One of the key suggestions that I often make to many of my friends and colleagues is to read and explore areas of research that do not match your core area of specialisation. We tend to limit ourselves to reading in areas that are directly linked to our research work or to our primary disciplinary area. However, this will limit understanding of research in general.
While specialisation and an in depth understanding of your research work is important, wider reading will bring a wealth of knowledge that will help you to write better. It will also allow you to look at your own work from a fresh perspective and often understand the strengths and weaknesses of your own perspective. What it also does is to allow you to present stronger justification for why you did or did not do something.
The trouble in this is that there is no limit to areas that you can explore and read in. And there is limited time and capacity to understand and synthesise all that you read. So, how do we balance the two and not get carried away into the rigmarole of reading endlessly?
There are two fairly simple ways of ensuring that you are aware of researches in different domains. One, whenever you read an article, paper or book, do a bit of background research. Who is the author? What are the other papers that he/she has written? Go through the references and identify other possible sources that you need to read or may like to read. Try and see how you can access these resources.
Second, and an even simpler way is to attend as many colloquia, presentations, seminars, discussions, talks as you possibly can. You may not understand everything that is said. You may not agree or relate to everything presented. But if you listen to others speak, you will know how to present your arguments, know contemporary trends and learn what is accepted by the wider research community.
It may help to make a rule for yourself, such as, “I will attend 8 out of 10 talks that are organised in my department” or that “I will read/ listen to at least one talk from a diverse perspective every fifteen days”. This will ensure that you are able to discuss your own work with others and get opinions and feedback.