Protect Your Time Posted on February 28, 2006 Velma McBride Murry (bio) advises early researchers to take care of career and self before committing to other projects.

One of the things that I found that was an invaluable advice given to me by a senior scholar, and that was, "Protect your time and treat yourself well." People that work hard find themselves working harder because you're always the person that's thought of, particularly in department and university settings, because you work hard. If you want something done well, that's who you will select.

But during those early stages of one's career, my advice is: it's okay to be what people might view as selfish, because I give the analogy now to junior faculty, and that is, when you're on a plane, they tell you to put the mask over yourself first, then take care of anyone else that's traveling with you.

Take care of your career first and yourself first, self meaning all of the aspects of who you are: physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, psychological, whatever. Take care of yourself first, and then you can give yourself to others. That's very important, and spend time during those early years of one's career trying to the extent that you can matching your teaching with the areas for which you're doing research, because it allows you to become even more ingrained in that field of research.

Take on students who will be doing research in the area that you're doing research in, because it continuously begins to extend your level of knowledge about what it is you want to become the expert in. Serve on committees if they have some sense of furthering what it is that you want to do, but during those pre-tenured years or those early establishing years of one's career, really spend time taking care of yourself.

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