HOW do they do it?
By Life Behind Research
At Life Behind Research we explore something that’s rarely talked about:
the real, everyday life of being a researcher.
Because no researcher is the same. Some are raising children, some are athletes training before office hours start, some navigate disabilities or personal circumstances and others maintain a busy social calendar. Every researcher is juggling something different. So we asked a simple question:
How do they do it?
How do researchers organize their days? What does a “normal” week look like in specific situations? How do they organize their time, balance work with life outside the lab, and deal with the challenges that come with their career as a researcher? And what specific or unique challenges do they encounter?
In a monthly blog called “HOW do they do it?”, we interview inspiring researchers with diverse backgrounds to get an honest look at what their day-to-day lives are like. We talk about their calendars and routines, how they prioritize, maintain hobbies, and the challenges that are often silently overcome.While acknowledging these challenges, Life Behind Research aims to tell stories with positivity and a can-do mindset. We highlight the resilience and creativity that is found by researchers, in order to show you how it can be done!
“By sharing these stories, we aim to make a research career more approachable, raise awareness of the often unseen challenges, and create connections between researchers.”
Our aims
Approachability
Do you want to achieve a life in research, but have you always been curious about how people actually manage to do it?
By sharing honest stories of their everyday life, we show examples of how people actually fit research in their lives.
We have seen researchers break barriers, so we know it can be done!
Awareness
Everyone is facing their own challenges. For some, it’s handling family life; for others, living with a disability, health condition, or other personal circumstances.
Many of these challenges are invisible and faced in silence. By giving a platform to researchers in various situations we aim to raise awareness of what these challenges truly mean in everyday life.
Connection
We often live our lives with little or no understanding of many people surrounding us. By offering insight into the lives of other researchers, we create space for empathy and connection to a wider range of researchers.
Let’s combat the polarization happening around the world, and look for those connections!
With real-life examples of researchers’ calendars and honest insights into personal challenges, we show what it really means to juggle responsibilities in a research career.