Biophysical Society Bulletin | September 2020

Career Development

• Offer your team the same courtesy that you expect of them with respect to communication. 2. Managing time for yourself. Initially, working from home led us to a struggle where there were absolutely no boundaries. It was starting to feel like we are living at work and not working from home. • Make a schedule and stick with it. Your schedule should involve time for reading, writing (active thinking), coding, derivation, or various parts of your current project. But it is a good practice to have roughly 30 minutes to 1 hour each day dedicated to reading and writing. Include breaks, walks, or simply time outdoors. • Break the monotony. Working on a single project for pro- longed periods, especially in isolation, can induce fatigue. Follow the 70-30 approach. Spend 70 percent of your time on your main project and 30 percent on a different project. This may not work every day or for everyone. • Make time to listen to online seminars. There are so many these days and can be a good source of information and learning something new. • Make sure to factor in breaks like a coffee break or lunch break. Don’t eat at the exact same spot where you work. These small things may seem quirky but they do really work. • Exercise at some point in the day. If you have a creative hobby (painting, photography, music), then make time to pursue it. The small pockets of time you spend on these during the day will not set you back in your research. Rather, they will refresh you like a breath of fresh air. My group members point out that this is quite important, particularly now, when it is easy to spend large chunks of time in the same physical space. By reviving your hobbies, you have access to variety and new stimulus and the abil- ity to reset your thoughts. Personally, yarn work has been my go-to because I find the repetitive movements during knitting quite soothing. My group is aware of my many unfinished knitting projects since I knit when I am listen- ing while in Zoom meetings to help me stay focused. • Bookend your days. Begin work at a certain time and end work at a certain time or with a certain activity. I like to formally end my workday with a workout before switch- ing to evening with the family. It serves as the equivalent of the car ride home. 3. Managing time with others. We mostly tend to underesti- mate how much time everything takes. While this is generally

true, it is more so when many of our collaborators are man- aging fairly intense work-life responsibilities, lack of childcare, and managing their own groups. • The pandemic has exacerbated the inequities for many working parents. If you are a working parent, then it is important that you communicate on your timelines and challenges so that others may support you. • Sometimes the reverse is true. Many of you may find yourself working even more. There are two points to remember here. First, working long is not necessarily working smart, so be aware of the difference. Second, your colleagues may not be in a position to give a timely response in the manner you were used to. Factor in ad- ditional time so that your papers, fellowship applications, etc. don’t get delayed. Giving a substantial amount of lead time is critical. In general, asking for letters, feedback, and other responses on short notice is rude and inconsiderate but now it is even more so. • Recognize that everyone is responding to this situation differently; rather than react to a situation, respond with grace and empathy while sticking to the facts. • Understand the nature of deadlines and set realistic goals. Break down a big deadline into smaller deadlines that allow you to adjust and reset your timeline. Not meeting a deadline can often result in panic or abandon- ing the process altogether. Try a middle ground where you reset and reassess periodically. This strategy is use- ful beyond the pandemic too. 4. Take a vacation. Travel is out of the question for many of us now. But take time off for a week and see if you can figure out a staycation or something that will give you a true break without jeopardizing your health. 5. Do the best you can and then let it go. Having some per- spective about the small things in the larger scheme of the world is always a good thing. In a pandemic, it is a require- ment for survival.

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