How Do I Succeed as a Postdoc?

00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:03.360 | All right.

00:00:06.480 | Let's see what else we have here.

00:00:08.840 | I've got a question from DK.

00:00:12.920 | DK is asking if I have any suggestions on what

00:00:17.560 | habits to add and improve when going from a PhD to a postdoc.

00:00:23.920 | Postdocs are highly autonomous as compared to PhD programs.

00:00:28.560 | It's all about research.

00:00:29.920 | Build your whole day around research.

00:00:32.640 | That's what it's about, is doing research, doing research well.

00:00:37.080 | You will find that you probably have more free time

00:00:41.360 | than you're used to.

00:00:42.560 | Because if all you're doing is research,

00:00:44.240 | there's only so much of you doing

00:00:45.200 | the research during the day.

00:00:46.440 | That's fine.

00:00:47.920 | Just build a schedule that doesn't require as many hours.

00:00:50.240 | I'll tell you what I did, DK, when

00:00:51.620 | I switched from my doctoral work to my postdoctoral work,

00:00:55.640 | is I was looking ahead to when I was

00:00:58.600 | going to become a professor after being a postdoc.

00:01:00.680 | And I said, when I'm a professor,

00:01:02.880 | my time is going to be way more limited than it is right now

00:01:05.720 | as a postdoc.

00:01:06.560 | I'm going to have classes.

00:01:07.640 | I'm going to have committees.

00:01:09.240 | I'm going to have students to supervise.

00:01:11.560 | And so I don't know--

00:01:12.960 | in addition to practicing research as a postdoc,

00:01:17.080 | I want to practice being effective at doing research

00:01:20.560 | even if I have reduced time.

00:01:21.800 | So I added artificial constraints to my schedule.

00:01:25.200 | I had a dog at this point.

00:01:27.520 | It lived about a mile from campus.

00:01:28.960 | I've talked about this before, across the bridge in Beacon

00:01:32.040 | Hill.

00:01:32.640 | And so I built a schedule where I'd start at 9,

00:01:35.520 | but I'd take a two-hour block out of the middle of every day,

00:01:38.720 | where I'd take my dog, Bailey.

00:01:40.400 | We'd go for a run.

00:01:42.240 | We'd run from the East Campus there of MIT, down the Charles.

00:01:47.240 | We would go down to the Mass Avenue Bridge.

00:01:50.000 | We'd cross at the Mass Avenue Bridge,

00:01:51.640 | come running back on the Charles on the Boston side.

00:01:54.360 | We'd exercise calisthenics on one of the docks that's

00:01:57.040 | out in the Charles River off of that size.

00:01:59.080 | And if it was winter, we would dig out a spot on that dock

00:02:02.760 | out of the snow to do our push-ups.

00:02:04.480 | We were hardcore about it.

00:02:06.000 | We'd do our pull-ups.

00:02:07.320 | And so we'd do this long run.

00:02:09.240 | Weather didn't matter.

00:02:10.240 | I had gear.

00:02:11.360 | Go back to my apartment on Beacon Hill.

00:02:13.760 | I would have lunch.

00:02:14.920 | I would take a shower.

00:02:15.920 | And then I would walk back to campus,

00:02:18.760 | now crossing the Longfellow Bridge.

00:02:20.880 | This is like a two-hour-plus thing.

00:02:23.600 | But I wanted to put an artificial constraint

00:02:25.880 | in my day to say, OK, I not only need

00:02:27.520 | to get used to doing research, but getting

00:02:29.200 | a lot of research done when I only

00:02:30.560 | have a limited amount of time.

00:02:32.080 | So I felt like I was training.

00:02:34.360 | I also wrote a book.

00:02:36.040 | So I wrote most of Sogo They Can't Ignore You

00:02:38.240 | during my postdoc as well.

00:02:40.440 | So that's what I would suggest.

00:02:41.720 | It's all about research.

00:02:42.720 | Get used to research, making progress on research.

00:02:45.120 | Don't worry about having too much time.

00:02:46.800 | In fact, this is a good time to do something else

00:02:48.920 | so you can practice doing that research with some constraints.

00:02:51.480 | It's an awesome job, basically, DK.

00:02:54.040 | It doesn't pay well, but it's otherwise an awesome job.

00:02:56.240 | So enjoy it.

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00:03:01.080 | (upbeat music)

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How Do I Succeed as a Postdoc?

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