Tag Archives: time management

Time management: stressed science needs to slow down

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There’s no shortage of time management advice. Maybe it’s time to reconsider our approach, says Eileen Parkes.

A Saturday morning email from a senior professor arrives. A flurry of Reply All emails swiftly follow. Should I join in — show I’ve read the email on a sunny Saturday?

The academic life has a reputation for long hours. A recent global survey of academics makes bleak reading, with researchers describing ever-increasing workloads and struggles with work-life balance. Earlier this year, academics worldwide joined a Twitter argument about their working hours, with many agreeing that a 60 hour week was an expected part of an academic career. Continue reading →

Depression and anxiety are common among graduate students

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A study assessing the mental health of 2,279 PhD and master’s students from around the world has brought new attention to a pressing issue: For many, the pursuit of an advanced degree takes an emotional toll, as reported online on 6 March in Nature Biotechnology.

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Communication: talk to peers and the general public

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Effective communication will improve the value of scientific discoveries, says Eleni Wood

As scientists, our work is often driven by data collection and results. But a key step in the scientific process, and one that increases the value of our findings, is the effective communication of our investigative processes and results. Science communication is not only important within our fields for the advancement of our disciplines – communication to other audiences also influences the public perception and credibility of scientists and the work we do.

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Ghost research: taking stock of work that disappears

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Why every researcher should keep an old bulletin board.

Guest contributor Eli Lazarus

I recently found a short article my father wrote for National Fisherman, in 1988, which reported on a new kind of lobster trap with a “catch escape panel” aimed at reducing bycatch. My dad had a steady freelance gig at the time with National Fisherman, and the article was one of several he wrote while researching “ghost traps” – lobster traps, specifically, but really any lost fishing gear (nets, lines) that disappears underwater for reasons random, accidental, or deliberate.

With lobster traps, it’s easy to imagine what happens. To retrieve traps and the lobsters in them, a fisher works her way along from floating buoy to buoy. Each is connected to a heavy “sink line” that is in turn fixed to a trap, which sits on the seabed, catching lobsters. If something – a propeller from a passing boat, for example – parts the sink line, then the buoy drifts off with the current and the trap is lost.

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{credit}Getty images/Jeff Rotman Photography{/credit}

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The faculty series: Top 10 tips on managing your time as a PI

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Good lab organisation is the best way to keep your research output up, and your stress levels down.

Becoming a new faculty member is, as we’ve discussed in this series, hard. You have to demonstrate a cornucopia of scientific, interpersonal, organisational and management skills, and plan out high-level research regularly. Good science is the ultimate goal of this, and for your lab to produce good science, you have to make sure that all of the cogs in your research machine are turning smoothly.

With that in mind, here are ten tips that will help your lab stay organised, so you can focus on the research. That’s why you’re in academia, after all.

1. Keep a detailed calendar and stick to it
A good calendar will be the single most important thing to you when it comes to time management – keep it updated regularly, and share it with your colleagues so they know your availability. If you want some time for ‘open’ work – reading or writing or data analysis – make sure to schedule this on your calendar as well.

2. Standardise every group member’s output
Make templates for documents like progress or experiment reports, and encourage the entire lab to use them. It may take you a while initially, but it will save everyone in your lab a lot of time once they’re all working off of the same documents.
Close-up of a calendar. Organiser. Scheduling. Wall planner. Days of the month. Year planner. Grid. Squares. Calendar. Timetabling.

3. Use a shared, organised filing system
Instead of everyone shooting emails back and forth asking for this or that piece of information, encourage your lab to use a shared filing system that everyone knows how to use. Keeping it organised is just as important as actually having the system in place, so spend some time working out the best way to structure everything with your lab members. Continue reading →