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Since most of us are now working from home, we all have to adjust our daily work routines quite a bit. This proves especially difficult for all those who are carrying out the majority of their daily work in the lab – at least for those who don’t have a private lab in their basement!

Here we offer you a couple of tips on how to use this time productively.

• Take your time for a comprehensive literature search on your research topic. Try out a new database – you might find publications that you have not known before and that inspire you!

Suggestions for databases in your field (Choose your discipline from the drow-down menu).

Further information on systematic literature search

• Start working on the introduction of your thesis. Study the literature and create notes and summaries. The introduction to a PhD or Master’s thesis is similar to a review article in which the current state of research on a topic is summarized.

• Write the experimental / methods part of your thesis. This part can be tedious and “future you” might thank you for not having to do it all at once. Also it is a great chance for checking the quality of your lab journal and discover any missing bits.

• Create “beautiful figures”. Work on your graphics and plots and experiment with different ways to display your data.

• Work on writing a paper or creating a poster for your next conference. If you are lacking experimental data, you might be still able to create a general outline for your publication.

• Think about your research question and create a detailed plan for your future experiments so that you can start back in the lab super organized and efficient as soon as it will be open again.

• Let go of the guilt and take some time for yourself!

This post was inspired by @zjayres.