First week on a postdoc project

Greetings from Austria! A lot has happened since I wrote about my third year as a PhD student in February. I received a postdoc offer in April and moved with my whole family to Graz in Austria, the cats included. I will write more about all of that later, including how to wrap up a PhD while starting a postdoc, but first I wanted to note down my experience during my first week on a postdoc project.

Officially, my first week was during the BAAL 2026 conference; therefore, I arrived at the office a week later. So let’s start the story from the first week at the office. For a little background information, this is a new project that I work full-time on (40h/week).

At the start of a new job, probably most office jobs, there is a certain amount of admin involved. For me, being a teacher-entrepreneur for the last ten years, this is all new. Tasks included learning to use the office computer, learning how to change that said computer from German to English, updating information on online systems, applying for and picking up a staff ID, learning how to fill out certain documentation that is regularly needed, meeting up with the welcome office, getting basic office stationery, and probably a couple of smaller tasks I have already forgotten.

Tip: Ask who is in charge of admin-related questions, so you don’t waste time thinking about who to ask for help or trying to figure it out on your own. Ask your new colleagues as well.

Work-wise, the first week got off to a busy start! We had a sudden deadline on the third day of the week, and rushed to get everything ready before being actually ready. In a way, it gave direction on where to focus in the beginning, as understanding and managing a big project can be very overwhelming. After the deadline, it was time to discuss general expectations among the team and start planning a pilot project.

Tip: No matter if you are a PhD student or a new postdoc, I highly recommend keeping a research diary. Not just to have a record of decisions made, but also to write down your ideas and feelings. It is also great for free writing when you have writer’s block or feel overwhelmed.

In a blog post called Days in the Life of a Postdoc by Granato and Ziegenhain, they kept a log of the activities they did the most during the beginning of their postdoc. Except for lab work that I do not have, many of the other tasks sound very familiar: writing, e-mail, thinking, planning, meetings, admin, reading and searching. Nice to see that breaks are part of the postdoc experience, as they documented in their post!

Being in a team with several people, there are certain things and systems that seem to work well for us:

• Online file folder for everything to do with the project; all team members have access
• A joint to-do list to keep track of what needs to be done and who is doing which task
• As advised by our supervisor, a GANTT timeline of the whole project and certain parts of the project
• Working in the same office, easy to pop in for a chat or ask a question

Overall, it has felt like a luxury to be able to focus 100% on research. It is an exciting project, and we have such a great team with lovely people that I am looking forward to seeing what these three years on the project will look like.