How to move publications forward—even on your worst days

I heard a piece of advice recently that’s already changing my life for the better.

Set your life up for your worst days, not your best ones.

Meaning:

• Spend the extra few bucks for pre-chopped fruit and veg if it means you’ll actually eat it 

• Commit to a “workout routine” of just 5 minutes of HIIT before you jump in the shower (instead of the ambitious training program that you can’t stick to consistently yet)

• Aim for a week of writing daily for 15 minutes instead of lamenting that you never found an uninterrupted 3 hours 

• Keep a few meds and supplies stocked and ready before a cold or flu hits

• Consistently schedule and enjoy the nourishing activities that you’d really appreciate—nay require—if you were having an awful day

You get the picture. With this kind of “hoping for the best, expecting the worst” structure in place, progress on your important goals doesn’t grind to a dead halt when the proverbial poo hits the fan. It continues at a slow and steady pace—the one that famously wins the race. 

In this spirit, I’ve put together a resource for everyone currently on the brink of a new academic year. It’s a list of publication-related tasks, designed to move your most important output forward (even slightly) even in the midst of new classes, new responsibilities, new admin, and any other challenges life may throw your way. 

The idea here isn’t to capture every possible task that goes into writing and submitting papers, but rather, to do what you can with the time you have available so your career stays on track, even on your busiest days. No agonizing over what to do next or how to find more time to write. Just find the category that matches what your paper needs right now, then pick a task that fits the time you have.

I hope it helps you write and submit more papers than ever this year!

Publication Momentum: Tasks by Category and Time

How to use this list

1. Ask: Does my current most promising pa

   per need new material (Framing & Writing), improvements (Revising & Polishing), or a response to someone else's input (Responding to Feedback & Admin)?

2. Head to the corresponding category and check how many minutes you actually have.

3. Pick one task. Do it. That's a win for the day.

Progress compounds: a 5-minute task today moves you closer to your goals than you were yesterday.

1. Framing & Writing

Finding your paper's core story and generating new content, from big-picture direction to drafting sections, paragraphs, and figures.

5 minutes

• Write down 3–5 possible titles that capture the paper's core problem and spark curiosity (Note: absolute garbage welcome. Just write them down and set them aside until a great title inevitably comes on their heels.) 

• Add a paper to your "to read" list with a one-line note on why it's relevant

• Write or voice-record the answer to this question in a few sentences max: What is the real and present danger if no one ever reads this paper? (This is your paper's main contribution and should guide the whole narrative.)

• Schedule a call with a mentor, colleague, coauthor, or other collaborator to resolve a particular problem with a draft

15 minutes

• Quickly read a "best paper" at one of your target journals and write down or record your unfiltered thoughts on the writing: how did it feel to read it? Easy, enjoyable, interesting? Why? This practice of consciously observing the patterns of success in your specific field pays off tremendously over time.

• Search for 2–3 potential target journals and make notes on their fit criteria

• For a new/unstarted paper, map out the paper’s story by answering these 5 questions: 

  • What problem does this research examine, and why fix it (what’s the danger if no one does)? (Introduction)

  • What past work do you draw on to fix it, and how? (Literature review/theory)

  • How did you tackle the problem (i.e., conduct your research)? (Methods)

  • What did you find? (Results/Findings)

  • What do those findings mean for the problem and people who care about it? (Discussion)

  • Plug each answer into the start of its corresponding section in a template doc, so the story’s main pillars are now ready to flesh out in later writing sessions. If any of the answers strike you as weak, unconvincing, or incomplete, DO NOT PROCEED. Instead, book a time to consult with a coauthor, mentor, or a strategic collaborator like me before you waste precious time writing a paper with insufficient value for a top journal.

• Write or revise your abstract

• Draft or revise one paragraph (open with the main point of the paragraph, discuss it, then set up/anticipate the next paragraph's main topic with your final sentence)

• Create/update a figure caption

• Write a rough draft of your concluding paragraph and end on a positive note: what's your hope for these findings? How could they help if the right people read this paper?

30 minutes

• Read a "best paper" at one of your target journals and create a reverse outline: What is the main point/job of each paragraph? Jot that in the margins, then trace the overarching story that’s revealed across the paper.

• Create or refine one figure or table

• Write the "Limitations" subsection of the discussion

• Write the beginning of your Methods section to describe your research context and why it was the best choice for exploring your paper's central question/concern

2. Revising & Polishing

Improving a draft that already exists (e.g., for clarity, flow, consistency, citations, and formatting for submission)

5 minutes

• Reread your abstract and highlight any sentence that feels clunky, confusing, or unnecessary

• Flag a section of the draft that needs the most work and describe (even vaguely) what kind of work in 2–3 sentences

• Skim your own draft's headers/subheadings for logical flow

• Add one citation you've been meaning to look up to your reference manager

• Check target journal's word count/formatting requirements; attach the key points in a comment on your draft (e.g., APA style, 10,000 words max, abstract 250, 3 levels of headings look LIKE THIS, Like This, and Like this.)

• Update your author bio or contributor statement

• Skim your own draft's headers/subheadings for formatting

15 minutes

• Do a "read-aloud" pass of the introduction or discussion; flag spots that leave you out of breath or stumbling over your words (they'll need streamlining)

• Check a co-author's tracked changes/comments and reply (if necessary)

• Run your paper through reciteworks.com to ensure all citations are included in the references and vice versa; flag any anomalies for checking/fixing later

• Draft the cover letter using a template

• Reformat references to match target journal style using your reference manager (check that it actually worked; if not, manually fixing them will take more like 30–60 minutes)

• Update your CV/website with the paper's current status

• Check the journal’s word or page limits and ensure your paper falls below them; if it doesn’t, highlight the longest paragraphs and sections of the paper, then schedule some time for cutting or condensing them

30 minutes

• Pull up a draft that you know is too long and do a full reverse-outline of one section (name what each paragraph is doing as a comment in the margins); any paragraph that's interesting but not vital to the main story should be moved into a separate file for "trimmings"

• Edit one full page or subsection specifically for clarity and flow: streamline where you see the opportunity (fewer words > more words; active voice > passive voice) and link sentences with words that tell the reader how to interpret them (however, moreover, nevertheless, in fact, indeed, etc.)

• Reconcile co-author feedback in one section (merge multiple tracked-changes versions)

• Do a consistency check: write down all your key terms and labels and ensure they're worded and spelled exactly the same way throughout the whole paper (including tables and figures)

• Ensure that your theoretical framing and your methods “match”—that is, the way you sought to investigate the problem aligns with how you frame the problem. This is one of the most common mistakes I see in otherwise strong papers, and it usually requires reframing the problem at least slightly.

• Fix any citations not included in the reference list and vice versa, so your citations and references match

• Finalize basic/high-level formatting for submission (margins, fonts, headers)

3. Responding to Feedback & Admin

Working through reviewer comments, plus the small logistical/communication tasks that keep a paper moving.

5 minutes

• Rename/organize files for the current draft into a clearly labeled folder

• Send one "checking in" email to a co-author naming the next step on the draft and the proposed date by which one of you will have taken that step (hold each other accountable)

• Set a specific date/time in your calendar to work on the next bigger task (e.g., Tues. 2–3, read and categorize reviewer comments; Thurs. 6–7, categorize studies for lit. review)

15 minutes

• Outline the response-to-reviewers structure (just headers, one per comment)

• Quickly overview one reviewer’s comments and make brief notes about the broad themes and tone of their response

• Respond to one specific, easy reviewer comment

30 minutes

• Read one reviewer's comments and separate them into problems and tasks (no actual responding yet)

• Think about a key problem that reviewers flagged in your draft. What would resolve it? What would help? More time? Additional info/data? Discussion with a colleague? Choose and schedule some concrete tasks that will move the problem toward resolution.

• Respond to 1–2 of the trickier reviewer comments in detail, ideally using my GAP framework to express gratitude, authority, and positivity 

• Search and integrate a study/citation mentioned by a reviewer into the literature review, or write a responding comment as to why it's in fact not appropriate for your study