Scientists, more than most, have a tendency to ignore their personal lives and focus on their work. The job becomes increasingly stressful when you leave other important tasks incomplete. As they build up, things will only get worse, so do them as they come.
If your bills are piling up, and exercise has become something you hear about but don’t fully understand, then you need to take a step back. The chances are that although you are working pretty constantly, the quality of your research is suffering. The mistake at this juncture is to think you need to do more work rather than less. Take a break. You will gain a new perspective about your research and be able to return to it with a greater level of enthusiasm. Don’t burn out by exhausting yourself.
Get Practical Tips- Make time for people. Family and friends are important and will positively affect your work.
- Make a list of your obligations and cross each thing off as it gets done.
- Don’t run too many procedures at once.
- Even if you are experienced at a certain procedure, don’t just pile the replicates on top of each other without analysing the previous attempt first. Make sure you not only know the outcome of the previous attempt, but understand why any problems occurred before you do it again. Otherwise you will inevitably make the same mistakes, reducing both your productivity and morale.
Get Wet Lab Tip
- Don’t think that you have to complete each experiment every day. Know the points where you can stop and continue the next day.
Read Personal Perspective
At the beginning of my third year, I didn’t have a lot of data. I felt like I had to run procedures faster and faster in order to generate something useful. Before one had finished I was already running it again, and again. But of course this meant I kept making the same mistakes. I never took the time to analyse where the mistakes were, and the protocols kept failing.
The result was that I got increasingly stressed and piled on more replicates, becoming disheartened by their failure. My social and home life both started to suffer, and I stopped enjoying my degree.
If you are stressed by your lack of progress, don’t just pile on more work mindlessly. It’s inefficient, and will only make things worse.
