The Awesomest 7-year post-doc
- Type:#blog
- Year read:#read2021
- Subject:
- Bibliography: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/the-awesomest-7-year-postdoc-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-tenure-track-faculty-life/
Key takeaways
- If you see the tenure-track position as a 7-year post-doc, it will prompt you to enjoy what you are doing now rather than anxiously ticking all the boxes for the next step.
- To manage work/life balance, she decided on a quota of different activities: how often she would travel, panels she would be on etc. Very similar to Cal Newport’s advice.
- Fixed-schedule productivity is in there too
People want you to do everything all the time, and they impress you that the world will collapse if you don’t. But there are times I wish the world would just bloody collapse! Because the amount of stuff people keeping adding to the “must be done” list is outrageous.
The take-home message is that you should try to enjoy the academic path not because of the end reward, but because of the fun things you get to do in the moment. It is a myth that the academic path demans your full dedication at the expense of yourself and family.