Keep current with the literature.

Did I say I was going to update my "daily activities in lab here on this blog?" I have to say I had underestimated the extreme fast-paced of my new lab; right now, if I'm lucky I might be able to post one entry per month.

Actually being busy is an understatement, since I spend around 10 - 12 hours in lab six days a week.  The crazy hours stemmed from my ambition to pursue two completely separate projects: one involves the testing of a new small molecule for organ preservation and the other, an exploratory project to develop a new drug screening tool.  Because both of these projects are in their embryonic stage, my first few months in the lab are spent at setting up new methodologies.  As tiring as it has been, I am excited about the opportunity to learn new techniques, which a postdoctoral training period is designed to accomplish.

I have always enjoyed bench work because being busy make me feels productive.  However, it leaves little time to read two articles per day -- a goal I had since starting graduate school.  Even now, with five years of grad school and five months of postdoc behind me, I still find it difficult to keep up with my literature.

But I do have some suggestions on how to read journal articles for the new graduate students.  While these are not comprehensive, I find these quite useful.

1.  Read journal articles in the morning before starting your experiments because once you've started your bench work, you won't be able to focus on reading.
2.  Don't get bogged down by the methodologies unless you're planning to use the technique for your own research; try to understand the key findings from each article.
3.  If an article does not seem too interesting to you, don't force it and move on to another one.  The last time I checked, there are over 20,000 articles in my field so there are plenty to read.
4.  Every once in a while, re-read key articles from your field, you'll discover that you have missed some important details the first time you read the article.
5.  If you have a feeling that an article will most likely be cited in your own research, add it to your Endnote or Refwork library.  I find it frustrating when I need to cite an article and cannot find it on Pubmed.

I'd love to have others share their thoughts/techniques on how to keep up with literature reading.