I have been doing my RESEARCH GOALS WRONG.

I watched a YT video by @codiesanchezDM and it blew my mind.

There's a paradigm shift we need to embrace:  

Instead of merely setting goals, there's another critical question we must ask ourselves...

“What am I willing to sacrifice?” @codiesanchezDM To achieve anything substantial, there's always a price tag. 

The cost isn't always monetary; it's often a mix of time, comfort, and even other opportunities.

Struggling with your literature review? 
The first step isn't about finding the best literature review tool.
The biggest obstacle might actually be understanding what a literature review is.
Let's break it down and start from the ground up. First we must make the distinction between:
1. Literature review (the process)
2. Literature review (the product)

What's a research question?
It's a gap in a field you can potentially solve through research. 
In essence, there's a PROBLEM where YOU, the researcher, can help SOLVE it. 
Let's break this process down into 5 steps: [clinical research edition] STEPS:
1. Start from where you are
2. Brainstorm
3. The literature search
4. Structure your research question using a framework
5.  Finalize the research question by passing the “so what” test

Peer review is the cornerstone of scholarly publishing. 
Some reviewers offer gentle, yet unhelpful feedback.
Others may be harsh but give insightful comment. 
Striking the right balance is key. 
Let me share my approach on being the 'just right' peer reviewer The are 2 parts
Part 1: What to pay attention to (per section)
Part 2: Scripts on how to critique politely

I often get asked how I balance a full-time job, content creation, running a side business, while raising 2 kids. 
Today, I'll share what I do. 
No advice, no tips, no justification.
Just the authentic behind-the-scenes. 1⃣ Alignment:
I've aligned my clinical, research, and business goals. 
They all point to my big goal - improving the lives of 10 million patients.
Every activity I do feeds into the others.

Conference abstracts accepted, but no publications? 
It's a common story for residency research projects.
As someone who'd experienced it 6 times...
these are the reasons why many residency projects go NOWHERE. 
Brace yourself, because it's time for some tough love. 🔍 Weak research questions: 
Often, our questions revolved around..
"did our institution followed X guidelines" or 
"if there was any data from this specific location"
The missing piece was the "so what?" factor. 
What's the impact? What problem are we truly solving?

Four years of peer reviewing has taught me this: 'flawed study design' = rejection. 
Let's conquer this. 
Time to craft a strong methods section. The methods section is where you outline your study design and detail how you executed your research project.
Principles:
1. The goal is to build trust
2. Know your audience

Looking for collaborators as a researcher? 
Here are some principles and steps to follow. Principles:
1⃣ Ditch the "Don't talk to strangers" mentality
2⃣ Build your network before you need it – it's a long game
3⃣ Be proactive  - schedule it into your calendar
4⃣ Give, give, give

Getting the grant is only half the battle. 
Here's 7 must-know lessons from my first year into a research grant. 1️⃣ 💰📊 Understanding money, finances, and administrative work is essential. 
Know the business language, budget, decision-makers, reporting standards, and regulations. 
Every industry has this, we're not exceptions.
I wish I knew this sooner.

3 reasons why academic writer experience writer’s block and how to overcome them. 📝 2/20 Reason 1️⃣: 
"Don't know what to write"🤔
 - often a result of lack of framework, or
- lack of understanding of the results and your central message

📣 Ever had one of those 'forever projects'? 🗂️
You know, the ones that seem to take an eternity to complete? 🤔 

I've just submitted a project that took 5 years of work. 
Secondary data analysis...shouldn't take that long, right? 
Let's explore why it did.⏰👇 2/13 The main reasons why these projects drag on 📆:

1️⃣ Dead Space
2️⃣ Lost momentum
3️⃣ Major re-dos

Ready to dive in? 🏊

What Makes a Research Paper Truly "Academic"? 📚🔬

It took me 2 years to finally get this insight 🤔
🧵 1/  Is it the use of formal words? 🤷 
Business writings use formal words too. 

Is it tables and tables of data? 📊 
We get data reports all the time, but they aren't research papers.

As a new faculty, I was given protected research time.
But still...could never bring myself to write. 
My old excuse, "no protected time," was no longer valid. 
I hadn't trained myself to write.

Here's the steps I used to build a writing habit when "writing was not my thing".🖊️ The main obstacles to developing this habit were
- inconsistency
- lack of structure
- lack of muscle memory
- not anticipating obstacles.

"Instead of the S&P 500, most should invest in the S&Me 500" -  @AlexHormozi 

This is the biggest insight I've learned being a after becoming a physician-researcher for 3 years and mentoring others. @AlexHormozi A researcher needs a completely different skillset from a doctor to achieve academic success.

So, do not expect it to be easy. 

There will be new skills to be gained, mental barriers to be broken

I struggled to publish research papers until I developed the habit of writing.

Now, I write daily from 8-10am Tuesdays through Fridays.

These were the 4 mindset shifts that helped me break through. 💡 1/ My identify as a professional writer

I learned that:
{A profession = paid occupation}
If I am a paid to publish my research, I am technically paid to be a writer

Are we putting too much emphasis on "playing with kids", and neglecting "working with kids"? My best memories with my parents were the times where they told me "war stories" from their work, not the times where they played toys with me. 

That's because, the work stories and life lessons resurfaced again as I grew into them and as I learned to be an adult.

I used to hate clinics because...

1. I finish completing charts at night. 
2. I spend hours and hours calling patients back
3. I can't find time to do research work.
4. I'm too tired to write at 10pm

🧵below Then I changed my process and...

1. Got 6-8 hours back.. per week. 
2. All notes are done the moment the clinic ends
3. The number of phone calls dropped by 80%
4.  Have better patient engagement/satisfaction
5. Got back time to write during the day

Some tips below 👇

When I was a first year medical resident, I became a mother.

Right before I delivered, I was the star intern.

But when I came back 4 weeks after giving birth, the Attendings were asking:

"What happened to Jia?" • I disappeared in the middle of rounds.
• I didn't know my patients well.
• I completed my notes late.

I want to share our new paper “Acute kidney injury in patients hospitalized with COVID-19”. @kidney_int @hofstrakidney @hofstramed @jam_hirsch @danielwross4 @purvasharma821 @hiteshhshah Richard Barnett @gracezra1 @sfishbane @kdjhaveri bit.ly/akicovid

[THREAD] Our study is the largest study to-date evaluating AKI in COVID-19 patients. While we work hard taking care of patients, we want to inform the world about how COVID-19 affected kidney health.

This is what we did and what we found…