u/wonder3756

Has anyone here been the sole bioinformatician in an academic lab after finishing their PhD?
I’m about to start such a role, and I’d love to hear about your experience.
How do you organize your projects when you’re supporting multiple people at once?
How do you keep track of requests, analyses, deadlines, and ongoing collaborations? Are there any tools that make your life much easier?
I’d appreciate any advice or lessons you wish you’d known when you started. Thanks!

A little bit of background: I’ve been consuming caffeine for as long as I can remember. I grew up drinking black tea from secondary school onwards. In high school, I’d even drink black tea in the evenings (I was also a big fan of soda back then). I started drinking coffee at university. From that point on, I was pretty much hooked until two weeks ago.

For the last 10 years, coffee has been a daily thing. Most of the time I had two coffees a day, although towards the end of my PhD there was a period when I was drinking three espressos daily. Since finishing my studies about a year ago, I’ve cut back to one coffee every morning.

I don’t think I’m particularly sensitive to caffeine. For the last year, I could drink my morning coffee and still sleep perfectly fine at night.
However, over the last couple of years, I’ve felt less and less like myself. The things I used to genuinely enjoy like nature, travelling, working, writing etc don’t excite me the way they used to. It’s almost like I’m watching my life rather than fully participating in it.

I’ve also been struggling with brain fog, I can’t focus easily. The PhD probably played a role in that too. So, I’ve been trying to build a healthier lifestyle. I realized that I’ve basically never been caffeine-free in my entire life. So I thought I can give it a try and see what happens.

14 days ago, I switched to decaf. My aim is to quit decaf as well. The first day was actually fine, but I was at home, relaxed, not working. Days 2–4 were by far the hardest: strong headaches, and vivid nightmares. After that, things were manageable except feeling sleepy during the day even though I slept enough.

The problem is that my mood and focus are noticeably lower than before. I’ve lost what little excitement I still had, and feeling sleepy at work all the time.
So I’m curious:
How long did it take you to feel normal again?
Did you notice any lasting changes after quitting?
Did you feel like a different person afterwards?

I’d love to hear your experiences to stay motivated.