the pandemic has been spending a little time on research every day--usually between 30 minutes to 1 hour, but sometimes more, when time allows. As a project nears completion, I tend to get excited and find a little more time for it.

I give myself a small but manageable goal for every day--e.g. write 400 words of §3, read it through and fix the typos, fix one referee comment, read one article, etc.--and I sit down and do it as early in the day as I can. Once I've hit my goal, I don't need to worry if I don't get back to it that day, and if I do, well, that's just a bonus.

It adds up surprisingly quickly. I can get a new paper written up in a month, and it's usually good enough for an R&R (occasionally outright acceptance). I wrote a book this way; it took me a year. And I've written a boatload of papers, book reviews, chapters, etc. this way, too. All while teaching 8+ courses, and spending most of every day caring for a small child.

The trick, I think, is just to be consistent about when you work, and to make sure it's regular. It doesn't have to be every day, but it should be most days so that you don't interrupt your flow. And it doesn't have to be a lot, but it does have to be a little. I also like to set myself (manageable) deadlines, for which special issues are quite useful.

As for the second question... I usually write up (from scratch) just one paper at a time, although occasionally I get excited or over-committed and then I have to work on two. But I will pause work on a new project to revise and resubmit existing material as it's rejected or R&Red.

[cecil burrow]

The main challenge is accepting that writing fewer but better papers is not a bad thing. We all have seen CVs of people who seem to be generating superhuman levels of papers. The trick is realizing that probably only a subset of those papers were really worth writing, and avoiding the pangs of envy. Easier said than done, but first you need to be clear that that is the goal.

[Bill Vanderburgh]

Before I answer, I wish I knew OP's answer to this question: Why do you want to maintain research productivity?

If it is because it is expected in your department or university, that's one thing. Figure out what the required level is and then follow the advice here about consistent, small bites. (When I'm really pushing, I try to write two pages a day. At that rate, I've got a good draft in a month or so. That rate is not possible during semester, though.) that said, I've heard of places that say "associate is a career rank," meaning it is rare and difficult to make it to full professor in those departments. Do you really have the gumption and drive to double your current publication list to get to that level? If not, see below.
If you want to maintain productivity because you've always just done it and no one expects it from you now that you are tenured, well, maybe just take a break until you feel inspired. If the reason is a felt obligation to your self-identity as a philosopher or personal pride, you can get over those things. ;-) There's a good reason behind the legend of "deadwood" professors: The academic system chews us up from early on, and it should be no surprise after a certain point that we've just had enough. There being no requirement, upside, or desire, is plenty enough reason not to participate in this system. That said, we have a wonderful amount of freedom, in many ways: Write about what you want to, when you want to, for the audiences you want to. (I've recently made a turn toward public philosophy and I'm finding it much more fulfilling than writing yet another journal article.)

[UK Associate]

I'm sorry you're having a difficult time. For what its worth, I've experienced a similar slump at around the same careers stage (I'm now 11 years post-PhD, and an associate professor in a department in a Russell Group univeristy in the UK). After I was hired, I definitely felt a slump and a collapse in motivation, as well as stress and burnout. It is worth rememembering that since PhD you've been under constant pressure to publish, get a job, teach amazingly, develop your tenure file, do service, keep on top of all non-work commitments, probably move city or country several times, and not go insane from stress. It is normal to feel burnout after years and years of that.

I think the good news is that the slump will pass on its own, in time. Maybe you just need time to recover, and don't need to pressure yourself to do more and more writing and reserch right at the moment? Or maybe you could do some 'recovery projects', like finishing off one of the papers that is nearly ready, just reading some philosophy that interests you for a while, doing some philosophy for school children or something that you find meaningful that has nothing to do with philosophy!

Another thing that has helped me, actually, is planning in detail the next step of my career. Ask for some mentorship and get accurate information about what is required for Full Professorship, then work out a plan for that. For me that can be really motivating, but make sure you find out accurately what is expected and work only towards those criteria, so as not to put extra pressure on yourself.

It can also be worth working out what your motivation for doing philosophical research is. I've found that a motivation does not have to be deep, or high-minded, but it does have to be powerful. For me, it is to get promoted, to get paid enough money to give my daughter the best life I can. It's not a deep motivation, and it is not really to do with the intrinsic interest of philosophy, but it is a powerful one for me. When you were on the job market, the motivation might have been 'get a TT job'; when working to tenure, your motivation might have been 'make tenure'. Now that is done, you need another, simple, powerful motivation. It might just take time for you to figure out what that is.

In terms of 'hours of research' I think it is ok to let it vary, not only over the year, but also over the course of your career. I know the feeling of 'if I'm not working on it now, I'll probably never get the motivaiton to work on it!' and all the fear associated with that. I do tend to take the 'little and often' approach to writing, suggested by Michael above. I also use a 'venting file', kind of like a work journal, where if I'm finding it hard to write, or feeling demotivated, I go to the venting file and write about how hard it is to write and why I can't write today! It really helps.

In terms of multiple projects, again, it varies over my career. We're all often juggling lots of projects, such as things we committed to writing for a friend's edited volume, editorial work, writing presentations, grant applications etc. I try to keep the total number of commitments I have at one time to a minimum, so as not to get too stressed, but I've never found the perfect number of things...

[Tenured Slumpy]

Thank you very much for the advice, everyone! This has been very useful and has helped me clarify what exactly I want out of my job.