Have you ever wondered what a postdoc really does? In this post I’ll be pulling back the curtains to show you an in-depth look at one of my week’s earlier this year, working as an AI postdoc researcher at the University of Bristol.
I’ll first share some details about the kind of research I do, then we’ll delve into a detailed look at how I spent my time each day. I’ll finish up with a few of my essential tips for balancing your workload as a postdoc.
Considering becoming a postdoc yourself? You may want to check out my recent post on What is a Postdoc?. Those considering a PhD may also like my similar post sharing my calendar as a PhD student.
What kind of research do I work on?
Before getting into a typical week’s work, I thought I should share a little about my research!
All of my research involves developing and understanding AI systems.
My first postdoc role was at the University of Bath, developing a system to detect diseases from CT scans and we’ve since formed a company to develop it into a product.
I was initially employed in my current role at the University of Bristol to focus on healthcare applications, working alongside clinical collaborators on tasks such as predicting deterioration in hospital patient health.
Since then I’ve made a conscious effort to broaden my research. I’m not sure what’s the best way to brand the research area: social good, people and planet, or something else, but you get the idea. Now I do research on healthcare, environmental, and other pressing areas, alongside some more fundamental AI research.
I’m very lucky in this role because my boss has a fellowship which I’m employed on, which affords us a lot of freedom to explore different topics. From my own experience I know that other postdoc positions can be a lot more restrictive and tied to very particular research objectives. I also recently got to go on a research visit to work on AI research whilst living in the Arctic Circle. You can read about that in the separate article: How to Plan a Research Visit.
If you would be interested in reading a separate post about how I got into AI, given that my PhD involved no AI or coding, let me know.
Do I have to go into a lab?
No, unlike my PhD which involved lots of lab work, everything I do now is purely digital. I therefore have the freedom to split my time between campus and working from home. It also means I could probably work more unusual hours if I wanted to, since I’m not constrained by needing to be in a lab during office hours.
Typically, I go into the office half the time and work from home half the time.
A week in the life of an AI postdoc researcher
I currently work part-time as a postdoctoral researcher: 4 days per week. This is because I also run an AI start-up I co-founded from my previous postdoc role. This article will focus on the postdoc work.
It’s worth noting that my hours and activities vary from week to week, but this should give you a reasonable glimpse of what life as a postdoc can involve.
For the week I took notes for I worked approximately 7.5 hours per day when split across Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Having flexibility with my working day means that I don’t tend to work the same hours every day, particularly as my time is split between working from the office and from home.
Now let’s delve into exactly what I got up to for each of these days.
Monday
- 8:15am – Woke up, cycled to work at 9:15 and after showering I got to my desk around 10am. I chatted to a visiting PhD student who is with us for the week.
- 10:30-11:30am – I have a meeting at 11:30am on Mondays so before that I spent about an hour doing admin: replying to emails and preparing stuff for the week ahead. I usually have a daily to-do list I write at the start of the day. There will be days where I have lots of meetings and don’t bother with a to-do list on those days.
- 11:30am-12:30pm – Meeting for an hour on an exciting environmental AI project I spend half day a week on. Typically I spend that half a day week attending this meeting, helping with grant applications and reading relevant papers.
- 12:45-1pm – A short and urgent call about the start-up for 15 minutes.
- 1-1:30pm – Lunch with people from the research group and a related PhD programme.
- 1:30-2pm – Meeting with fellow researchers and medics on a healthcare project. I’m not costed in to do any work on this project but find it interesting and my boss is keen for my input and support on the project.
- 2-2:20pm – The weather was good so I and a few colleagues went for a quick walk outside.
- 2:20-2:30pm – Replying to emails…
- 2:30-3:30pm – Running code from another visiting PhD student and reading their draft paper ahead of submission to a journal.
- 3:30-4pm – Meeting with another postdoc to discuss funding options and current grants, looking over published literature.
- 4-5pm – Writing code for an upcoming paper.
- 5:30pm – Cycled home.
- After work: attended extra curricular call with some people from the university then some work for the spin-out.
In total 7 hours of university work today.
Tuesday (Spin-out company day)
- Alongside a day of company work I infrequently checked my university emails and replied to anything quick to answer and/or urgent.
Wednesday
- 8:30am – Woke up, breakfast then cycled to the university.
- 9:45-10am – Admin: emails and related paperwork.
- 10- 11:30am – Put together a draft presentation for an internal event this afternoon for people to practice their presentations for conferences. I’ll soon be going abroad to present some work so this is an opportunity to get some initial feedback on the flow of the story, and address some likely questions.
- 11:30-1pm – Busy with other stuff at the university unrelated to my research.
- 1-3pm – Rushed to the event, gave my presentation to more people than anticipated: at least 40+, these events often only have 10-20 people at them. I received lots of useful feedback, not just for the presentation but also for future work.
- 3-4:30pm – Three 30 minute meetings with undergraduates I’m supervising projects with this year.
- 4:30-6pm – Actual work: writing and coding. Notice that this is my first real opportunity to do so today!
- 6pm – Extra curricular event.
- 6:30pm – Cycled home.
I logged 5.25 hours of work today. Depending on how you’re counting, perhaps the number should be a bit higher.
Thursday
Working from home today.
- 9am – 9:30am – Short spin-out company call.
- 9:30-10:30am – Reviewing a student’s paper which will shortly be submitted to a conference. I’m not an author on this paper but I’m employed as part of a related project.
- 10:30-11am – Met with a postdoc in the research group who wanted to know about a funding stream I’d recently been successful with.
- 11-11:30am – Discussing an idea for a paper with a collaborator.
- 11:30-1pm – I’m going abroad to a conference soon and needed to book travel. Ended up spending over an hour on the phone to the university’s silly travel provider to figure out what baggage certain flights come with…
- 1-1:40pm – Lunch and a walk outside.
- 2:40-3:45pm – Reading published papers and starting to draft a paper myself.
- 3:45-4:15pm – Quick trip to the gym – really just a chin up bar in my garage but handily only a minute away.
- 4:15-6:45pm – Finishing reviewing two papers for an upcoming conference workshop (CCAI ICLR 24)
- After work: a nice walk around the area, gardening and spin-out company work.
8.5 hours of university work today.
Friday
Working from home today.
- Woke up at 9:30am (eek!).
- 9:30-10:30am – Coding
- 10:30-11am – PhD student advisory call.
- 11am-1pm – Worked outside while reviewing other papers for the upcoming conference workshop.
- 1-1:30pm – Lunch
- 1:30-2:30pm – Call to get dataset access sorted for undergrads. Working with patient data can be a pain a times!
- 2:30-3:30pm – Company call. I try as much as possible to constrain these to Tuesdays but sometimes they have to happen elsewhere in the week.
- 3:30-5pm – Finally got all of my travel booked for the upcoming conference , which was actually the Vancouver one I mentioned earlier in the year.
- 5-6pm – Writing a paper.
7 hours of university work today.
Saturday
- I had to be in Bristol city centre to meet a friend so cycled to the office to park my bike and shower, and while waiting for them did a bit of work: the final paper review for the upcoming conference workshop.
- I then went through a colleague’s grant application which I’m a co-investigator on.
Approximately 1.5 hours work today, only because I was waiting for someone otherwise this could have all waited until Monday.
Sunday
- No work! Playing tennis (I’m learning!), making cupcakes, gardening, gym, life admin, and a break from work.
Was this a typical week for me as a postdoc researcher?
Broadly yes. There will be weeks with deadlines where I’m working slightly more but equally there are weeks where I’m not as productive or get side-tracked with other stuff.
Here is a breakdown into rough categories:
This week perhaps had a few more meetings than normal, other than that it was quite typical.
Nowadays, I find myself often in more of an advisory and/or strategic role (including writing grant applications) with less “actual research” time. I need to sometimes remind myself that helping others with their research is still a valid use of time!
Tips for managing your workload as a postdoc researcher
Minimise meetings and block out time for ‘deep-work’
Although it may look like I have loads of meetings, believe it or not I generally try to minimise the amount of meetings I attend.
I find that if I know I’ve got a few meetings scattered throughout a day it can really throw off my productivity in the gaps in between: “oh it’s only an hour until that meeting, I won’t bother trying to get too deeply into intensive work”.
There is always admin work that needs doing, but even so I find it difficult getting into more deep work with only scattered breaks. Since tracking this week I’ve started to try and push to having meetings Monday-Wednesday so that I can get on with “actual” work later in the week with less interruptions.
Break tasks into manageable chunks
Splitting intimidating tasks into smaller pieces serves two purposes:
- Makes them more achievable and therefore more approachable to initiate.
- I can justify taking breaks if it is clear that progress is being made and that I’ve already achieved something in a short space of time. For instance, I ideally like to try and break tasks down into things that take an hour or less. Besides certain parts of physical lab work, most tasks can be subdivided into more manageable chunks. This is particularly useful if you don’t feel particularly motivated. Do at least one sub-task and you’ve made progress! If you find yourself procrastinating often, check out my post here which contains some useful ways to beat the habit.
Strike a good work-life balance
Finding a good work-life balance as a postdoc researcher is something I’m still working on, although running a spin-out company on the side certainly makes for an additional challenge!
In general for postdoc researchers I’d recommend:
- Avoid doing work in the evenings and at the weekends.
- Don’t have work-related notifications on your phone (at least outside of office hours), so that you can separate work from the rest of your life. I personally do have my university email on my phone but no notifications for almost all apps including email.
- Take regular breaks throughout the day.
Hopefully this ‘week in the life’ has provided you with a glimpse of what life as a postdoc researcher can involve.
If you’ve got other questions relating to life as a postdoc researcher please pop them in the comments below.
Likewise, I’m always keen to hear suggestions for other content that readers would find useful so please do share any suggestions that you may have.
