More competing projects

Were does the time go?! I have no time left to get my projects done and yet there’s still a lot that needs to happen. Today is one of my semi-famous lists of stuff I need to get done in an outrageously short amount of time. Didn’t we just do this a month or so ago? I think so, but here we are counting down yet again to the newest set of deadlines and as with all my deadlines they clumped together and fall at what amounts to the same time. Don’t believe me? Well let’s take a closer look.

With the end of the summer internship coming soon the mentors we took into my Co-PI’s lab will be presenting some of the work they did with us. It’s been an exciting, busy, *insert adjective here* time and while it’s been a great experience for the people with us, I’m glad be wrapping up. Things have been a little hectic around here and despite the last two progressively depressing posts on how I don’t want to be homeless and how I am still very afraid of ending up homeless again, I’ve been focused on the tasks at hand.

First up, with the summer internship program ending soon, the person I’m mentoring needs to prepare a poster to showcase the work we did together (this stuff). Trick is we’re still collecting data and probably won’t be finished until the end of this week. Oh it’s okay though because the posters aren’t due until the week after that… wait what? Yeah, data collection ends this Friday and in just a week we need to have her poster done, the data analyzed and something to show for her time here. Weird how that just sneaks up on you, luckily there’s nothing else going on… oh right.

My Co-PI gave me a super cool, super exciting project (this one)! I get to be first author on it because I did all the work and that’s how these things go, so I’m happy. It’s very exciting the data is mostly done and there is still plenty of time to finish this and write the portion of the paper I was asked to write. Except there is no more time. The deadline was technically at the beginning of the month, but it got pushed to the end of the month (thankfully because there was no way to meet that). As I’ve pointed out in the past, deadlines like to group together so this one was kind enough to shift just enough that it falls exactly at the same time as the deadline for the end of summer program. Still, as long as nothing else get’s added to my plate I’ll be okay… but wait there’s more!

That’s right, we’re not done yet! My main-PI wants me to have a rough draft of the paper I need to write by the end of the month, that’s the end of this month for those playing at home, the same deadline as the rest of the stuff on this list. Guess who’s still trying to find time to analyze the data and who hasn’t started writing a single word for the paper? If you guessed this guy, you’d be correct! Yeah writing a full journal paper in just a week and a half wouldn’t be impossible if I could focus on that alone, but as you may have noticed I have other things that also need my attention. If I could just sit down and write, this wouldn’t be a problem and I may actually be able to get it done without stressing out about it. Unfortunately because that isn’t the case, I don’t know how I’m going to manage this one. We’re talking like 8-12 pages not including citations. I’m not thrilled about this prospect.

Welcome to my life, two labs, twice the headaches and the same pay. In any case, as we’ve seen in the past I manage to (usually) pull off all the stuff I need to do within the time I have. I suspect that this time won’t be any different. That won’t keep me from stressing out about it, and frankly stressing about it probably helps keep me focused enough to get it all done, so it won’t be all fun until the deadline hits. Plus I can’t always assume I’ll get everything done in time or nothing would ever get done.

With all these projects coming due at the same time, you would think that once I finish I don’t have to worry about them. However, the paper for my main-PI and the summer project for my Co-PI will still have a lot of work to be done after this deadline. Unfortunately, so will the other deadline (the super cool project) since I’m sure there will be back and forth with the journal. Have I mentioned how big of a headache it is to have a project that just never ends? It seems I’m constantly finishing something only to have to do more work on it. This is exactly how I have five separate first author papers that I’m trying to finish. They just don’t ever seem to be finished!

Blah. So maybe today is just me complaining about work, but it also helps remind me of the stuff I have to get done and it sort of helps me plan accordingly. With that it looks like there’s a lot to do and just a week and a half to do it. I’m hopeful that this will end like the last few major deadlines I had, but that’s only going to happen if I get the work done, so off I go for now.