When PIs do experiments

In my sub-sub-field of biology, rarely does one encounter PIs past the 5 year mark or so who still do experiments. Our experiments usually take an entire uninterrupted day, and thus cannot be scheduled in pockets of time around meetings etc. Furthermore, it's difficult to pick up experiments after a gap of > 1 week, meaning that you'd best do them regularly if at all. In fact, I know several PIs who have not done, in their own lab, a single experiment that didn't involve teaching someone else how to do experiments.

So it's always interesting to talk with those PIs who persist. At a conference, I had the opportunity to talk with one such PI, and was flabbergasted to learn that he does experiments twice a week; in summer, with no classes to teach, three times a week. On top of this he manages a lab of 4-6 people, puts out top-notch publications, participates in the larger community, etc etc. Seeing as how I usually manage experiments four days a week, I realized he must be an expert at efficiency. How do you accomplish it all? I asked.

He had some useful suggestions:

1) Know yourself and your work habits. He thinks and writes most clearly in the mornings. Therefore, when he gets into work, he does not "shit away my time on email for an hour" (I don't think he's aka PhysioProf, but now I am forced to wonder....) but instead sits down to write and revise papers. He saves emailing and other low-brainpower activities for mid-afternoon and late evening, when he's sleepier and less coherent. For different people, their day might be structured differently, but it's common for folks to be most alert in the a.m., less so two hours after lunch.

This sounds like terrific advice, but I find myself almost incapable of breaking the habit of email first thing in the morning, or at least second thing. Of course, since most of my days are experiment days, and there's actually a short rest break during these experiments that's perfect for email, it's not a big deal; but I'm not sure how I'll develop his willpower when I'm a PI. Perhaps one could skim the email first to make sure nothing SuperUrgent has arrived, and then deal with it more thoroughly in the afternoon?

2) Experiment time is sacred. He refuses to schedule any meetings at all on his planned experiment days. I imagine this makes him a total biyatch to deal with if he's on your thesis committee, but it clearly works from the experimental standpoint. I don't know if junior faculty would feel comfortable being that firm when other faculty are trying to schedule a committee meeting of some type, but more power to you if you can do it.

3) Only volunteer for community activities that are worth your while. This one might be a bit controversial. What he meant was that since reviewing papers, for example, still advances his science (because he hears what's afoot in his field) he's happy to accept a significant reviewer workload. Other activities, such as working on Scientific Society boards, he views as useless to his science, so he avoids. Again, I could imagine this being a difficult line to hold as a junior fac, with all sorts of service activities being thrust upon you. Still, I see what he means. I'd surmise that he's also happy to run a journal club, but not pleased to be on the admissions committtee.

4) Get good, independent people in your lab. No surprises here--if you're running a tight ship, you can't have a clingy barnacle-esque grad student or postdoc. He also emphasized a point I've heard from many others, that a mediocre lab member will suck much more of your time than they will give back, and you should resist the temptation to accept anyone subpar, even in your early days.

5) There are benefits too! Since he's down in the lab doing experiments, he's readily accessible to help troubleshoot other folks' experimental woes, and to help recognize when someone's seeing something Rilly Cool (I'm sure PP had a post about this, but can't find it, sorry). Seems like an obvious point, but again I know a lot of PIs who hole up in their offices to write grants (understandable....) and as a result miss out on times where they could easily give a boost to a lab-member's science.

My take-home from this was that any tenured PI still doing experiments probably has some seriously efficient work habits, in addition to a deep-seated love for the benchwork. Hats off to you, Unnamed PI.

Oh, and for those of you who are wondering--I think he has two kids, and his wife works full-time.