As #bioinformatician #biostatistician #DataScientist, have you ever felt you've done lots of work, yet achieved nothing? here is how to change that! A thread 👇 1/n
1 - #document rigorously your computing work - same as bench scientists do on experiments. Document your initial thoughts on data, your decisions, tests, issues, how you solved them, how you tried various tools, how you picked one over others. These are all *achievements*. n/1
2 - #track your tasks and efforts - make it quantitative. Write a weekly checklist on GitHub wiki; update and check it off at the end of a day. Version control your codes; push meaningful commits. Be aware of your time spent on each task. Numbers may be boring, but effective. 2/n
3 - #present your work w simple & efficient visualization - at meetings. I hate to say this, but tons of work without a way to communicate data to the audience, your efforts will be undermined. Spend a bit extra time thinking about how to aggregate data & make good figures. 3/n
4 - #report your achievement regularly - this ties back to #1. All our work is performed on computers, people do not *see* those as obvious as bench experiments - then assumptions are made that stuff does not happen (wrong! stuff happens a lot). Regular reporting solves this. 4/n
5 - #share your work w your peers. The more people who get to understand your work (not only successes but also problems, esp how you solve them), the more likely you will feel supported & rewarded. Imagine when somebody emails you - hey I tried your code and it worked!! 🥳5/n
6 - #learn to say no. Surprisingly, saying no is a lot harder than saying yes! And in #bioinformatics #biostatistics #datasciences, a lot ppl need our help. Saying no does not mean you do not want to help, it means you want to stay committed to projects you already said yes. 6/n
8 - be comfortable talking about your #achievement. This may seem obvious, but for me, a huge #introvert who often feels #imposter, I have a difficult time talking abt myself or feeling proud of my wk. But - you are the best ambassador of your own work! Always remember that. 8/n
Now we want to talk about things *not* to do. I promise this one will be short! 9/n
1 - do not over-document. Find a good balance. 2 - do not branch into too many tasks. stay focused! 3 - do not commit 1000x a day just to bump up numbers. 4 - do not make eye candy figures if simpler ones work. 5 - do not feel bad if your ask for help went void. Ask again! 10/n
last but not least, if you feel #deflated, #underachieved, #burnout - you are not alone. Many of us had experienced the same. Be #kind to yourself, and be #proud of yourself, for any big or small progress you have made during this challenging time. 11/n
There you have it! Hoping that was helpful. DM me or post here if you have any questions and/or want to share your experience! #AcademicChatter #phdchat #DataScience #sciencecommunication #projectmanagement #WomenInSTEM #WomenInMedicine @GradSlack @FuturePI_Slack @NewPI_Slack n/n
