Dry habits for the new year

So you entered the new year and decided a few things were going to change. More than a week later if you are still holding up, congratulations. Whatever work you do in the lab, you are anchored on your computer for putting it all together.There are a few ‘dry’ habits you may have to refine to ensure that everything else will flow smoothly as you do your work this year.  I will list a few of them.

1. Back up!

The golden rule of the digital world; if it exists in only one location, it is not safe. Your lab data is your gold. Protect it and backit up at least once a week.

2. Google it

Never annoy tech experts and others by asking for help on something that takes only a few clicks to get on Google (or whatever your favorite search engine is). Whatever tech problem you are facing, someone faced it before and probably wrote about it on some website, blog or forum.

3. Keep it clean

To keep your computer running smoothly, you will need to learn just a little about computers. People usually blame Windows for their own ignorance. The excellent crew at Lifehacker have tips for efficient computer use (among other things). The best way to use your computer is to actually become a student of computers. Keep your computer clean by frequently cleaning your registry and harddrive and, importantly, avoiding the temptation to install crapware.

4. Keep good how-to notes

We talked about Onenote earlier as a PC note-taking and keeping tool. If you find a cool hack while doing your work, it is prudent to store it somewhere in your notebook for reference later in case you or someone you work with face the same problem. That may save you a few minutes later. Since paper can be easily lost, it is no longer the best extension of your mind. There are many other good reasons for banishing paper, for our purposes now let us say it helps you easily keep track of your stuff. After all, summoning the search function in Windows is certainly better than frantically going through your stack of papers.

5. Find a better way

There is probably a better and more efficient way to do what you are doing. It will probably not take you too much time to find it. Doing manually things that you can automate (such as those calculations for your research) does not show that you are smart. It shows that you are, well, inefficient at best and stupid at worst. We discuss some of the tools here, such as The Lab Calculator for your routine lab math and Mendeley Desktop for managing your research papers. There are more tips on Lifehacker and other places. It doesn’t hurt to take a look every once in a while.