5.5 Scaffolding What To Do Next

You are only as good as your next publication.

Academic writing occurs as a late step in a long process. You must choose a project, decide upon research questions, collect data, and analyze results long before writing begins.

In my lab, joy comes from having three different research projects in three different states at the same time: we have one project accepted for publication; we have submitted a second project to an editor; we have just started a third project. Maintaining lab bliss requires solving the problem of what to do next: choosing the next project to pursue after sending a completed manuscript off for review. Index cards scaffold project selection and preparation.

5.5.1 ‘What To Do Next?’ Cards

I frequently use index cards to scaffold how I answer the question ‘What project do I do next?’. I use several different kinds of index cards to decide what project I should pursue next.

First, I use ‘What If?’ cards. Each ‘What If?’ card holds a single idea which I believe I should explore. Generally, I generate ‘What If?’ cards by brainstorming ideas; I usually inform my brainstorming by considering questions which come to mind from work which I have already completed. Given the context of existing work, I repeatedly answer questions like ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if …?’, or ‘What if …?’.

Because I use my previous work to provide context for ‘What If?’ cards, I scaffold my previous work with other index cards. For instance, I often use ‘What Do We Know?’ cards. Each ‘What Do We Know?’ card expresses a fact or result which I confidently believe. A ‘What Do We Know?’ card also includes a brief note providing a source for the fact – a journal article, a book, one of my own papers, etc. Creating ‘What Do We Know?’ cards moves knowledge from my head into my world, helping me remember all the results to use to choose my next project.

I supplement my ‘What Do We Know?’ cards with ‘What Don’t We Know?’ cards, which state results which I predict, but which I have not yet established Each card serves as a seed for a future project designed to convert an unknown into a known.

After generating the different ‘What To Do Next?’ cards, I think about future projects by displaying and manipulating my cards. I group related cards together. I place cards in different positions to separate highly interesting ideas from less interesting ideas; to separate easier to purse ideas from harder to pursue ideas; and so on.

Organizing ‘What To Do Next?’ cards helps me choose a new project. For instance, a grouping of related ‘What If?’, ‘What Do We Know?’ and ‘What Don’t We Know?’ cards can inspire, and can provide a rationale for pursuing, a new project. For instance, my cards might lead to an arrangement I interpret as: ‘I know w and x, but I don’t know y. Could I discover y by doing z?’

I find my ‘What To Do Next?’ cards useful for keeping me on track, reminding me about the questions I want to answer and how I came up with them. I therefore display these cards in a relatively permanent layout for regular inspection. While on display, I can easily perform other actions on my ‘What To Do Next?’ cards. I can date stamp a card to indicate when I started trying to answer a question, or when I found an answer. I can use colored dots, or I can physically group cards, to indicate different lab members working on different tasks.

The final manipulation of my ‘What To Do Next?’ cards occurs when the research on the new project finishes. I organize the cards, gather them into a deck, and file them away for later use. For instance, I might find them useful to pull out when I outline the paper which describes the project’s results.

5.5.2 To Do (Right Now) Cards

After deciding what project to do next, I need to decide what steps I need to take, decide the order in which to take them, and decide who will do them. To me, such ‘To Do’ tasks seem more urgent; I call them ‘To Do Right Now’ tasks.

Index cards offer a very useful scaffold for a project’s early stages. I write each task on its own index card, creating several ‘To Do’ cards. I usually find such cards easy to generate; I grab some blank cards and repeatedly answer the question ‘What do I need to do to start the project?’. After generating the cards, I arrange them in order – which tasks need to be done first, which tasks can be done quickly, and so on. When a task is initiated, I use a date stamp to record when the task began; the card can also be used to indicate who is completing the task. When the task is over, I date stamp the card to record when the task was completed.

‘To Do’ cards provide a useful scaffold, because they display what I need to do, my active tasks, and my completed tasks. I don’t have to keep all tasks and their states in memory. For group projects, I can put ‘To Do’ cards on public display to serve as a collective memory to guide multiple researchers working on the same project. On public display, ‘To Do’ cards motivate team members by showing progress on a project when we stamp a card ‘completed’.