How I eked out pearls of energy while stuck in my postdoc

I remember very distinctly having barely any energy to go from one day to the next in my postdoc. I inadvertently started monitoring my energy levels, because I felt so low all the time. So I basically started noticing when I felt slightly less tired and sad, and which days I felt worse than usual. Here are some of the things that helped: 

I really enjoyed the highly technical experiments I was doing. Not everyone loves dissecting a bunch of fruit fly brains, but I do! It was an activity that felt calming, and I could pair with a podcast for example. It also required that I was concentrated, and so I could calm my anxiety. I also did a lot of imaging experiments: the microscope room was a place where I could have a moment for myself.

In another lab, I remember spending a lot of time doing experiments in the cold room. Not all experiments I did there needed to be done there. The reason? Annoying people did not have access to me there. 

I started a teaching certification offered by my university, which gave me tons of energy. I really enjoyed developing classes and lesson plans. This could be counterintuitive, but adding work I loved actually helped my energy levels. 

This is a controversial one: I realized one of my biggest energy sinks was our lab meeting. So I started asking to skip lab meetings, citing conflicts with experiments, and I would be excused. (I’ve seen colleagues actually start experiments that required them to leave during lab meetings . -It was hard for people to say no when a timer went off in the middle of the conference room).

This way I was able to talk with individual lab members in the unlikely case I had missed something important, without having to participate in the draining lab meeting environment. 

Why is this even important? Again, the more energy you have the easier it is to do things that scare you, such as updating your resume, putting yourself out on LinkedIn , looking for other jobs, or having a difficult conversation with your mentor about the direction of your project.