Question: How do you cope with the stress of being a scientist

Daniel Chernick answered on 7 Nov 2025:

For me, it’s kinda the usual saying of “this too shall pass”.

If I had too much work to do at the same time, I had to learn to prioritise for which work was actually urgent – and others where it wouldn’t matter as much if it was late (and I’d talk to the person I had to deliver the work to first, to make sure they’re okay with me pushing back the work a bit).

If one piece of work was really stressing me out because it wasn’t going the way that I wanted (like when I wanted to finish a set of experiments before the Christmas break during my PhD), I had to ask myself: 1. Why is it going wrong?, 2. Do I need to re-think the work from the beginning?, and 3. Does it matter if I have to finish this work after New Year’s Day? When I get stressed it’s because I feel like I’m trapped and there’s nothing I can do, but by thinking about these 3 things I then have actions to help me think about the work in a different way (and it really does help me!)