How to Decide Which Academic Projects Deserve High-Stakes Attention (and Which Don’t)
Not all academic projects are high-stakes, and not every high-stakes project is immediately obvious. One of the more challenging features of academic work is learning to distinguish between projects that demand significant effort and ones that shape how your work, expertise, or leadership are understood over time.
When everything feels urgent and consequential, it’s easy to try and put equal amounts of effort into every project instead of strategically organizing your time. The result is that projects with long-term implications receive the same amount of attention as work that is largely bureaucratic.
Learning to recognize the projects that carry high-stakes can help faculty make deliberate choices about how they direct their attention in ways that are strategic and careful.
This kind of discernment becomes especially important when you are navigating projects that shape how your scholarship, leadership, and long-term trajectory are evaluated across roles, institutions, and stages of your career.
High-Stakes Does Not Mean High Effort
High-stakes academic projects are not always the most time-consuming tasks. Sometimes the work that might have the biggest implications for your career are actually projects that just require a little more of your attention.
Documents such as research statements, teaching philosophies, or statements of purpose are not meant to be time-consuming tasks. Yet making time to think through and articulate your goals and rationales for your research and teaching can have a huge impact on how you position your work and make choices throughout your career.
What Actually Makes an Academic Project High-Stakes
Many academic projects present themselves as opportunities.
An invitation to serve as a journal editor.
The chance to develop a new course.
A request to chair a committee.
Not all opportunities carry equal weight. What distinguishes a high-stakes project is not whether it is presented as an honor or exclusive position, but whether it meaningfully fits with and extends your goals, priorities, and trajectory.
High-stakes projects are high-stakes not because of an external set of criteria or expectations. High-stakes projects are ones that are meaningful to you and your long-term goals and interests.
These are the projects that fit with your goals as a scholar and teacher.
These are the projects that might pique your curiosity or excitement because they help you advance or deepen your thinking.
And they are the projects that position you for success, not because of an opportunistic set of circumstances, but because they are the projects that you find significant and meaningful.
The stakes are high because these are projects that are important to you.
Common Projects that Feel High-Stakes but Aren’t
In academia there’s often a sense of urgency around just about everything.
University deadlines
Conference submission deadlines
Review deadlines
Revise and resubmit deadlines
Deadlines create a sense of urgency and exclusivity. But due dates are not the only criteria that make a project high-stakes.
A limited opportunity or impending submission deadline is not what makes a project high-stakes, even though it might feel that way.
High-stakes projects work against the urgency of deadlines, because these are the projects that you will continue to develop and work on even when the deadline for submission has passed.
What High-Stakes Academic Work Requires to Go Well
High-stakes academic projects require more than effort and speed. They require intention, clarity, and structure. When it comes to high-stakes work it’s not the long hours or endless tasks that matter, it’s about strategically and purposefully framing your work and clarifying your long-term goals.
These projects work best when you understand the larger story your work is contributing to. When this happens you can make strategic choices about how to organize your time and energy in order to ensure the work you produce is high-quality and impactful.
When Structured Support Is Most Useful
The external perspective of a trusted colleague, mentor, or coach is most valuable when the project has long-term implications for your career, research trajectory, or professional goals.
Structured feedback and guidance is a strategic way of clarifying your goals and priorities, navigating the hidden rules of academic evaluation, and positioning your work for long-term success in ways that are sustainable and personally meaningful.
High-stakes projects are defined by their significance to your goals. Approaching them with intention, structure, and support can help ensure that you are creating and telling the story that you want to tell about your scholarship and leadership
If you’re navigating a high-stakes academic project and want experienced support as you develop a compelling and strategic narrative, consider connecting for a consultation regarding High-Stakes Academic and Professional Project Support. Together we can work to ensure your work is positioned for impact and long-term success.