Today Dr. O used her space on the Guest Blogge to make a record of how she spends her day. A commenter, Moss, was quick to point out how inefficient she was at using her time. I couldn't agree more.* Since I know that Dr. O is going to be starting her tenure-track position soon I thought I would show her the right way to use her time by sharing how I spend my day**:
4:30 am: Jump out of bed without an alarm because I'm just so damn excited to start working!
4:35 am: shower while listening to news on NPR [pro-tip: if you are only doing one thing at a time it is a total waste].
4:45 am: call labbies to make sure that they are on their way to lab while making coffee [now that I'm a PI it is my job to make sure the folks in lab are Doing Science].
4:50 am: drink coffee, scan through new papers on Pubmed or in TOC.
6:00 am: go for a run
7:00 am: get Mini-G ready for school
7:30 am: catch bus to take Mini-G to school, drink more coffee
8:00 am: get to lab. Check in on labbies, making sure to point out new papers they should have read as I saw them over 3 hours ago.
8:15 am: write grant
12:00: eat lunch at faculty seminar
1:30: back in lab. help rotation student set up experiments, make sure grad students have read the papers I mentioned before.
2:00: work on grant
5:00: work on grant some more
7:00: walk to bus stop. Miss bus. Get a sandwich and beer while waiting for next bus. Read ms sent to me for review.
8:00: get home, a little too late for bed time.
8:10: work on grant
11:00: grant not making sense. Start reading grad student applications.
1:00: go to bed.
Now clearly I'm still a n00b here. I'm sure that there are folks out there that can help me be even MOAR efficient. The most important thing to realize is that as scientists we have a very important job. There is simply NO EXCUSE for wasting your time with stupid things that are not Doing Science. I would ask how you all manage to be so efficient and such, but I'm sure that no one is wasting their time reading this blog.
*I also appreciate that s/he made a point about the waste of time that blogging is by...commenting on a blog. Just fantastic!
**I sure hope that Moss can help me find unimportant things to cut out of my day so I can be a better scientist, too!
edited to fix links (I hope)
Clearly, walking to the bus stop instead of running is just poor time management.
noted. thanks for the insight.
Obviously you're spending too much time sleeping. You only need a half hour, hour tops.
excellent point. thanks!
Umm, you shower before you go for a run?
haha! that is a scheduling FAIL, isn't it.
30 minutes to get Mini-G ready for school? Maybe it's *finally* time for Mini-G to become more independent and get ready while you're running (also - should you really be wasting time on exercise? That's a whole hour you could spend doing SCIENCE).
OMG you are SO RIGHT! Now that she is 5 I shouldn't have to make her lunch anymore. Kiddo needs to start pulling her own weight.
Sadly I have to do the exercise. Otherwise I get really, really cranky. It is a personal deficit that I just can't seem to work around
Although, really, really cranky might generate MOAR DATA from your minions...
I think Dr. O might be on to something here...
true. but the wife is not so appreciative, sadly. i mean, you gotta have the balance, right?
Frankly, I can't believe you don't have her working (unpaid, of course) for you in the lab somehow. Utilizing child-labour is always a great way to free up time for yourself.
you are so right. what an egregious oversight
Well OBVIOUSLY she's listening to the latest Nature and Science podcasts while she runs. Maximal use of time for SCIENCE.
OBVIOUSLY
Not to break up the fun, but a pox on the house of whatever asswipe would suggest I should sleep less than 6 hours/night. And I function best on 8. If I can get 8, I'm going to freaking get 8 hours of sleep.
wow. a pox on the asswipe...that sounds serious.
You don't "read" papers; you forward them to your trainees, and they read them and explain them to you. Much more efficient that way.
excellent advice. i have alerted labbies to this new responsibility and forwarded several papers to each of them for Monday morning.
Even more efficient is to have your trainees do the lit searches, read the papers and explain them to you. Not doing the lit searches frees you up to do MOAR SCIENZ. Or drink more coffee.
you are clearly a Pro-fessional. This is full of win
You drink coffee? I modified an animal tranquilizer gun that I fill with espresso and shoot myself with while running to work listening to Science podcasts. N00b.
This is SO FULL OF WIN. I am writing a note now. Someday, if I work hard and get lucky maybe I can be so awesome as you.
I bow down to the might of your animal caffeinator gun.
It works on trainees too, whether they like it or not.
Whatevs, take my schedule:
12:00am-11:59pm: DO SCIENCE
you are Doing It Right. Nice job!!!
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