An Update for the Future

My focus this week has been understanding the scope of my current research, setting goals for my future work, and collaborating with my undergraduates so that we set meaningful plans for the future. While this work often goes overlooked, I like to take the time to break down my work tasks and my research goals to establish deadlines for myself that seem meaningful and timely. For example, this week I knew that I had to spend most of my free time working toward a presentation that I gave yesterday and that I couldn't commit to any other projects. Therefore, I planned for a lot of work upfront and pushed other small tasks to the end of the week so that my focus would not be split between multiple jobs at once. Now that the seminar is over, I can get back to my routine schedule of lab work on Tuesdays and Thursdays and finish the microplastic particle analysis that I put on hold. 

I'm looking forward to the Tuesday/Thursday routine because it allows me to commit to manageable hours, rather than my previous 9 or 11-hour work days, and it means that I don't have to be at the lab every Saturday and Sunday. Once the summer starts, things may change, but I'm happy to work a normal, routine schedule for the time being.

Next week I will have more data on the particle analysis side of my research and I hope to spend the time talking about the particle compositions of the samples I have analyzed so far. That's all for now. See you next week!