Practically every year, I try to sit down and write a realistic list of goals. As many scientists know too well, I’ve strongly linked my identity as a person to my success (or lack thereof) as a scientist. For a number of years my list was dominated by goals like ‘publish project #11’, ‘publish project #12’, and ‘learn how to…’. In addition to not accomplishing many of these goals, I also didn’t re-visit these goals to assess my personal and professional development. I would simply make another optimistic list, thus providing another example of Einstein’s definition of insanity. More importantly, I often failed to include goals for personal development, like making time for leisure reading(check out the winner of the 2015 Booker Prize) or regular exercise and meditation. My growing interest in productivity tools lead me to read numerous articles about time management and how successful people work (usually via articles posted on Lifehacker that I access from Feedly). As a result, my approach to making this list has evolved gently considerably and now is a living document that helps me organize my time and seek a more reasonable work/life balance. I thought that I would share a couple of my resolutions and tips to implement them. Resolutions & Mechanisms 1. Read more articles, more regularly Particularly since finishing my PhD, I haven’t read the scientific literature as broadly and , instead, have focused my reading on topics related to manuscripts that I am writing. During my PhD, Neil Smith, who curated ’Science Sendings’ for many years, first inspired me to read the literature beyond my areas of comfort or interest. While Twitter and rss feeds on Feedly have kept me up to date, I don’t think that I have spent enough time reading science for the sake of it. One never knows when inspiration for a new experiment or analysis can arise, and reading is one of the most reliable ways for my brain to find connections to my on-going research. Thankfully,Meghan Duffy’s synthesis of #365papers provided me with the inspiration to make reading a regular part of my work day. Goal 1: read 5 papers a week Mechanisms for Goal 1
2. Write a manuscript using R Markdown As a post-doc, I have found it difficult to work on multiple projects simultaneously. I usually block my time into chunks, which allows me to maximize progress on a project and helps me keep small details, like the location output files, fresh in my mind. The downside of this approach is that I find myself lost when I switch to a new project. I can’t remember where files are, which file to use, etc. Basically, what I have been missing is a project notebook to keep track of data, make notes to justify why a certain approach was taken (plus the corresponding citation), and the most up-to-date figures. I have tried a variety of different tools to do these separate tasks (e.g. a desktop Wiki, Evernote, Trello, etc.), but have found none quite so effective as R Markdown. It’s easy to use, integrated in the R Studio environment, and even allows collaboration via GitHub. The missing step for me thus far has been how to translate the contents of a R Markdown document into a manuscript. Goal 2: write a draft manuscript all in R Markdown Mechanisms for Goal 2
3. Learn Git I work on a number of collaborative projects (a topic for a future post) that involve people from different countries and also different skill sets. To make the data analysis part of such collaborations more transparent and interactive, I hope/think that investing in such a platform a) builds trust among collaborators in your analyses and b) encourages collaborators to participate more actively in the earlier stages of the analysis. Goal 3: use Git as part of a collaborative research project Mechanisms for Goal 3
Extra tips
The last resolution, of course, is for me to blog more. Last year, the few posts that I did were limited to using R and I would like to expand my repertoire to other topics. Stay tuned! |