Published online 24 June 2009
Postdoc journal
Julia, you have to hustle
Julia Boughner
Julia Boughner is a postdoc in evolutionary developmental biology at the University of Calgary, Canada.
No matter what you do, babies bring chaos.
Babies are masters at causing chaos — and there's not a thing I can do about it
To help pay my way through graduate school, I worked in a women's clothing shop. During my sales training, the boutique owner pointed her finger at my chest. "Julia, you have to hustle!" she insisted. "And to hustle, you have to focus."
Her message — that to succeed I must stay sharp and on task — has stayed with me. Her voice resonates with me this month as I find myself haemorrhaging work hours thanks to childcare responsibilities.
The twice-daily day-care commute eats up precious work time and shortens my workday. My son's regular mingling with other children has also exposed him to a host of germs and necessitated my taking time off work for doctor's visits and at-home nursing care. I've been prey to some of these day-care 'superbugs', too. All of this has wiped out my productivity.
So where is my focus, other than on how inefficient I feel at work these days? Without a doubt, my attention and energy centre on my son's proper care and development. But the rest of my focus is splattered like baby food on the ceiling.
With a multitude of ongoing lab projects and papers that, to my impatient self, advance as if through thickest jelly, I need to regroup, buckle down and hustle. Otherwise, my focus will be on what I want to do rather than on my actual successes and what I can reasonably achieve.
Postdoc Journal Keepers 2009
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Julia BoughnerJulia Boughner is a postdoc in evolutionary developmental biology at the University of Calgary, Canada.
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Bryan VentersBryan Venters is a postdoc in biochemistry and molecular biology at Pennsylvania State University.
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Joanne IsaacJoanne Isaac was a postdoc studying the effect of climate change on biodiversity at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. She is now in the United States so that her husband can complete a postdoc.
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Sam WalcottSam Walcott is a postdoc in theoretical biophysics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
