Efficient Use of Time Posted on October 19, 2007 Robert C. Malenka (bio) considers the balance between professional and personal commitments.

An important issue is balancing your professional life with your personal life, and that’s an issue from the day you enter medical school until probably the day one retires. I was fortunate to have a very supportive spouse who understood the time commitments it required to achieve what I wanted to achieve. What allowed me to be successful, and I think one of my strengths, is a highly efficient use of time; quickly figuring out – well, I’m still learning how to do this, but trying to constantly evaluate, “Is this a useful activity for me to be doing or is this kind of a waste of my time, both professionally and personally?”

And that’s something one has to learn, and it’s very difficult because even as a junior faculty member, even as a senior resident, you’re asked to do a lot of stuff. You know, “Can you put together this seminar series? Can you see these extra patients? Can you help me write this grant? Can you read over this journal article for me? Can you review this paper? And I think it’s very important early on to constantly be evaluating.

While being a good citizen and understanding that both as a resident, you’re a member of a community, and as a faculty member you’re a member of a department and that you have to have some civic mindedness and you have to pull your fair share. But also stepping back and thinking about, you know, “How is this going to help my own personal career? Is it really worthwhile me spending four or five hours reading this over to give somebody a few comments or is my time – maybe my time’s better spent writing that grant or working on that grant.” Because once I have the money to support my research, then I will have more free time.

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