Challenge yourself to come up with one idea related to your project a day. Though some of them will be bad or not as useful as others, many will be good and could lead to a new experiment or theory. Don’t be passive or shy about your ideas. As a scientist in a competitive field, you need to create your own opportunities by owning your ideas and working hard to develop them further. Take out a piece of paper or open a Word doc on your computer and create a list of goals based on the project you are investigating or experimenting with.  Prioritize your goals by ranking them in order of importance. Though you may be tempted to go off on a tangent or deviate from your list of goals (which is also part of the exploratory nature of scientific discovery), try to home in on experiments that will get you closer to completing your goals. As with any work, there are only so many hours in a day, so make smart decisions about how you spend your time achieving your scientific goals. This helps you develop your time management skills and use your time efficiently and effectively. Debunk the idea of a lone genius toiling away at secret experiments, and look around the lab, the department, or in the field for someone you think you might want to work with and learn from. More often than not, you will do better work if you collaborate with someone else, or seek the advice of a mentor.  In the scientific world, you will be expected to be able to work well independently and as part of a team, so having good participation and communication skills will only help you further your career and be successful.  Examine your projects for areas where you don’t have the time or expertise to push them forward, and be willing to partner with someone to develop your project. For example, you may contact a statistician to help analyze your data for a publication.  Not only will building strong partnerships with other colleagues, peers, and professionals be mutually beneficial, it will also keep you humble and help you put your project or idea into perspective by sharing it with someone else. Create a writing process that works for you, like going into an area with peace and quiet or putting on Classical music to help you focus, and stick to it. Try to do a little writing every day, and put your ideas or thoughts down on the page so you get into the habit of recording your ideas, which could later end up in a published paper or in a lecture about your latest scientific theory. It’s important to also read up on the work being done in your field of study, whether it’s a more specific publication like Astronomical Journal or a more general one like Science Today. Stay informed on the current topics in science and consider how you can build on the work of others in your field. Avoid a dry, boring talk full of complicated data and try to tell a story that is personal while also being informative and valuable.  One technique is to start by discussing the reasons why you are doing scientific work, then lead into details about your failures and false starts, and then end with a dramatic conclusion that will leave the audience thinking about a theory or field of study in a new way. Try using the “assertion-evidence paradigm,” where you title your slide with your main idea and then you use a picture, graph, or figure to support it.  A good scientist should be capable of explaining scientific ideas to a person who is not a scientist. So always consider your audience and try to demonstrate your enthusiasm for your field of study without being overly complicated or hard to understand. Though hard work is essential to being a good scientist, it’s important to strike a balance between professional work and personal downtime. Don’t let yourself get burnt out.  It may be tempting to spend 20 hours a day in the lab, developing your ideas, but sometimes the best thoughts come when the mind is at rest, or engaged in other activities that challenge your brain in a different way. Making time for a hobby or activity outside of scientific work will allow you to de-stress and perhaps also lead to a fresh perspective on a theory or thought you have been working on or struggling to solve.

Summary: Take charge of your ideas. Set goals. Collaborate and build strong partnerships. Practice your writing and reading skills. Develop your presentation skills. Maintain a balance between hard work and rest.


The water should be warm but not hot. You could boil water in a kettle and pour out the required amount and let it stand until its temperature lowers. Alternatively, you could also run your tap until the water is quite warm (i.e., not tepid). Sea salt is best but table salt will work fine as well. This combination of warm water and salt is what gives the saline solution its name. "Saline" means containing or impregnated with salt. Place the cotton in your ear for three to five minutes. You can also use this solution without a cotton ball. Tilt your head and using an ear dropper, place one to two drops of the prewarmed saltwater into your ear. This will ensure that the solution does not drain out too much. Do make sure that you have tissues nearby to catch any drainage, though, especially if you used drops. Then, remove the cotton ball if used. This should remove any earwax over time.  A warm saline solution will work to dissolve the earwax like an oil-based one. However, you may have to repeat the process a few more times than you would using oil because the warm saline does not dissolve the earwax as well as oils do. You can also follow up this "ear soak" with a rinse, using an ear wash bulb. Fill the bulb with saline solution. After the three to five minute soak (as described above), tilt your head again and gently place the end of the bulb near the opening of the ear. Do not place it in the ear canal. Gently squeeze out the saline around the opening of your ear. Repeat this rinse two to three times. Most of the time, two to three treatments (saline soak plus the water rinse) are sufficient to remove most of the earwax.
Summary: Warm ½ cup of water. Add 1 teaspoon of salt to the water. Soak a piece of a cotton ball in the saline solution. Keep your head tilted for the three to five minutes. Repeat the procedure three to five times a day.