As a postdoctoral fellow, I am in the in-between stage where I am working toward independence but still working for another lab. It seems like there are a lot of obstacles at this stage because it is hard to access time and monetary support to get preliminary data for your own ideas and independent career, so a successful transition to independence really relies on support from your mentor/PI. If you don’t have that critical support from your mentor, your work-life balance will suffer because you are trying to work on your own career in your free time. In the past I have been very giving of my time and have struggled to say “no” to opportunities. However, I am learning that saying “yes” to the right opportunities is more important.
Even more important than the research matter in your research lab is a mentor who will open doors for you and help you pursue your own interests and take them with you. Too often I see post-doctoral fellows and graduate students struggle because they are spending all of their time doing work toward their mentor’s goal with nothing for their own goals. If you say “yes” only to the opportunities that are mutually beneficial you will have more time to put toward your own career and often increased enthusiasm and productivity for the job at hand.
Having support personal in the lab is also key to work-life balance. If the lab consists of solely you and the PI, you will likely end up with long hours and working weekends. This is okay if you have comfortable working relationship with the PI and can set reasonable expectations. However, if the lab has a good support network with mentees, technicians, and ideally a lab manager, you will have extra hands to split the work. During my PhD I was extremely productive because of the many mentees that aided in my work. This allowed me to delegate daily tasks so I could focus more exclusively on tasks that only I could perform like planning, troubleshooting, and writing.
From a planning standpoint, I think having a good priority list is key to work-life balance. I try to keep my work focused on 3-5 major projects at a time. I keep a longer list of projects and tasks but only 3-5 are my focus for the week. These projects usually consist of at least one project that is close to completion, one project that I am most interested in or highest priority, and one project that I have the most help with. The scope of what I have considered a “project” has changed throughout my career. Early in my career a “project” was often optimizing one protocol, as a senior PhD student a “project” was often one figure for a manuscript, and now as a post-doc a “project” is often an entire manuscript or grant. This week my project list is: 1) a manuscript that is under revision and just needs a quick response to an editor, 2) a case report that has a complete draft and I am reaching out to co-authors for feedback prior to submission, 3) a project that is my main interest where I am working on a grant, initial manuscript, and preliminary data, 4) a project that is a Summer Scholar project split between three mentees with the goal of them each completing one figure for a combined manuscript, and 5) a project that is ongoing and I have a MD mentee who is completing some weekly data collection. Usually the closer my “close to completion” projects are the more projects I have for the week. I have been using a Hobonichi weeks as my weekly planner so I can set priorities but also keep a brain dump of everything I need to do eventually.
I tend to work late or early when I have busy weeks and reserve my weekends for leisure and time with friends and family. During these days off I usually am still planning for work in my mind, but I try to keep a notebook at hand and just jot thoughts down rather than focus on them or grab my work computer. In fact, I have been leaving my laptop at work at night and on weekends in order to help maintain balance and force myself to take time away from work. I keep my planner on me and have access to my email on my phone, but I am not completing large amounts of work outside of work hours. I have found that this has increased my productivity during the workday and allowed me to have a better work-life balance.