Sometimes it’s best to refuse offers and focus on the right projects to benefit your career.
The world’s most productive scientists often have CVs that are filled with dozens of pages of publications, suggesting that they accept and take full advantage of every opportunity they are offered. But committing time and energy to any one project can limit other opportunities.
Working in an academic medical centre, we are consistently surrounded by competing demands. A.S. is a resident physician who balances clinical responsibilities with research, volunteering and leadership pursuits. R.G. designs and leads professional-development workshops on time management, among other themes, and pursued a doctorate while working full time.
At medical school, for example, A.S. wanted to spend a year at another institution learning how to perform high-quality clinical anaesthesiology research. He used his existing professional network to connect him with alumni who had also taken a year out to do research. These people helped him to identify conferences and projects that had principal investigators who would be able to provide funding and mentorship on his timeline.