Effective Time Management Strategies for Conducting Laboratory Research

Abstract

Success in academic surgery as a surgeon-scientist requires excellence in clinical care, excellence in research, excellence in teaching, excellence in administration, and work-life balance. Junior faculty members are faced with the challenge of, for the first time in their professional development, being fully responsible for how they prioritize and divide their time and effort. This chapter discusses the concept of context switching and presents techniques to minimize its effects on clinical and research productivity. Additionally, we provide techniques for time management as they pertain to the daily and weekly schedule of the budding surgeon-scientist. We present a set of research goals and a timeline for accomplishing these goals over the first year of faculty appointment. Finally, the importance of maintaining work-life balance and techniques to achieve this goal are presented.