Overcome NIH Grant Planning Overwhelm with these Three Tips
Too much on your plate.
Too much going on.
Too many projects to keep track of.
These ingredients are a recipe for overwhelm, especially for early career researchers attempting to get funded at NIH.
The Wrong Way To Combat Overwhelm
When we feel overloaded, what’s the first thing our instincts tell us to fix?
Our systems and processes. Find a better project management system. Learn a new time management hack.
A new system doesn’t miraculously eliminate all the things on your list. It’s doing exactly what you’re doing.
Trying to fit all the things you have to do in 24 hours.
I respect your efforts— I’m guilty of this too—but this is treating the symptoms and not fixing the big overarching problem.
So what’s the big problem?
You May Have To Let Some Things Go
While you’re moving from one system to the next, the hope is that you’ll find the perfect replacement, right?
Well, all that hard work may be for nothing because there’s a much simpler solution that’s right in front of you.
Taking things off your plate.
Look: the truth behind overwhelm is not about your system. It’s about dealing with too many things all at once–which is an even greater sign of the mismanagement of your priorities.
Overwhelm is the enemy of overachievers everywhere, so let’s dive into the three ways you can eliminate this burden and manage your grant writing process so that your priorities reign supreme.
3 Ways To Beat Overwhelm In The Grant Writing Process
1. Reassess Your Goals and Priorities
This is a key strategy to follow because it allows you to take a step back and remember why you started this grant writing journey in the first place. It’s a reminder of what you want to accomplish and the impact you want your research to have.
When you reconnect with your clear “why,” it makes it easier to decide what tasks don’t belong and what isn’t helping you move closer to your goals. And if it isn’t helping, it must go.
This renewed laser focus makes it much easier to know when to say NO to others and yourself.
2. Break It Down Into Smaller Pieces
A big part of grant planning overwhelm is seeing the totality of what’s in store for you. It’s daunting, right? For some, it almost seems impossible.
But when you break this whole into smaller chunks, you will immediately reverse those feelings and start believing that YES, you can blow this grant-writing thing out of the water!
When you look at each piece as its own small building block, you can start making quick work of your R01 and gain some much-needed momentum.
One of the main goals of valuing the small steps is to experience feelings of accomplishment all throughout the grant writing process, not just at the end when you are too mentally drained to appreciate the hard work you’ve done.
3. Respect Your Deadlines
You can easily get caught in the mirage of “oh, I have plenty of time,” leading you to work on your grant when you feel like it instead of being proactive. But there’s a way to overcome your path of procrastination.
Develop milestones.
Setting up key milestones relates to breaking down your big project into smaller pieces. Once you have those pieces in place, they’ll be your mile markers to remind you of the progress you’re making toward your ultimate goal of wrapping up your grant writing.
I can’t stress enough how important progress and momentum are in this process. And setting up milestones is the perfect progress marker to help you stay motivated to make new progress every single day.
Conclusion
Seeing the grant writing process as insurmountable is a choice.
With any heavy task, there’s always a process and a mindset that can be put in place to help alleviate your fears and tell yourself with confidence: I. Can. Do. This!
These three tips are the perfect start to helping you see that your upcoming grant writing experience doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. When you set your priorities, break it down into manageable pieces, and set realistic milestones for your progress, you’ll be well on your way to reaching your ultimate goal as a scientist.
So don’t let this process intimidate you. Use these three steps and get the funding you need for your research.
More Grant Writing Tips
If you want more tips and guidance on tackling the entire R01 grant writing process, I invite you to join my free resource library. You’ll find the tools to help you be a better, more confident NIH grant writer, and it’s all free.