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PotatoLurking t1_j5qj5fq wrote

Wish I did this now it'd be cool to look at. Too late to start now that Im years into the PhD... How did you track the minutes? Did you set certain time blocks to work on x activity? I think I do too much multi tasking to easily do this since I am a wet lab student. While waiting 30 mins for something I might answer emails or do something else. I'm also naturally bad at doing one task at a time so if I get sick of experiment planning or suddenly have an idea for another task I switch to another. I admire your organization and focus. Also very interesting to see a dry lab PhD quantified! The day to day of my dry lab friends are all so different since they don't have to deal with the issues and restraints of biology. Even in the states generally I've seen dry lab students graduate in shorter time frames than wet lab PhDs. However since they have the ability to work anytime without waiting for cells to grow, some of my friends' PIs expect them to work near 24/7. Is this the same for France in your experience?

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FlimsyHuckleberry OP t1_j5qsihn wrote

You could still start now if you want! I basically always worked with a timer or stopwatch running so I could easily track my time.

I admire multitaskers. I would love to be able to do that, but I basically have to only work on one thing at once or I get super overwhelmed.

Definitely not expected to work 24/7 here. Annoyingly, being in the office was very important though. I am not French, I'm American, and during my first year, I occasionally worked from home if I was sick or if I had to wait on a repairperson (sick days aren't a thing in France; you have to get a sick note from a doctor in order to be paid). And people would make such snide remarks insinuating that I wasn't actually working.

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