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    The first time you teach a course it takes way more than 20% of your time, as you are finding out. The second time it becomes more reasonable. When I did teach, it was about 1 day of prep per lecture the first time. The second time the prep was 90% done (things always could use some tweaking). Commented Mar 17, 2025 at 19:13
  • Related to the first-time prep comments, do you know if you will be teaching the same course every year? Commented Mar 18, 2025 at 3:28
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    Do you have grad students yet? Postdocs? Research staff? Being a PI entails different tasks and responsibilities compared to what's done by these group members. Commented Mar 18, 2025 at 3:45
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    Admittedly I am in a different country (UK), but your university's expectations do not sound reasonable to me. In my experience one course per semester would correspond to a 40% teaching workload (which is standard here). Commented Mar 18, 2025 at 10:08
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    My university has the same formula -- one course = 20% full time workload = 8 hours per week -- except that we teach 3 courses per semester (this is an R2). It took me a long time to realize that the formula is pure fiction, particularly given the expectations in my department as to teaching quality, and the wide range of new and different courses I was assigned. That didn't solve the problem of how to manage time, but at least I stopped feeling inadequate that I couldn't complete all my teaching duties within the "allotted" time. Commented Mar 20, 2025 at 17:40