Managing Time in a Research Environment

The silent productivity killer you've never heard of... Attention Residue (and 4 strategies to fight back): The concept of "attention residue" says there is a cognitive cost to shifting your attention from one task to another. When our attention is shifted, there is a "residue" that remains in the brain and impairs our cognitive performance on the new task. Put differently, you may think your attention has fully shifted to the next task, but your brain has a lag—it thinks otherwise! With apologies to any self-proclaimed proficient multitaskers, the research is very clear: Every single time you call upon your brain to move away from one task and toward another, you are hurting its performance—your work quality and efficiency suffer. Here are four strategies to manage attention residue and fight back: 1. Create a Boot Up Sequence Your personal boot up sequence is a series of actions that prime your mind and body for deep focus work. For me, this involves cold brew coffee, classical music, and sitting in a bright, well-lit environment. Create your own boot up sequence and your attention performance will improve. 2. Focus Work Blocks Block time on your calendar for sprints of focused energy. Set a timer for a 45-90 minute window, close everything except the task at hand, and focus on one thing. It works wonders. 3. Take a Breather Whenever possible, create open windows of 5-15 minutes between higher value tasks. Schedule 25-minute calls. Block those windows on your calendar. During them, take a walk or close your eyes and breathe. 4. Batch Processing You still have to reply to messages and emails. Pick a few windows during the day when you will deeply focus on the task of processing and replying to these. Your response quality will go up from this batching, and they won't bleed into the rest of your day. Attention residue is a silent killer of your work quality and efficiency. Understanding it—and taking the steps to fight back—will have an immediate positive impact on your work and life. 📌 To learn more science-backed systems to improve your life, join thousands who have preordered my first book: https://lnkd.in/eGhQwaRC Enjoy this? ♻ Repost to help your network and follow Sahil Bloom for more.

🔓 Unlocking Sustainable Passion in Science: Strategies to Avoid Burnout ... was the theme of a recent session I co-hosted with Robert Kötter from TwentyOne Skills. Together, we examined the sacrifices researchers and scientists commonly make in their pursuit of passion, explored the intricate relationship between passion and burnout, and discussed strategies aimed at maintaining well-being in academia. Here are three of my key insights: ————————————————————————————————— 💆♂️ 1. Explore self-care practices that work for YOU. There are almost endless self-care options available to us. But that only makes it harder to figure out which practices fit your individual needs. Try asking ChatGPT (or similar tools) about different options, explore what catches your interest, and capitalize on what works best for you. ————————————————————————————————— 🌱 2. Cultivate and celebrate your multiple identities. All of us have multiple identities (and that’s a great thing, by the way, and something we should embrace more in my opinion!) Passion, however, will occasionally cause us to prioritize one identity above everything else. Which is fine when things are going well, but not when they are not (and in academia, unfortunately, the latter is more common than the former). In these moments, it is essential to have a ‘safety net’ of other identities to lean on. ————————————————————————————————— 🧘♂️ 3. Decouple your achievements from your self-worth. You are more than what you achieve in your professional life. Here's my favorite suggestion: Engage in activities solely for the joy they bring. Extra points if you're really bad at them. (For me, that's yoga.) ————————————————————————————————— Thank you so much for the invitation, Robert! #Passion #Burnout #MentalHealth #WellBeing #Identity #SelfCare #Research #Academia

12 steps to protect your focus - And develop a deep work routine: (5 and 6 are so important) 1) Prioritize ↳Before you begin, pick just 1 task you want to work on (no multitasking) ↳Choose your "frog" - the important item you've been putting off 2) Protect the time ↳Find a window of at least 1 hour (2-3 is even better) and block it on your calendar ↳Experiment to find the time when you're most productive and focused 3) Find a space ↳Choose a location where you can close the door and limit distractions ↳Ask others not to interrupt you when you're in there 4) Prepare ↳Download files and gather resources you'll need to complete the work ↳Go to the bathroom, grab a water, and anticipate any other needs 5) Put your phone away ↳Switch your phone to airplane mode and put it out of reach ↳Do NOT look at it until you're finished - that friend's text can wait 6) Shut apps  ↳Close anything on your computer that has notifications, like email and Slack ↳X out of any distracting tabs like news sites or social media 7) Grab a pen and pad ↳It's impossible to stop to-dos and other thoughts from popping into your head ↳Simply write them down when you think of them and then move on 8) Use headphones ↳If you're particularly sensitive to sound, try noise-canceling headphones ↳Find what's best for you: playing nothing at all, white noise, or music without lyrics 9) Clear your mind ↳When everything is ready, pause before diving in to briefly relax ↳You can simply close your eyes and breathe, or do a 1-minute meditation 10) Use a timer ↳Set a timer so you don't have to worry about watching the clock ↳Experiment with techniques like Pomodoro to work and break in intervals 11) Improve ↳After every time you do deep work, reflect on what helped and hurt your focus ↳Make improvements each time to consistently enhance your productivity 12) Handle the basics ↳Exhaustion, hunger, and lack of exercise can be even worse for focus than your phone ↳Get adequate sleep, eat well, and move your body every day Just two hours of deep work can beat a full day of distracted work. Use this checklist to focus deeply on your most important tasks, And turbocharge your productivity. P.S. I'm always curious to hear: When do you get your best deep work done? --- ♻ Repost to help your network be more productive. And follow me George Stern for more. If you want the high-res PDF of this sheet, sign up here: https://lnkd.in/gpe6Q3V6

12 Rules to Master Deep Focus Most people try to focus for 8 hours straight. That's like trying to sprint a marathon. Here's how to do it instead: 1. Track Your Peak Hours "What gets measured gets managed." - Peter Drucker Your brain has predictable energy waves. Find them. How to Take Action: - Log when you feel sharp vs foggy for 2-3 days - Notice patterns, especially 2-3 hours after waking - Use data, not guesswork 2. Never Start Deep Work Early "Timing is everything." Your brain needs time to boot up properly. How to Take Action: - Wait 2-3 hours after waking - Let your hormones stabilize - Start when you're truly ready 3. Set Up Your Focus Zone "Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior." Create a space that demands focus. How to Take Action: - Raise your monitor above eye level - Stand up to activate alertness - Use proper posture to boost biochemistry 4. Guard Your Focus Time "What you allow is what will continue." Make your focus time sacred. How to Take Action: - Turn off all notifications - Block distracting websites - Close your door - Make interruptions unacceptable 5. Warm Up Your Brain "Preparation is the key to performance." Don't dive in cold. How to Take Action: - Spend 5-10 minutes organizing - Review your objectives - Skip social media and email - Prime your focus circuits 6. Choose One Battle "To do two things at once is to do neither." Multitasking kills deep work. How to Take Action: - Pick ONE cognitive task - Stick to it for the full block - Avoid task-switching at all costs 7. Use White Noise "Small changes can trigger big breakthroughs." Background noise boosts focus. How to Take Action: - Choose non-lyrical sounds - Keep volume low - Create a consistent audio environment 8. Stop at 90 Minutes "Discipline is knowing when to stop." Don't push past your brain's limits. How to Take Action: - Set a timer for 90 minutes - Stop even when feeling good - Preserve your neurochemistry 9. Practice Active Recovery "Rest is not a luxury. It's a necessity." Recovery is part of performance. How to Take Action: - Walk or stretch after sessions - Avoid screens during breaks - Let your brain consolidate 10. Limit Deep Work Blocks "Less is more." Quality over quantity always wins. How to Take Action: - Do 1-2 blocks per day maximum - Space blocks 2-4 hours apart - Accept your brain's limits 11. Protect Your Focus Time "What gets scheduled gets done." Treat focus blocks like important meetings. How to Take Action: - Block off time in your calendar - Defend these slots fiercely - Never sandwich between meetings 12. Choose Worthy Tasks "Not everything that takes time deserves time." Use focus blocks for growth work only. How to Take Action: - Skip admin tasks - Focus on learning and creating - Build mental muscle What's your biggest focus challenge? Share below! ⬇️ ♻️ Repost if this resonated with you! 🔖 Follow me for more.

❌ Stop Expecting Retrieval to Work Without Cleaning Your Data → Garbage in = hallucinations out. ❌ Stop Ignoring Metadata in Retrieval → A little filtering goes a long way when you're juggling 100s of files. ❌ Stop Acting Like Tables, Images and Equations Don’t Matter → Your model won’t “just get it” if you drop structured data as flat text. It’s time we talk about the most common—and most mishandled—problems RAG pipelines: 🔥 1. Convert PDFs to Markdown (Yes, Really) If you're not doing supervised fine-tuning, Markdown is your best friend. It preserves structure, context, and traceability. Tools I swear by: Marker by DataLab — clean markdown with metadata Docling (via LangChain) — especially solid with tabular data Nougat by Meta — OCR + LaTeX + image-aware, great for scientific PDFs 💡 Pro tip: No GPU? Use Mistral OCR — fast, efficient, and impressively accurate. 🧠 2. Handling Images in PDFs Images ≠ noise. In reports, research, or medical docs, they often carry the context. Two smart options: Convert to image embeddings (when visual layout matters) Or do what I do: run a multimodal model to generate textual descriptions and enrich your chunks with image context ✂️ 3. Stop Using Arbitrary Chunk Sizes If you're still using chunk_size=1000, chunk_overlap=100—you're leaving performance on the table. ✅ Go Semantic + Hierarchical: Break parent docs into paragraphs Group semantically similar paras into mini-chunks Map each mini-chunk back to its parent using something like ParentDocumentRetriever It’s smarter. Cleaner. Way more context-aware. 🧠 4. Smarter Retrieval Starts with Smarter Queries: i) Use chat history to understand and rewrite the query—replace vague prepositions, inject clarity, and give ambiguous terms proper names. ii) Use an LLM to reformulate the query: Generate 4–5 follow-up or sub-questions Use the answers to those to reason better and form a stronger, more accurate final response Let your retriever think, not just fetch. 📌 5. Accurate Referencing Builds Trust Citations aren’t optional—they’re essential. Markdown headers help, but if your PDF is scanned or messy, they often get lost. Here's what I do: Run a 7B model to extract the main topic or section name from each chunk Use this as the source label during generation Clean, readable, and traceable. Exactly what you want in a production-grade chatbot. ⚡ RAG is not about gluing together a retriever and a generator. It's about: ✅ Understanding your data ✅ Structuring it semantically ✅ Retrieving wisely ✅ Citing clearly If you're doing that—now you're building RAG right. What’s the biggest challenge you’ve hit while working on a RAG system? Let’s trade notes ↓

Take Control of Your Day with These Time Management Hacks 👇 Struggling to fit everything into your day? These time management tips will help you stay focused, reduce stress, and make the most of your time. ⏰ Prompt 1: Morning Kickstart Planner Start your day with intention. Write out your top three priorities before you dive into emails or meetings. Use the “Eat the Frog” method by tackling your hardest task first. Track how this sets a productive tone for the rest of your day. ⏰ Prompt 2: Prioritization Power Tool Organize your to-do list using the Eisenhower Matrix. Categorize tasks as “Urgent & Important,” “Important but Not Urgent,” “Urgent but Not Important,” and “Neither.” Focus on what truly matters while delegating or eliminating the rest. Watch how this transforms your productivity! ⏰ Prompt 3: Time Blocking Mastery Schedule every hour of your day with time blocking. Dedicate specific blocks for deep work, meetings, and breaks. Add buffer time between tasks to stay flexible. Stick to this schedule to eliminate distractions and stay on track. ⏰ Prompt 4: Task Batching Genius Group similar tasks together to minimize context switching. For example, set aside one block of time for emails, another for phone calls, and another for brainstorming. This saves mental energy and keeps you in the zone. ⏰ Prompt 5: Pomodoro Productivity Boost Use the Pomodoro Technique to break work into 25-minute focus sessions followed by 5-minute breaks. After four cycles, take a longer 20-30 minute break. This method keeps you energized while avoiding burnout. ⏰ Prompt 6: Digital Detox Hour Turn off notifications and close unnecessary tabs during focus time. Use apps like Forest or Freedom to block distractions and reclaim your attention span. You’ll be amazed at how much more you can accomplish! ⏰ Prompt 7: Weekly Goal Alignment Every Sunday, set goals for the upcoming week and break them into daily tasks. Review progress at the end of each day to adjust as needed. This ensures you’re always moving toward your bigger objectives. ⏰ Prompt 8: Learn to Say No Protect your schedule by saying no to tasks that don’t align with your priorities. Politely delegate or defer when possible. This keeps you focused on what truly matters without spreading yourself too thin. ⏰ Prompt 9: Reflect & Refine Routine At the end of each week, reflect on what worked well and what didn’t in managing your time. Adjust strategies as needed to continuously improve your efficiency and balance. 👉 Follow me for more productivity tips! 🔄 Share this post to help others master their time and achieve their goals!

🧵 Bioinformaticians: Drowning in multiple projects? Here's why context switching is killing your productivity—and how to fix it. 1/ Too many projects = too little progress. When your attention is scattered, your output drops. Context switching is the silent killer. 2/ Each project has its own biology: 🧬 Different TFs 🧪 Different cell lines ⚙️ Different pipelines Switching eats mental energy. 3/ Example: Jumping from CUT&RUN on H3K27me3 in mESCs to ChIP-seq on c-Myc in HeLa = full brain reboot. 4/ You spend time recalling: • QC parameters • Genome version • Where peaks are saved • Which scripts and tools you used 5/ And if the project isn't organized, you’ll waste even more time digging through old folders, scratch files, or rerunning commands. 6/ Solution 1: Ruthless prioritization Pick ONE project each day. Focus. Finish. Ship it. Half-done science doesn’t help anyone. Multitasking is a trap. 7/ Solution 2: Use consistent folder structures Example: project_name/ ├── raw_data/ ├── fastqc/ ├── trimmed/ ├── alignment/ ├── results/ ├── scripts/ 8/ Solution 3: Add a README to each project Include: • Data source • Goals • Key results • Analysis steps • TODOs This saves hours when switching context or collaborating. document as much as possible. it may seem to be a waste of time, but it saves you time long term 9/ Solution 4: Keep a running log Markdown or plain text. Example: ## 2025-04-10 - Trimmed reads with fastp - Aligned with bowtie2 (hg38) - Called peaks with macs2 10/ Key Takeaways: • Switching projects costs time and focus • Finish one before hopping to another • Structure + notes = less rework 11/ ✅ Action items: • Choose 1 project to focus on this week • Create folder structure & README • Start a daily or weekly log 12/ Deep work leads to deep insights. Prioritize. Organize. Write it down. Make future-you thank today-you. I hope you've found this post helpful. Follow me for more. Subscribe to my FREE newsletter https://lnkd.in/erw83Svn

Let’s Talk About Time. People have ask me in the past how I manage to get so much done. It’s simply a method. I built a surgical time management system years ago that's essentially a hybrid of three "proven frameworks"; it's customized to match me. When I follow it, the output speaks for itself. People assume I’m a machine. Lately, I’ve been loose with it. Not off-track, but not dialed in like I should be. That’s changing now. Especially since I will be starting a Masters of Engineering in the spring. I call it "The Method to my Madness" The Eisenhower → Mind Map → Time Block Method: Achieve High Quality Volume Output, Stay Sharp, and Get More Done If you want high-quality output at a high volume, you need more than motivation. You need discipline and a bonafide system. This one works; it's not for staying busy. It's for execution and precision: 1. Start with the Eisenhower Matrix Often viewed as a productivity hack, it's more of a filter that separates movement from progress. Urgent & Important → Do it now. Important but Not Urgent → Schedule it. Urgent but Not Important → Delegate it. Neither → Delete it. Delete a lot. As much as possible. Majority of people stay stuck in reaction mode because they never clarify what actually deserves their time in a prioritized manner. 2. Turn Priorities those into a Mind Map. Brainstorm. Think about requirements and deliverables. Once you know what matters, you build your mind map. This is how you visualize your goals, responsibilities, and projects, as well as identify connections between different pieces and outcomes. Architect a snapshot of your entire battlefield.. This map is your battle strategy. Every node should be a calculated move. Every connection is a dependency. Now, you’re never guessing because you have a clear vision and path. 3. Convert the Map into EXCEL Time Blocks Here it get's surgical. Start with hour blocks but get used to honoring a schedule. Tighten it to 30-minute blocks once you’re zoned in. Eventually move to 15-minute or even 5-minute blocks when you need total control. Use 45-minute blocks to leave time for review, margin, or re-alignment Don't go cramming your calendar. You need to be constructing clarity. Every minute needs to have has a purpose, resulting in every block equaling an output. Why It Works? Well, I lived it, for 4 years. But it works because: You stop reacting and start executing. You make fewer, better decisions. You get more done in less time. You create time instead of losing it to friction. If you want to achieve a lot, don’t leave your output to chance. You need to engineer a laser focused lens, structure your days, and block YOUR time like it’s a currency. If your work matters, your time should too. Start with the matrix. Build the map. Block the time. And watch your execution go from good to elite. Always take time to REFLECT. Everyday, reflect.

"You can do six-to-eight 1-hour long research sessions in a day, can't you?" 😳 There is a prevailing misconception that research "work" is the part where the researcher is actively with a participant and therefore we should have 6-8 hours of that in a row for it to be considered a full day of research. This of course overlooks things like the need to reset the room, back-up any recording, send or check for confirmation emails, etc. (go to the bathroom...). But aside from the logistics of running a research project there's another very important reason to add buffer time between sessions. Memory. There is a plethora of data out there showing the importance of downtime for the brain to create memories. I'll link a recent one in the comments - please feel free to share others. If a person is bouncing from interview to interview (not to mention frantically resetting the room in between) they are not remembering key details or, critically, distinctions. All the sessions run together. Your researcher is your instrument of data collection and you have to keep your instrument sharp and calibrated. For the brain, that means downtime. Downtime looks like: time not spent cleaning up notes, not spent resetting the room, not spent debriefing the team, and not spent running to grab more water - all things that still need to happen. The report I refer to notes "even a few minutes of rest with eyes closed" as beneficial. You don't necessarily need this few minutes of closed eye time after every session - but if you haven't allotted for it, it won't ever happen at all. My max is 5 sessions per day, if they are 60 minutes long each, with 30 minutes in between, if the sessions are all located in the same space - so not an ethnographic or contextual inquiry. This between-session time lets me reliably get through resetting the room, chatting highlights to the team, doing my per-participant summarization, and then every few sessions just sitting on my own (versus the other between-session time where I'm taking care of the needs related to having a human body). The return on this more nuanced, and I'd argue faster, analysis and excellent recall when addressing stakeholder questions - as well as a more stable Kelly. 🙂 ❓Do you have similar maximum session numbers for you or your team? ❓How do you ensure that there is ample time for memory making? ❓How else do you protect your data-collection instrument? #UXresearch #experienceresearch #researchmanagment #researchops

Bioinformatics Reality Check: Save Time by Looking First (And Using AI Wisely) We've all been there: spending days crafting what feels like the "perfect" solution, only to discover someone already built it better. The smarter approach? >> Search GitHub first >> Check Biostars and Stack Overflow >> Browse Bioconductor and PyPI >> Ask LLMs for guidance on existing tools and best practices >> Then consider writing from scratch The AI angle: LLMs can be powerful research assistants for bioinformatics....they excel at suggesting relevant packages, explaining complex algorithms, and helping debug code. But they're not perfect: always validate suggested packages exist, check for deprecated functions, and test thoroughly with your data. -> In bioinformatics, existing tools are often more robust, better tested, and actively maintained than anything we might build in isolation. -> The most efficient code is often the code you don't have to write. Leveraging existing solutions, whether found through traditional search or AI assistance, lets us focus on the unique aspects of our research rather than rebuilding common functionality. Pro tip: When using LLMs for bioinformatics code, always cross-reference suggestions with official documentation and recent publications. The field moves fast, and AI training data might not reflect the latest best practices. What's your experience with this? Have you discovered game-changing tools (or AI prompting strategies) that saved you significant development time? HERE IS THE GITHUB WITH THE COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF BIOINFORMATICS TOOLS AND LIBRARIES https://lnkd.in/gJi-gwyM #Bioinformatics #ComputationalBiology #Research #ScientificComputing #DataScience #Efficiency #OpenSource #AI #LLMs