How do you do your research as efficiently as possible?

[masha90]

This question is mostly for people doing benchwork, such as molecular biology research (which is what I do). What tips can you give me about how to be as efficient as possible when you're at the bench, to get everything done as quickly (and effectively) as possible?

[St Andrews Lynx]

Firstly, I'd comment that fast isn't always best - especially if you're new to benchwork. Trying to go fast usually means you end up making mistakes...which then have to be rectified and usually takes twice as long as if you hadn't rushed in the first place. 

And related to that of course...the more experience you have, the more efficient you become. It used to take me a whole afternoon to run a silica column purification - after many months/years of practice I can get one done in about 2 hours. As I get more experience I become more comfortable running two reactions at once, etc. I know that's a bit of a cop-out answer...but trust me, it's true!

 

For me it's about timing. I'm a morning person, so I'm at my most alert, motivated & focussed early in the morning - so that's when I try to get into the lab and get work done. I will also block off that time early in the morning to ensure I get a good amount of research in.

 

The other key is preparation. I need to be thinking at least a day in advance about the reactions I intend to set up. This is so I can prepare the glassware, check that we've got enough of the reagents in stock, think about when I'm going to set up the reaction (if it's a two hour reaction...can I set it up to run over lunchtime?) and if I can run other reactions at the same time.  

[biotechie]

Firstly, I'd comment that fast isn't always best - especially if you're new to benchwork. Trying to go fast usually means you end up making mistakes...which then have to be rectified and usually takes twice as long as if you hadn't rushed in the first place. 

And related to that of course...the more experience you have, the more efficient you become. It used to take me a whole afternoon to run a silica column purification - after many months/years of practice I can get one done in about 2 hours. As I get more experience I become more comfortable running two reactions at once, etc. I know that's a bit of a cop-out answer...but trust me, it's true!

 

For me it's about timing. I'm a morning person, so I'm at my most alert, motivated & focussed early in the morning - so that's when I try to get into the lab and get work done. I will also block off that time early in the morning to ensure I get a good amount of research in.

 

The other key is preparation. I need to be thinking at least a day in advance about the reactions I intend to set up. This is so I can prepare the glassware, check that we've got enough of the reagents in stock, think about when I'm going to set up the reaction (if it's a two hour reaction...can I set it up to run over lunchtime?) and if I can run other reactions at the same time.  

 

I second all of this, although I work most efficiently right after lunch, so I tend to be a night owl in the lab. The plus is that the PCR machines are always open! You're not going to multitask well in the beginning, but eventually you'll get to the end of a day and be like, "Whoa, did I really just wean mice, plate cells, isolate RNA, make cDNA, run qPCR, and finish genotyping mice in 8 hours?" Once you're comfortable, you reach almost a feeling of lab zen.

 

The last thing I do each day is update my lab notebook and then I plan out my next day's experiments in a different notebook. If I need to label tubes, I try to do them before I go home. I also spend some time looking up information on new things I'm doing (for example, search: troubleshooting ChIP sonication) so I have an idea what to do if something doesn't go quite right.

[Jungshin]

Time management and multitask experiments. Only if you know what you're already familiar with what you're doing though.

But most importantly, carefully plan out your experiments and know exactly how you'll be doing certain experiments and why! 

 

Nothing worse than efficiently running multiple, meaningless experiments. Always stay on track on your research goals or you'll be that guy who's been doing his PhD for 10 years. 

[aberrant]

I would agree most of the advice mentioned above.

 

First thing you need to be able to do is multitasking. It is very common that you need to run 2 or more experiments at the same time. Such as growing cells + running gels + running column (or purifying proteins). If you ever find down time during your experiment(s), then you can keep your report updated while you are waiting for your experiment(s) to be done. If you are good at efficient at multitasking, you definitely want to have a countdown timer than can do 4 countdown at the same time (e.g. VWR Four-Channel Alarm Timer) because it helps a lot. If you are not good at literally writing your lab notebook (like me, because I write poorly and extremely slow), you can talk to your PI and see if s/he is willing to let you write your lab notebook electronically, which saves a lot of time (for me at least). If you need a physical copy of your lab notebook, you can simply print it out.

 

In terms of individual experiments and techniques, you can always talk to friends, colleagues, students or postdocs from next door and see how they do their experiments. While people do things differently, they do what they do because "it is working (for them)". I personally find it extremely helpful to talk to postdocs from other labs to exchange ideas, as someone here mentioned that working efficiently is related to experience.

 

As a result, what I disagree slightly here is that "timing" -- it isn't about timing per se, to me it is more about how your schedule your time to get your things done. Whether you go into the lab early or late, as long as you have a plan / agenda for the day, you will get things done before you leave. A lot of the time, you know how long it would take you to finish an experiment (including sample prep) when you are familiar with each experiments and techniques.