n=1 is challenging
I’m not exactly sure at what point a new lab ‘starts’ – I think I’m in the middle of that process and there isn’t a well-defined cut-off for it.
I don’t think I really understood the difficulty of being an ‘early career researcher’ until I became one. One big challenge is trying to juggle being the person at the bench doing the experiments as well as the person doing the reading, writing, planning, ordering, etc. This is compounded by also having clinical responsibilities.
It’s quite hard to get the balance right. Not enough ‘in’ the lab and I’m not generating data. Not enough ‘on’ the lab and I find I’m doing stuff without being prepared for the next few steps or weeks.
For the first time in my career I have become grossly ‘behind’ with work, at least with some aspects of it. If I am pushing forwards on the experiments, everything else gets left behind (especially emails…sorry to anyone I haven’t replied to).
My conclusion (for now) is that it is the most challenging period of prioritisation that I have been through so far. In order to get anything meaningful done I need to let the ‘small bad things happen’: accepting that I will be late for some deadlines because I am chosing to work on others. This continues to not sit comfortably with me.
In the meantime, I’ll carry on chipping away and making it up as I go along 🫡
