Mindset for research, A.K.A How to fail beautifully at your research

smartphones: gateway to productivity, procrastination and burnout all at once. This is a model I personally owned to do work on the go. image obtained from wikipedia

Accept that failure is the default outcome

Obtained from The Atlantic article “Ignoring People for Phones Is the New Normal”
“harsh protest” example. Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

Why we have setbacks ?

Reappraise and move on

  1. Observe and acknowledge the thoughts, and put some distance to them: Instead of saying “I suck at this, last time it was the same, will never get it right”. Say “My brain is telling me that I suck at this”
  2. Ask “Is it useful?”. Is the thought “I suck at this” useful ? Doesn’t matter if the thoughts are true. It matters only if the thoughts help you get where you want to go.

Have a plan B

Don’t spread yourself too thin

Deal with your procrastination

Have a purpose beyond your personal benefit

Importance of rest

Reading suggestions:

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Bioinformatics Scientist, writing about data analysis, genomics, bioinformatics, and science. https://al2na.co

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Altuna Akalin

Bioinformatics Scientist, writing about data analysis, genomics, bioinformatics, and science. https://al2na.co