Nature Chemical Biology associate editor Catherine Goodman treats readers of the Sceptical Chymist blog to a blow-by-blow account of a typical workday (http://tinyurl.com/5kuver). Here are some highlights:

8:53 I'm putting together an agenda for a meeting tomorrow, so that probably takes priority.

11:31 Debating the merits of a paper. Initial feeling is that sugars are cool.

12:28 Got an awesome review outline from an author ... Very excited! Also had to answer some questions about proofs ... and read a couple of papers as possible research highlights.

3:37 Hopefully commissioned a News & Views.

4:02 Making some notes on the review outline from earlier. Also wrote back to someone who has a cool story they want to submit to us.

In her final entry at the end of the day, Goodman reflects that, despite having a productive day, she had not devoted enough time to reviewing manuscripts. “As a result, I'll take some papers home to read overnight and plan to devote much more time to our submissions tomorrow,” she says.