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Getting to know “The Other Bench”

  • Career (The COM)
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Summer is finally here again.  The trees are full and green, the flowers are blooming and the birds sure seem happy about it.  Did you notice, or were you too busy at your lab bench?

04/24/15 - Jane & Gautam use my bench (Yes, Gautam, I do have pipets!) to remove the RNA Later from their samples prior to freezing.One of the most common answers I have heard over the last 6 years of graduate school (I know, it’s a long time, I’m leaving soon!) is “I have to work.”

What are you doing this weekend? I have to work.
Want to come to pizza for dinner on Friday night? No, I have to work.
Coming to Pub Club? I would, but I have to work.

I could go on, but I think you get the point! I have made a point of carefully guarding my evenings and weekends during my time here, knowing that my brain needs time to relax to maintain and maximize my focus and creativity at work. I heard recently that your brain works differently when you are focused on a problem vs when you brainstorm. While focusing is obviously an essential component of thought, it can often lead to traffic jams and frustration.  You may have heard it as “the forest for the trees” analogy.  Sometimes we become so focused that we develop a mental “tunnel vision” and can no longer see the bigger picture, and often the answer lies in the forest outside that tunnel.  Thinking creatively, on the other hand, allows our brain to access more of our knowledge to come up with innovative solutions and new ideas. Alternating between the two types of thinking can be a powerful and effective way of making progress with a difficult problem, ultimately making your time at “the lab bench” more productive.

This morning I did a quick search to find a reference for this. As I have a day full of bench work to do, I didn’t have time to find it, but I did find a couple of other interesting articles, one by Frank Addante, Founder and CEO of Rubicon Project and one by Paul Hammerness, MD and Margaret Moore in The Harvard Business Review under Time Management. If you would like to read the full articles, click on the titles below:
5 Daily Habits That Will Boost Your Creativity and Focus
Train Your Brain to Focus

The common theme between the two articles is that our brains need down time in order to operate the most efficiently.  While we may view taking time away from the bench to go for a walk as a waste of time, our brains keep working during this time without us even realizing it. 060515_Howe_He_Emanuele Sheng Yang knows this, as sitting outside of his office I have often seen him leave his computer and go for a walk.  He uses this time away from his “bench” to gain a better perspective of something he is working on.   Again, I could go on, but my lab bench is calling so I better get to work.

I leave you with a challenge: this summer, get to know “the other bench.”

Here’s one from a private little spot off the beaten path in the Plant Biology Garden at MSU.  How many of you have been there?

Old Cement Bench in a private alcove ouside Plant Biology Building MSU

When you find a good one, snap a selfie of you at your “other bench” and share it with the rest of us @ThePubClub, #myotherbench (or you can email it to Bethany at alphanode@thepubclubhub.org if you don’t Twitter!).  With these we will be building a summer gallery on “The Hub” and don’t forget to take a pic at your conferences or vacation! You never know what new, ground-breaking discoveries you may find exploring the beautiful outside world.  Perhaps in taking a minute to smell the roses (we have a beautiful rose garden here at MSU), you may return to your lab bench or writing that much more inspired.

Have a great summer, can’t wait to see all “The Other Benches!”

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#MyOtherBench gallery Lab Bench photos selfie's summer The Other Bench
May 31, 2016 Bethany Huot

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One thought on “Getting to know “The Other Bench””

  1. thepubcl says:
    June 1, 2016 at 11:02 am

    A couple of quotes from above link to Harvard Business Review: Train Your Brain To Focus:(Read all, gets better as it goes) “What can I do? Go for a walk, climb stairs, do some deep breathing or stretches. Even if you aren’t aware of it, when you are doing this your brain continues working on your past tasks. Sometimes new ideas emerge during such physical breaks.” & “What can your team do? Start meetings on positive topics and some humor. The positive emotions this generates can improve everyone’s brain function, leading to better teamwork and problem solving.”

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Pages

  • The Hub
  • About TheCOM™
    • Testimonials
    • About The Founder: Bethany Huot
  • TheCOM Center for Educative Research™
    • Educative Research™
    • The BIOME Project
  • FAQ
  • The Whiteboard
  • Strategic Career Management (SCM)
    • SCM: Identify
    • SCM: Defining The Void
    • SCM: Commit
    • SCM: Community Perspectives
  • The Resources
    • Digital Identity Management
    • Networking & Science Communication (#SciComm)
    • Writing & Peer Review
    • Bioinformatics & Statistics
    • Methods & Technologies
    • Teaching & Learning (T&L)
      • T & L Communities
      • T & L Training Programs/Fellowships
      • T & L Career Path Prep
      • T & L Tools & Resources
    • Career Prep
    • Job Hunting
  • The Vault (Archive)
    • The File Cabinet
      • The Pub Club Files:
        • The News
        • The Pub Club
          • The Mission
          • The People
          • The Mug Club
            • The Coaster Club
          • The Python Group
          • The Publications
            • Favorite Pubs
            • Papers of Interest…
            • Scoop.it
        • 2017 Summer – Summaries & Docs
        • 2017 Spring – Summaries & Docs
        • 2016 Fall – Summaries & Docs
        • 2016 Summer – Summaries & Docs
        • 2016 Spring – Summaries & Docs
        • 2015 Fall – Summaries & Docs
        • 2015 Summer – Summaries & Docs
        • 2015 Spring – Summaries & Docs
        • 2014 Fall – Summaries & Docs
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