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Dear friends,
We made it through another month! Between dealing with the heat dome and daylight savings-related sleep disturbance, I’m not sad to see March go! And can we agree that 2026 has been quite enough without adding April Fool’s Day into the mix? Life is enough of a roller-coaster without pranks- I propose compliments and/or hugs instead!
In my last blog, I wrote about saying “yes” to the stress of a last-minute trip to India. I will treasure that experience forever, and the re-entry was worse than even my anxious brain predicted! While I was away, in the span of 2.5 weeks, reviewer comments for an NIH grant were published on eRA Commons, and the PO reached out for responses with a 10-day turnaround. I wasn’t even checking email! This could have been a disaster. Two key actions saved the situation. First, our PO included two others, UCSF’s CTSI leads, on the email. Second, I had communicated openly with those two treasured colleagues about my last-minute trip. They knew they needed to jump in and ask for an extension. I’m so fortunate that they even started the responses for me while I was away. It was a good call to reach out to them in advance and tell them when and why I would be really out of office. It’s tempting to try to be under-the-radar with time away, and this experience reminded me why it’s better to communicate more.
I returned with over 1000 new emails (expected) and five days to respond to extensive reviews on a mission-critical training grant (unexpected!) More unexpected challenges, which I can’t share, came up in that first week, and I spent many unplanned hours dealing with fallout. The bottom line: I’ve been back for a month, and I just can’t catch up. I absolutely hate sneaking away to work during family and friend time, but this month, I could not avoid it. The 5 trips I’ve taken in 2026 have also interfered with my eating and exercise routines, and I can’t wait to be home and get back into my happy habits!
So I am behind, frazzled, and somewhat out-of-sorts, and yet I have no regrets. I spend a lot of time developing and implementing positive routines that make my life work. My lesson is that letting go of these routines every now and then is important. We have to seize the joys in front of us and just accept catch-up season. What experiences are you willing to sacrifice your routines for? Are you also playing catch-up? Tell me about it! Please share widely, as usual, and let others know they can sign up here.
Warmly,
Urmimala