the duration of your commitment to them is three years, that can be made more granular by looking at how many meetings you will have, whether those meetings are a day long or a couple days long, and whether you will have to travel or not.

    Then, at least in my case: [**multiply that time estimate by a factor of 2-3**]{}. Know yourself well enough to know when you have regular mistakes you make, like underestimating how long things take, which is something I do all the time.

-   [**What am I willing to give up for this opportunity?**]{} This question is a rough one, but it’s one you must ask. As a grad student, then postdoc, then faculty, you will repeatedly have more things on your to do list than you can handle. When you take on a new opportunity or commitment, there will be a cost– most of the time, most people don’t articulate what that is when they take something on, and they end up bearing the cost in some way they didn’t anticipate. It could be something simple, like you will have to work an hour later each day, but often these simple things are not 