Just for fun

A

bout 10 years ago, I sat in my office, struggling to muster up the motivation to write an annual

progress report for my dean. I enjoy writing grant applications and scientific papers—tasks

that engage my creativity and further my research. But report writing doesn’t come with any

reward apart from the momentary satisfaction of crossing something off my to-do list. Like

other routine paperwork, I find it hard to get through. So that day, I offered myself a reward:

When I finished the report, I’d give myself 2 hours to examine slides under the microscope—

a task I’ve always loved but never had much time for as a faculty member.

By Bill D. Roebuck

ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT NEUBECKER

Over my 40-year academic career,

I have learned that I need to give

myself special projects as a reward

for completing onerous paperwork.

I retired from my faculty position

3 years ago, so thankfully I don’t

face much paperwork anymore.

But I still break out this reward sys-

tem every so often. It’s a strategy I

call “just for fun.”

The strategy was born out of

challenges I experienced in grad

school. I could handle failed experi-

ments, equipment malfunctions,

and other hiccups. Bureaucratic

busywork was a bigger hurdle. I

usually delayed putting together

reports for grant agencies and uni-

versity administrators until threat-

ening letters arrived—or the dead-

line was so close that I became

gripped with panic. I never felt

that paperwork was advancing my science, but rather sap-

ping my energy and time for research.

One of my committee members recognized and under-

stood my difficulties. He asked, “If a day is going badly,

what might you like to do at work—just for fun?” I must

have looked confused, because I didn’t see how his ques-

tion was relevant to the problem at hand. Then he told me

about his strategy of rewarding himself with a fun project

when he completed a task that he didn’t particularly enjoy.

He advised me to think about doing something similar. I

immediately liked the idea, but it took me a few years to

fully implement my own system. It also evolved over the

course of my career.

As a Ph.D. student, I did not see labwork as a special

reward because I already spent most of my time in the lab.

So, I devised a different kind of reward: I’d let myself attend

seminars on topics I was curious about but that lay outside

of my immediate field. For example, one day I remember tell-

ing myself, “If I get this report submitted on time, I am going

to that seminar on pathology.” I got

better at meeting deadlines—and I

had some fun in the process.

When I became a faculty member

with a lab of my own, my “just for

fun” strategy began to shift. I was at

my microscope less and less, and I

started to miss it. At the same time,

my need for fun rewards multiplied

because bureaucratic tasks started

to clog up my to-do list.

So, as my laboratory grew, I

started to jealously guard some

small projects—such as microscope

tasks, simple experiments, and data

analyses—that I could complete my-

self. Sometimes I even sought out

those projects. For example, a col-

laborator told me that he was having

problems staining liver tumors, so I

told him: “Send me the slides; I can

do that!” At that point in my career,

my role in research mostly took the form of advising students

and technicians. The research didn’t feel like my own any-

more, and when it was done, I certainly could not say, “Look

what I discovered!” But with the “just for fun” projects, I had

full ownership. I felt as though I’d done real science.

Over the course of my career, this strategy helped me

complete and move past the parts of my job that I didn’t

particularly enjoy. The rewards I gave myself provided a

way to relax and reminded me why I love being a scientist.

As for that annual report, I spent an uninspiring morn-

ing on it—but got it done. Then I hurried over to the

microscope, eager to inspect a series of slides that my col-

laborators had sent a couple weeks earlier.

To others, it may have looked like work. But to me, it

was just for fun. j

Bill D. Roebuck is a professor emeritus at Dartmouth College

in Hanover, New Hampshire. Do you have an interesting career story

to share? Send it to [email protected].

“I ... give myself special

projects as a reward for completing

onerous paperwork.”

710 7 FEBRUARY 2020 • VOL 367 ISSUE 6478 sciencemag.org SCIENCE

WORKING LIFE

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