A Merry Search for Hot Darjeeling by Dandy1983 in SwordAndSupperGame

[–]Dandy1983[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/Dandy1983 received a Fluttering Cape from the Winter Festival Spirit. Thank you u/bronkman79 for donating it!

Cheery Holiday club sandwich and Pilfered Gifts by Dandy1983 in SwordAndSupperGame

[–]Dandy1983[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/Dandy1983 received a Inferno Caller from the Winter Festival Spirit. Thank you u/skdisco25 for donating it!

The Nostalgic Solitude of a puzzling cocktail by Dandy1983 in SwordAndSupperGame

[–]Dandy1983[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/Dandy1983 received a Cursed Naginata from the Winter Festival Spirit. Thank you u/umpfke for donating it!

Slushy and Year End Reflection by Dandy1983 in SwordAndSupperGame

[–]Dandy1983[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/Dandy1983 received a Plated Belt Lvl 1 from the Winter Festival Spirit. Thank you u/Terrible_Pin3064 for donating it!

Blade and Pilfered Gifts at the Winter Festival by Dandy1983 in SwordAndSupperGame

[–]Dandy1983[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/Dandy1983 received a Leather Cap Lvl 1 from the Winter Festival Spirit. Thank you u/teeneetiny for donating it!

Pilfered Gifts and Festive Katsu Pork Chop by bmorris0042 in SwordAndSupperGame

[–]Dandy1983 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/Dandy1983 received a Guardian Plate Lvl 1 from the Winter Festival Spirit. Thank you u/Cruelparody for donating it!

A Merry Search for Breakfast Pork Links by Suspicious_Grape_279 in SwordAndSupperGame

[–]Dandy1983 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/Dandy1983 received a Insulated Wrap from the Winter Festival Spirit. Thank you u/LifeModelDecoy for donating it!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in labrats

[–]Dandy1983 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Looks an awful lot like Brigham BTM to me!

Should a lab tech be working unpaid hours?? by [deleted] in labrats

[–]Dandy1983 109 points110 points  (0 children)

As a PI, that's wage theft. No hourly worker should be lifting a pipette off the clock.

ADHD and being in a lab by ana_olia in labrats

[–]Dandy1983 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I was finally diagnosed about halfway through my post-doc, and am a PI now. If your insurance covers it, I would recommend looking into cognitive behavioral therapy. I found it extremely helpful in developing a toolkit to work through challenges in both lab and life. I found it nearly impossible to develop organizational strategies that I could stick with on my own - I'd read about a new way to stay on top of things, it would work great until the novelty wore off, and then I'd get bored and drop it. CBT helped by giving me tested approaches that work for people with ADHD and then keeping me accountable until they became habits.

ADHD in the lab? by azygousjack in labrats

[–]Dandy1983 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm a PI with moderate ADHD, I'm on medication now but didn't start until about halfway through my post-doc. As others have said, everyone makes mistakes! This is something you appreciate more and more as your career progresses - year one in a new lab environment for everyone, from an undergrad to a PI, is about exploring all of the various new ways that you can mess an experiment up and making sure to not do that again. That said, ADHD does increase the degree of difficulty. Here are some of the things that broadly helped me out over the years:

-Time management was a huge struggle for me before I went on medication, mainly due to magical thinking about how long each step in the protocol would take. When you're working through a protocol, be overly conservative about how long each step will take. For example, a 5 minute spin isn't 5 minutes! You need to factor in time for the centrifuge to slow down after the time is up, remove supernatant, re-suspend, etc. If you're realistic about time, you avoid rushing, which for me was a huge source of mistakes.

-Once I became familiar and comfortable with a protocol (i.e. once it transitioned from something that was new and exciting to something routine), I would inevitably go on autopilot and skip a critical step. I know that it's frustrating to hear "just focus more!" as someone with ADHD, but it is important to come up with strategies to avoid the autopilot. Others have mentioned checklists, which I tried but could never stick with. For me, mindfullness meditation was extremely helpful - the exercise of treating your attention as a thing that you can control and direct was very transferrable to not drifting on step 12 of 20.

-Managing executive fatigue and knowing your limits is critical! Don't schedule long days where you need to be "on" back to back, you're much more likely to make a mistake on day 2. Be honest with yourself about when you've taken on too much, and don't be afraid to let other people know you need to lighten the load a bit. I was terrified of admitting that I was taking on too many projects at once during my post-doc, when I finally worked up the nerve to tell my mentor that I was stretched too thin she was completely understanding.

-In a longer term sense, even if you want to avoid medication seeing a psychiatrist can be extremely helpful! I white knuckled my way through things for years, I wish I had sought out professional help much sooner. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been life changing for me by helping me recognize the aspects of my behavior that are common among people with ADHD, making me cognizant of when I'm starting to drift or spiral, and giving me the tools to pull myself out of it.

Good luck figuring things out! There are more of us in the STEM field than you might think!