How to Manage Your Lab Projects More Effectively

I work with a lot of scientists who are doing fine…at least, they look like they are.

Their grants are moving forward, their experiments are running, and their papers are almost ready to submit. Several projects may be underway, but none look particularly hard.

And yet they’re exhausted!

Sometimes they’re simply doing too much. But sometimes something else is happening: they’re not just doing several projects; they’re holding them in their head all at once.

Are You Actually Busy or Do You Feel Busy?

Imagine you have four projects underway. We’ll call them Project A, B, C, and D:

You’re working on Project A. But while you’re working on it, some part of you is thinking about Project B.

You think, “I need to get that experiment started...”

And then you think about Project C, “….That paper isn’t moving fast enough.…”

And Project D, “...What happens if the grant doesn’t come through?”

Meanwhile, you’re trying to write three paragraphs for Project A!

This is exhausting.

In that single moment, you aren’t just writing three paragraphs; you’re also trying to stay aware of the past, present, and future of everything else you’re responsible for at the same time.

As a result, you conclude: “I have too much to do!”

Maybe. But there’s another possibility worth considering: You may have too many “windows” open in your mind’s “browser”.

Those aren’t the same problem: you can feel very busy without being busy at all. Conversely, you can be very busy without feeling very busy. Let me explain.

Four Rules to Help You Manage Your Lab Projects

I was recently talking about this problem with Nick, a scientist who also hosts a podcast for researchers.

He had three or four projects going simultaneously. During our conversation, he caught himself mentally projecting those projects into the future. This showed up in his mind in questions like:

• What needs to happen?
• What could happen?
• What should happen?
• What might go wrong?
• What would the ideal outcome look like?

And he was doing this with several projects simultaneously. Nick called them windows. And I think that’s a useful metaphor.

A Useful Metaphor for Feeling Busy: Too Many Windows

Imagine your computer with 27 browser windows open. You’re only actively using one, but the others are still running in the background while your computer gets hotter and hotter.

Your mind can work the same way. You may be writing a paper, but somewhere in your awareness the grant window is open. The experiment window is open. Tomorrow’s meeting is open. The email you haven’t answered is open. Your dinner is open.

Doesn’t that sound overwhelming? If you’re looking to feel less busy, here are four rules to move through your workday with more ease.

Rule 1: You Can’t Do Anything in the Future

There’s a simple reality we often overlook: You can only do something now.

• You can’t work on tomorrow’s experiment tomorrow
• You can’t revise next week’s paper next week
• You can’t even think about the future in the future; if you’re thinking about the future, you’re thinking about it now

When we actively “do” something, it can only “be done” in the present moment. Yet we can spend enormous amounts of attention mentally inhabiting the future.

And that’s not planning. Planning is something you deliberately do in the present. This is more like rumination: repeatedly running simulations of things you can’t act on right now.

The attention you spend ruminating has to come from somewhere. And, usually, it comes from the thing you’re supposedly doing right now.

Some research supports this. Sophie Leroy coined the term attention residue to describe what happens when we move from one unfinished task to another. Some of our attention stays attached to the previous task, reducing our ability to fully engage with the next one.[1]

But you don’t really need a research paper to recognize this experience. You’ve probably felt it when you’ve found yourself doing one thing on autopilot while mentally preparing for another.

Solution: Close the Windows

The solution isn’t complicated (but that doesn’t mean it’s easy): Close the other windows.

Not forever. You’re not abandoning the other projects. You’re not pretending they don’t exist, or that your grant suddenly doesn’t matter.

You’re simply deciding: I’m not doing that now. Then choose what you are doing now. And make that next action smaller than you probably think it should be:

Thought	Next Action
“Work on the paper”	Write the first paragraph of the discussion
“Deal with the grant”	Email Sarah for the data
“Figure out the experiment”	Order the reagent

Ask: What can I actually do right now? Then do that. Then when it’s done, ask the question again.

Rule 2: Sequence Instead of Juggle

Keeping one window open at a time doesn’t mean you can only have one project. Scientists rarely have that luxury!

You can have six projects, but there’s an enormous difference between having six projects and trying to think about six projects simultaneously.

Sequence them:

• A, then B, then C
• Not A+B+C+D running continuously in your head while you’re attempting to do A!

This is one place where forcing becomes seductive. When your attention is scattered, ordinary work starts feeling unusually difficult. So you compensate by pushing harder:

• More discipline
• More caffeine
• Longer hours
• More pressure

You try to manufacture enough force to overcome the friction you’ve unintentionally created. Eventually, that stops working. A better first question is: Where is my attention?

Try to let go instead of adding more.

Rule 3: Recognize When You Really Do Have Too Much Work

Here is an important caveat to Rule 1: closing windows won’t fix an impossible workload. If you’re doing the work of three people, being present while doing it doesn’t magically make the workload reasonable.

Sometimes something has to go:

• A project gets postponed
• A deadline gets renegotiated
• Someone else takes responsibility
• You say no
• You ask for help

That’s a different problem from having too many windows open, and it’s important not to confuse the two. One problem is too much work. The other is trying to carry all your work in your awareness at once.

And while you can have either problem, you can also have both!

If you have too much work, address the workload. But don’t add unnecessary mental load by keeping every project’s future running in your head while you do it.

Rule 4: Your Present Capacity is Your Capacity

There’s another trap you may fall into here. You look at someone else and think: “They can handle all of this. Why can’t I?“

Or perhaps more painfully: “I used to be able to handle all of this. What’s wrong with me?“

Neither question is particularly useful, as capacity differs between people. And more importantly, your own capacity changes.

It changes with age, health, sleep, relationships, stress, responsibilities, enthusiasm, and what else is happening in your life.

The relevant question isn’t what someone else can carry. It isn’t even what you could carry five years ago!

The relevant question is: What is true now? That’s the capacity you actually have to work with.

Key Takeaway: Come Back to Now

Your grant matters. Your experiments matter. Your papers matter. But they don’t all require your attention at this moment.

So when you catch yourself mentally bouncing among several unfinished futures, come back to a much simpler thought: What is the next thing I can actually do?

And do that. Let everything else wait its turn.

Your workload may not get any smaller, but you may discover that the workload wasn’t consuming all of your energy. Trying to carry everything in your head was.

If you’d like more on working sustainably as a scientist, download The Happy Scientist Reference Pack.

References

1. Leroy, 2009. Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residue when switching between work tasks. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2009.04.002