As most of my colleagues, friends, and trainees know, I’m obsessed with hacks, tools, and books to be more productive and a better scientist.  Below I share some of my favorites.  More information will be available as blog posts in the future.

Please note that some links are referral links and I may receive a small commission, discount, or incentive (like a free month).

• Books
  • Trainees
  • Faculty
  • Career Development
  • Management and Leadership
  • Writing and Presenting
  • Personal Development
• Online Tools
  • Software and Apps
  • Websites and Blogs
• Gadgets and Gizmos

Books

For Trainees

• A Ph.D. Is Not Enough by Peter J. Feibelman
• At the Bench by Kathy Barker
• Experimental Design for Biologists by David J. Glass
• Getting What You Came For by Dr. Robert L. Peters
• Making the Right Moves by HHMI and the Burroughs Welcome Fund

For Faculty

• The Grant Application Writer’s Workbook- NIH Version by Drs. Stephen W. Russell and David C. Morrison
• At the Helm by Kathy Barker

Career and Personal Development

• Excellence Everywhere by the Burroughs Welcome Fund

Management and Leadership

• Lab Dynamics by Carl M. Cohen and Suzanne L. Cohen

Writing and Presenting

• Designing Science Presentations by Matt Carter
• Essentials of Writing Biomedical Research Papers by Mimi Zeiger
• Even A Geek Can Speak by Joey Asher
• How to Write A Lot by Dr. Paul J. Silva
• Writing Science by Joshua Schimel

Personal Development

• Miracle Morning

Online Tools

Software and Apps

Since I have both a Mac and a PC, all the software below should work on both. Most also have apps for your mobile devices as I do most of my work on my phone and tablet.

• Slack – A messaging and communication platform
• Asana – A project management/ shared to do list software
• Clockify – A time tracking app that syncs across devices
• Readwise – A website that collects your ereader highlights and sends them back to you as a daily digest
• Feedly – RSS feed reader. I use it to aggregate eTOC from journals and NIH RFAs.
• LabGuru – Lab management system and electronic notebook
• Tweetdeck – Website for Twitter
• Hootsuite – A social media management and planning app
• OneNote – Microsoft’s notebook system. There’s a good chance it came free with your school’s Microsoft office.
• Evernote – A notebook system that’s more free form
• Mendeley – A reference management and PDF storage software
• LastPass – A password manager for all the sites that make you change the password every few months (I’m looking at you eRA commons and eBrap).
• PaperShip – [Mac/Apple Only] An app to annotate and manage your Mendeley PDFs on the go

Websites and Blogs

• Meta.org – A website that performs literature searches
• Lifehacker – A website of hacks and tools that introduced to me to many of my favorites shared here
• Wirecutter – A website for researched product recommendations. I’ve been happy with every product they recommended and I purchased.

Gadgets and Gizmos

• Agendio Planner – Design your own planner to track and plan
• Ember – Electronic mug that self heats. I keep it on my desk.