As the year draws to a close, many academics feel they have not achieved “enough” and head into the holidays with a sense of unfinished business. But from years of working closely with PhD candidates, postdocs, and early-career researchers, we know that this feeling is rarely accurate. Academics consistently overlook some of the most important work they do — work that may not appear in formal metrics but is essential for their development, their students, and their research communities. In this blog post, we highlight five small but meaningful wins that many researchers accomplish every year without recognising them. Before you log off for the holidays, take a moment to acknowledge these achievements, appreciate the progress you made, and give yourself permission to rest. We also created a printable Academic Celebration Card to help you capture your personal wins from 2025.
Have you reached December feeling like you didn’t do enough? You are not alone.
Every December, we hear the same concerns from researchers:
• “I should have finished my paper.”
• “I didn’t get as much done as I hoped.”
• “I feel behind.”
This feeling is almost universal in academia.
And yet — it rarely reflects reality.
Over the years, through our teaching, coaching, and workshops, we have seen how much academics actually accomplish in the course of a year. Much of it simply goes unnoticed because it doesn’t appear in a submission system, a progress report, or a performance review. Academic life produces many quiet, foundational, and often invisible achievements that matter immensely to long-term progress.
So today, rather than offering you another productivity strategy or end-of-year task list, we invite you to pause and recognise a few things you most likely did accomplish — even if you haven’t acknowledged them.
Here are five small wins academics routinely forget to celebrate before the holidays.
1. You kept your research going — even when it was complex, slow, or uncertain
Academia is full of moments when progress feels unclear.
Experiments take longer than expected, data behave unpredictably, writing feels heavy, or you realise a section needs rethinking. These phases are normal, but they often lead researchers to underestimate their achievements.
Yet from everything we observe in our courses, one thing is true again and again:
The ability to continue working through uncertainty is one of the most significant academic accomplishments.
This year, you stayed engaged with your research despite challenges. You showed resilience when parts of your project were open-ended or demanding. You returned to your desk repeatedly, even when the next steps were not obvious.
That is not “nothing.”
That is progress — and it deserves recognition.
2. You supported students, colleagues, or collaborators — often more than you realise
Academic communities run on countless acts of support that rarely get acknowledged.
Throughout the year, you may have:
• explained a difficult concept to a student,
• reviewed a draft for a colleague,
• given feedback that helped someone move forward,
• mentored a junior researcher,
• assisted a team member with a method or tool,
• shared resources,
• stepped in when someone was overwhelmed.
These contributions do not appear on publication lists, but their impact is real.
Our experience shows that academics consistently underestimate how much their guidance and encouragement matter. Yet these moments are central to the functioning of research groups, departments, and scholarly communities.
If you helped someone this year — and most academics do, regularly — this is something to celebrate.
3. You made progress on your writing — even if you didn’t submit a paper
We often hear researchers say:
“I didn’t finish the paper, so I didn’t make progress.”
But writing progress is not defined only by submissions. Much of the essential work on a manuscript happens long before the final version exists. This includes:
• clarifying your argument,
• tightening the scope,
• reorganising a section,
• rewriting the introduction,
• improving figures or tables,
• aligning co-authors,
• identifying what still needs attention,
• receiving and processing feedback.
In our workshops, researchers frequently discover that they have done far more writing-related work than they initially thought — it simply wasn’t in its final form yet.
If you shaped your ideas, refined your text, or moved your paper closer to clarity this year, you did make progress. The foundations you built are part of the writing process, not something separate from it.
4. You handled a significant amount of invisible work that kept everything running
Academic life includes many responsibilities that take time and energy but rarely get formally acknowledged. Among them:
• preparing and updating lectures,
• managing emails requiring thoughtful responses,
• organising meetings or supervising lab routines,
• supporting administrative processes,
• dealing with logistics for fieldwork or equipment,
• preparing materials for students,
• keeping your group or project coordinated.
These tasks may not be celebrated, but they are essential to teaching, research, and collaboration.
In conversations with researchers, we often find that the workload they consider “normal” is, in fact, substantial invisible labour. This work ensures continuity, structure, and reliability — and you carried it again this year.
Recognising this is not self-indulgent. It is honest and healthy.
5. You learned or refined something that strengthened your academic skills
Academics are constantly learning — formally or informally. Over the span of a year, you likely improved your abilities in ways you have not acknowledged. For example:
• deepening your understanding of a method,
• becoming more confident with a software tool,
• adjusting your writing process,
• improving the way you supervise or teach,
• learning how to handle reviewer feedback more constructively,
• finding better ways to organise your work.
Many of these developments happen gradually, without a defined “achievement moment.”
But they accumulate — and they matter.
We regularly see how researchers underestimate how much they have learned simply through navigating their projects. The academic environment itself requires continual upskilling, and you have grown through that process this year.
Before you log off: Take a moment to acknowledge your year
If you are heading into the holidays feeling tired, that is entirely expected. Academic work stretches across many roles, responsibilities, and emotional demands. Recognising your wins is not about pretending that the year was easy. It is about acknowledging that you did accomplish meaningful things — often more than you remember.
To help you capture these moments, we created a small printable you can use before you take your well-deserved break.
Download: The 2025 Academic Celebration Card
This one-page sheet invites you to:
• review the five small wins academics often forget,
• identify your three personal wins from 2025,
• write one sentence to close the year with appreciation and clarity.
It’s a simple tool to help you end the year on a positive note and step into 2026 with more confidence.
Download your Celebration Card here
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Looking ahead
We will be back in early January with a gentle reset exercise to help you start the new academic year with clarity. Until then, we wish you a restorative break and time to recharge.
You have done more than you think.
Enjoy logging off for the holidays — you earned it.
Relevant resources
Smart Academics Blog, Post #94: The researcher’s guide to holidays.
Smart Academics Blog, Post #75: The Lucky Motivation Jar: A gift for your best academic friend
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