Yearly wrap up
By Dr. Selim Erhan, TLT Editor | TLT From the Editor December 2022
It’s easy to get lost in notes and activities, so it’s good to get reorganized.
We have made it to the end of the year but also close to the beginning of a new year! It is a very relaxing yet exciting time. We remember past years, the lessons learned—and hopefully not forgotten—and we start making plans for the coming year. We revisit our actions items. It is a good time to do this because some of these action items can be very critical.
As I wrap up my year, I too look over the year’s activities, and my to-do lists get reorganized. This is when I realize how important it is to have good notes and dates for past activities. As most of us know, these lists are long. Some things get crossed off but more appear! It is tempting to move forward further and further, and it is easy to get tangled in a frenzy of activities. It is great to be busy, and one feels even better as we keep accomplishing one goal after another.
Each day is fresh—each day is full of exciting and urgent projects. Pretty soon, a month, or a few months pass. It is easy to lose sight of past projects and follow-up items. This is where some of us who work in labs or data gathering activities realize that they barely remember what was done six months ago! We look desperately into our lab notebooks, call reports and notes on papers to remember where we were. This is the time when we are thankful if we had kept good records. Dates, names, addresses and summaries become so valuable—for example, experiment details such as mixing orders, observations and an unexpected color. At the time, some of these may seem insignificant, but as we collect more information on the project, they may hold the key to some puzzles. Clearly written notes can be boring or time consuming when everything is fresh in our mind. Yet if we work on them, we appreciate it later when we need them. Another very boring but very valuable chore is to rewrite those notes that we had quickly scribbled during meetings. At the time everything is fresh, but somehow after a week, some of those words look very foreign.
We also should be diligent in backing up computers and phones. Last summer I was so thankful I had backed up my phone contacts and pictures. It was a very nice day, the evening before a conference. I had some time, so I went to the beautiful pool that had been well advertised. I neatly put away my phone and my glasses and was just getting ready to swim when I saw a group of friends. While talking, they asked about a recent trip. I immediately went back, got my phone and showed them pictures. Then, as I usually do, I put my phone in my pocket. Why swimming trunks have pockets is beyond me. Maybe they collaborate with phone companies so people can take a swim with their phone in their pockets and have to get new phones? After a couple of laps, I realized I still had my phone in my pocket. I had drowned my phone in the water just before the conference. If it had not been backed up, it would have been a very miserable experience. It still was expensive, but I was able to function.
In short, it really pays off if one plans security measures and back-up plans for our activities before we engage in them. Passports can get stolen, so do we carry photocopies or pictures just in case? Do we separate our credit cards and cash during trips in case one set disappears? Do we have a safety deposit box somewhere and a fireproof box at home? I believe this list is very critical.
Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season. I hope you will have some time to relax, regroup and revise plans and get ready for another exciting year.
Dr. Selim Erhan is director of business development for Process Oils Inc. in Trout Valley, Ill. You can reach him at serhan@processoilsinc.com.