Hi everyone!
I am Rada and I am a final year PhD Candidate in technical sciences at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. My research is focused on developing machine learning models for implementation in the industry and industrial processes, with the aim of lowering the ecological footprint by controlling the use of fossil and renewable energy. I also work as a researcher at the science Institute and write about science (check out the blog https://spiderest.com/).
So, here is a day in my life.
6:35 After getting up around 6AM and doing my meditation, the next thing is to have a good breakfast and, of course, coffee. As I am trying to eat healthy, my breakfast usually consists of different types of oatmeal (this one is with apples and cinnamon). While I eat my breakfast, I usually check my emails and social media in case there is something urgent to reply to.
07:52 Time to go to the library to work. My PhD-related experiments were finished months ago, so now I am in a phase where my main task is to write my thesis. I usually work from home, but sometimes it’s good to change the environment for an additional boost of productivity.
08:47 One more coffee before work with my friend and colleague at one of our favorite coffee shops in Belgrade
09:55 Work. I am currently writting the theory behind my research, but also simultaneously preparing another publication with my mentor. My research yielded several results, so we are working on publishing the most important ones in different journals and conferences. I am also a reviewer for one of the IEEE conferences, so I had to take some time and do the review of one of the papers that was assigned to me.
14:26 Lunch time and a short break from work.
15:35 Back to work. Finishing the Results section of the new paper that should be sent to the journal by the end of February. It’s so fun to write about your research and findings, isn’t it?
16:24 Leaving the library and going home. I still have some work to do, but I decided to spend the afternoon at home, as it got colder and rainy. 
18:10 Home. After a short break, I had to go through some of the results of my experiments in order to confirm my findings.
19:20 Planning time. I use my planner all the time and I think I would go crazy without it. At the end of each day, I go through what I’ve done and plan out the next day. It’s so much easier to be focused and get things done when you write everything down.
19:38 Learning Italian. Each day I sit down for 20 to 30 minutes and learn Italian. Italian language is my passion and it’s so fun to learn.
20:32 Yoga time. I try to do yoga at least 2 times a week, but in the past couple of weeks I’ve been doing it more frequently. To better deal with stress, it is important to find time for yourself and do some exercise. This was very hard for me to accept and I’ve been struggling a lot to incorporate regular exercise into my schedule, but somehow I managed it, so now every day I am trying to have at least some sort of physical activity.
21:13 After finishing yoga and having a quick shower, it’s time for dinner. As I was busy all day, I had leftovers from the previous day. Oooops.
22:29 Finally, it’s time to chill. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been watching Broadchurch on Netflix and I love it. So, that was a day in my life. If you are interested to hear more about my PhD journey and all things that make my day, head over to my Instagram @seaandsimplicity. You can also check out the blog where we share interesting things about science – Spiderest (https://spiderest.com/).
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