As a researcher, you might find yourself with unexpected downtime between sessions.

Halle-freaking-lu-jah!! Right?

​Perhaps a participant no-showed, or you have extra time because a session finished early. Instead of twiddling your thumbs, you can use this found time to be productive and make the most of your day.

Here are 17+ uplifting and light ideas to consider:

1. Debrief on the previous session(s) if you haven't already: Take a moment to reflect on the previous session, what you learned, and what went well or could be improved.

2. Share a quick update with your stakeholders: Send an email or message to stakeholders with updates about completed sessions or key takeaways from the study so far.

3. Create a teaser for your next stakeholder meeting: Build excitement for your next stakeholder meeting by sharing a sneak peek of what's to come.

4. Rename your notes, screenshots, and recordings: Organize your study artifacts by renaming them according to your anonymous participant naming convention.

5. Clean up your project file folder: Tidy up your project files by removing old drafts and updating documents to reflect any revisions.

6. Populate your teams' incentive processing form: Record the details of each participant session completed for your incentive processing.

7. Think about creative frameworks for synthesis: Brainstorm creative frameworks to synthesize your data and identify emerging themes.

8. Identify emerging themes thus far: Review your notes and identify any emerging themes or patterns.

9. Do a quick retro activity about the study: Use frameworks like Start, Stop, Continue, or Mad, Glad, Sad, or Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed For, or Anchors and Sails to reflect on the study or a portion of the project.

10. Upload the previous sessions for transcription or editing: Upload previous sessions for transcription or editing, making the most of any extra time you have.

11. Take a NAP, a walk, or stretch: Step away from your computer and get some fresh air, or stretch to release any tension in your body. CATCH UP ON SOME ZZZZs and recharge ;)

12. Write down your reflections on this project: Document your physical and emotional takeaways, challenges overcome, lessons learned, and details about your role and collaborations with stakeholders.

13. Identify past studies and secondary research: Triangulate your data by identifying past studies and secondary research.

14. Reach out to your customer support team: Check in with your customer support team, PM, Eng, designer, or other team members to find out if they have any relevant data or feedback.

15. Jot down new research questions: Capture any new research questions or ideas that emerge during your downtime.

16. Make your lunch: Don't forget to take care of yourself! Prepare a healthy lunch in advance to avoid the stress of eating on the go.

17. Send a quick note: Yep. Take the found time to let someone else know you are thinking about them, care about them, appreciate them or something similar. Found time allocated to KINDNESS is absolutely time well spent in my book!

In conclusion, unexpected downtime can be a gift in disguise, allowing you to catch up on important tasks, reflect on the study so far, take care of yourself and or do something nice for someone else. By implementing some of these tips, you can make the most of your found time and feel productive and uplifted.

How do you like to spend your found time between user research sessions and during no-shows? Please lmk!

ICYMI!

We're thrilled to announce our long awaited "Expert Training Series" is now live! The Expert Training Series is a partnership between Curiosity Tank and top practitioners who are super passionate, and have achieved utter mastery, in a specific user research related topic.

Our next event is with Carol Rossi and she's addressing a topic most of us could benefit from - How to Prioritize research for Impact! The live event is tomorrow, April 20th. A recording will be sent to all registrants whether they attend live or not. PLEASE JOIN US! Register here.

We have more partners and topics lined up for the "Expert Training Series" and would love your suggestions for additional experts and topics as well. Please let us now your thoughts!

Speak up, get involved, and share the love!

• ​Connect with Michele on LinkedIn for more UXR tips and UX discussions

• Read about Curiosity Tank workshops. We just started our current Ask Like A Pro series!

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And that’s a wrap!

We try to alternate between a theme and UX/UXR jobs, events, classes, articles, and other happenings every few weeks. Thank you for all of the feedback. Feedback is a gift, and we continue to receive very actionable input on how to make Fuel Your Curiosity more meaningful to you.

What do you think? We're constantly iterating and would love to hear your input.​

Stay curious,

- Michele and the Curiosity Tank team

PS: There’s still time to enroll as an Observer in our current Ask Like A Pro cohort. PLEASE JOIN US! We *may* also offer a summer 2023 cohort. If you are interested in the summer cohort please let us know!