In academic research, it's often even more difficult to draw the line between simple "activity" as Vivek puts it and actual progress. The unfortunate fact about

In academic research, it's often even more difficult to draw the line between simple "activity" as Vivek puts it and actual progress. The unfortunate fact about research is that there really is no certainty, so it's hard to measure concrete progress. Most research is done in retrospect, so a lot of grind work that may initially seem not worthwhile is an important step in the research process.