Week in my Life: Post-Bac
I made a week in my life post last year around this time and I thought I'd do it again now that I'm a post-bac. I had set up a feedback session sense I'm writing my first paper to submit for publication, so I had to finalize my figures and write an outline of my Anthro research to distribute to the Ornithology lab I'm in so we could discuss it at the Friday meeting. It was not the average week, but most of my weeks now are not average so I just went with it.
Monday: I woke up about 7:00 and got ready for the day. I had an appointment at 9 so I grabbed breakfast on my way, went to the appointment, and got back home about 10:30. From 10:30-4 ish I worked on my research. I still had to find a SNP to run a null test on so I spent that time finding one and formatting the vcf files to run the test on. I took a short break to eat and then worked on an outline of my research till about 8. I took another break to get icecream with my boyfriend and watch a movie. I used the time during to movie to make changes to the color palette of my graphs and maps. Then I set up a test to run overnight because it takes anywhere from 2-5 hours and went to bed about 12:30.
Tuesday: I woke up 7, got dressed and headed to campus where I worked on my outline and made some edits to the plain text portions of my R notebooks I was running my tests in. I took a break to eat and walk around a bit, then I worked until 4. I had signed up for a GRFP workshop and although the first portion wasnt super helpful and I was swamped with work I went anyway (I may have sat in the back and kept working). When I got home my computer wouldn't wake up and had to do a hard reset which meant the tests I had run but the outputs weren't finalized and saved were lost. I realized it was looking like an all nighter so I breaked to eat and grab a coffee and I continued to work on wrapping up my tests and writing the outline.
Wednesday: At about 2 I got to a point where I couldn't continue until all my R notebooks were done and saved which took about 4 hours for one and 3 for the other so I went to bed. I woke up at 5 to one notebook done but I had to make a few adjustments before I switched to the next one, then I took a shower and got ready to head to campus. I got there at about 9, and grabbed breakfast while I waited for the notebook to finish up. I was able to finish it up and work on my fighres and outline until the meeting with my anthro research advisor at 1. The meeting was over at 1:45 and I went back to working on my outline. I went home about 4 so I could eat and keep working. I ended up emailing my outline and R notebooks at about 6:30. I took a shower and relaxed a bit before watching American Horror Story at 8 and going to bed right after at 9.
Thursday: I had to work 5am-2pm, it was uneventful and I was still tired so I just relaxed and played Sims when I got home. I ended up going to bed about at 8.
Friday: I woke up but stayed in bed till about 8, got ready and got to campus at about 10. I looked over my outline and made notes of things to clarify and talking points. While I was looking over my R notebooks I made an observation I hadn't noticed that drastically changes my arguments made in the outline. It was too late to write and send out a revision so I just went to lunch instead. My meeting in the other lab that I was presenting my work was from 3-5. I didn't think it went great but people had good things to say along with some notes to make my paper better so I'll count it as a success. Per usual, we went out for beers after, I hung out till about 7 then went home to relax before going to bed at 10.
Saturday: I worked 5-2 again, was still tired so I spent the rest of the day playing Sims and watching netflix. I went to bed at about 9.
Sunday: I was supposed to work but I really wasn't feeling it so I called in and went back to sleep. I got out of bed at 9 and spent the morning at Starbucks planning out my GRE cram week and then spent the day studying for the GRE and preparing for the week. I went to bed about 9.
It was a tiring week, but most weeks are. I honestly love doing research, I just wish I didn't have to also work a part time job. Hopefully it means I'll appreciate grad school more once I get there.