Getting Unstuck
The last summer of graduate school, I got stuck on my dissertation. I didn’t know how to analyze my data. In my proposal, I had said I would answer five research questions, but now I was confused about how to answer question number 3. I was stuck.
As I puttered around in my dataset, cleaning up my data, labeling my variables, and answering the first two research questions, I thought of a new research question. I jotted down my idea. A day or two later, I realized that I could answer that research question with the data I already had. With much excitement, I conducted the required analysis. The results turned out just the way I thought they would! I couldn’t put these analyses in my dissertation, since I hadn’t put this research question in my proposal. Instead, I drafted a quick introduction and discussion and I had a conference poster!
I continued to poke around in my data, but I still didn’t know how to answer the third research question. After a few days, I thought of a second research question that I could answer with the data I already had. Another quick analysis and I had a second poster! What fun!
I did this all summer, one poster after another. I wrote five posters in all, which I later presented at WPA in Hawaii. By the end of that summer, I was feeling quite accomplished.
However, there was also this little voice in the back of my head. Over the months, it got louder and louder. What about my dissertation? If I EVER wanted to finish my degree, I needed to answer the five research questions that I outlined in my proposal. I was stuck, though: I didn’t know how to analyze the data for the third research question. I didn’t know what to do.
This is when I realized a great truth about myself: When I didn’t know what to do, I did nothing. Avoidance might work okay for voluntary activities (if I don’t know how to make a flan, it’s fine if I never attempt one), but it wouldn’t work for my dissertation. Somehow I had to make progress.
So, I set up a meeting with my dissertation advisor, and told him I didn’t know how to analyze the data to answer the third research question. He gave me enough information so that I could dig back into the analyses. I was unstuck.
Thus was born my first rule: When I don’t know what to do, ask. This is a powerful rule and helped me make continuous progress on my projects for the next several years. Then, a couple of years after coming to UNLV, I got stuck again. I didn’t know what to do, but I also didn’t know who to ask. The project wallowed in uncertainty. I returned to my rule over and over: If I don’t know what to do, ask. But over and over again, I realized I didn’t know who to ask.
After a couple of months, I finally came up with the solution. If I don’t know who to ask, ask who to ask. And so I approached a colleague who probably didn’t know how to solve my problem, but who knew a lot about research. I told him my problem and asked him who I should talk with. I talked with the person he suggested, who gave me enough advice to get me unstuck again. And so was born my second rule: If I don’t know who to ask, ask who to ask. Armed with these two rules, I’ve never been stuck since.
Every year or two, I notice that one of my students is stuck. They are working on a difficult project, making progress week by week, and then suddenly they stop talking about the project. They don’t send progress reports by email and don’t bring up the project during meetings. They’re stuck and they don’t know what to do about it. And so I tell them
When you don’t know what to do, ask.
If you don’t know who to ask, ask who to ask.
Kimberly A. Barchard is the Director of the Interactive Measurement Group. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at UNLV. She joined UNLV in 2001 after obtaining her MA and PhD in Psychometrics. She works to empower students and colleagues to accomplish their personal and professional goals, particularly through the development of leadership, communication, and research skills.