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Our student reps and Sheffield DTP co-ordinator @DrEmilyG have teamed up to organise a series of monthly Online Skills Sessions - we had our first session with Dr Goodall today on ‘Adapting to patchwork routines’, read our thread below for a summary 
What do we mean by patchwork routines? When university facilities reopen, we will have to work at reduced capacity, likely in shift work and combine this with remote working. We touched on several aspects of this (especially remote working tips), here are the highlights:
1. Keeping in touch with your lab - can be done via Teams, Google Meet, Slack. Team work is going to be more important now, having to coordinate experiments with limited time, and good channels of communication are essential (and virtual coffee meetings keep us sane! 
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Journal clubs are another great way to keep in contact and learn! One idea to make journal club more exciting and far-reaching was to invite the corresponding authors to the discussion, which has been implemented successfully in one lab.
2. Skills development - online courses (a lot of them free) are offered through @coursera, @FutureLearn, @LI_learning, @wellcomegenome. Coding seems to be the most popular skill our students are focusing on!
3. Careers - have you been avoiding making or completing your LinkedIn profile? Now might be a good time to do this! Here’s an article with some great tips: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/25/example-template-of-perfect-linkedin-profile-according-to-harvard-career-experts.html
4. Online conferences - our students enjoyed conferences which incorporated some interactive (Slack channels for discussions) and networking elements (like a meal or quiz) the most.
Another winning strategy is to record all of the sessions. That took care of having to make the difficult choice between two interesting talks running in parallel!
One benefit of our lives moving online is that now you can engage with world-class science from the comforts of your own home! Some students said they were able to attend conferences usually held abroad that would’ve been a financially impossible otherwise.
Online seminar series have also been popular, for example @SciMagWebinars
5. What sort of work can PhD students do from home? Writing review articles or draft thesis chapters, data processing/analysis, planning experiments are all things our students have been focusing on.
But only writing for a long time can be demotivating - what do our students recommend? Several use the @PomodoroTech (also great for reading papers!) - it’s easier to focus when you know it’s for a short burst of time.
This is also a chance to reframe writing - writing is thinking! Use this time to think about the data you have so far, see where the gaps are and plan future experiments. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in generating data and forget to look at the big picture.
6. Some students have gone back to labs. What tips do they have for working effectively under the new ‘normal’? With the reduced flexibility of our time to do experiments and capacity constrains on rooms and equipment, we will need to plan, plan, plan like never before!
Some of the challenges - longer experiments are harder to execute and you may have to trust a ‘lab buddy’ to share the work. You also can’t just decide to stay longer and fix experiments which fail - these failures will now set us back for longer. (Best ‘lab buddy’ gif I have!)
One idea to save time is to order things in where you can, for example synthesise genes instead of cloning them.
Some tools for planning - Google calendar, to-do lists, @trello. It is important to prioritise your experiments well and make sure you book all of your time slots and equipment well in advance.
It’s also important to note that travelling to and from work may be more difficult too, especially if you need to avoid public transport.
7. More on thesis writing - now is a good time to think about planning chapters and starting to write (whether it be experimental chapters or Introduction and Methods). You shouldn’t leave it all until the last 3 months! This gif is a warning!
The concept of a writing period at the end of your PhD is damaging. There is always some writing you can do along the way - it’s a great way to put your results into context and consider your next steps. You can incorporate this with practical work once labs reopen.
How do you prepare for thesis writing? You can read some theses from your supervisors’ previous students (ask for their favourite!). It helps to make it less scary because you can see how it’s formatted, what the content is and that you have the skills to write one!
Creating a thesis plan can also help you map out your PhD work, see what you have done so far and what is left to do. This could be useful in effectively planning your time in the lab when you get back and seeing what can be done remotely.
You can prepare figures - besides PowerPoint, you can use purpose-made software like @inkscape, @Illustrator or @BioRender (although be careful about licensing and make sure you’re allowed to use figures from Biorender in your thesis, which counts as a publication).
What about formatting? Look into Microsoft Word Outline View! It makes it easy to organise chapters and you can also save different versions of your draft. Once you have it set up, it’s easy to plug in ideas/thoughts you have and keep it organised.
You can also look into using LaTeX, although you should check with your supervisor first. It can be easier to format your document but it also takes time to learn - it’s easier if you have someone to teach you or download templates.
The most important part is to start! Write often and little. Remember it doesn’t have to be perfect! Academic writing is a skill and it’s important to practise in order to improve and find your comfort zone.
You can also try virtual writing retreats (such as @VWR_PGR or ones organised by your university) which can help keep you focused and check out this article for tips: https://www.researchretold.com/academic-writing-tips-to-write-longer-and-be-productive/
If you think your project has been severely affected by closures, you should chat with your supervisors on how to mitigate this. Do you have any side projects which can generate useful data? A big part of the PhD is adapting to change and your examiners will know this.
To sum up - hone your time management, team planning and organisational skills! Focus on the positives (more time to think!). There will be increased pressure to do experiments perfectly due to limited time in the lab, HOWEVER…
Remember that mistakes will happen and be kind to yourself. Manage your expectations according to the circumstances. Look after your mental health and wellbeing (and remember we are entitled to 30 days annual leave)!
