This is a hard one to answer clearly, as you will realize once you are in the industry a few years, your work flow can change dramatically on a day to day basis. Let me give you an example. Last week, I spent the majority of the early part of the week focusing on preparing for a plant trial. Making sure the raw material specs were in place, the process parameters were entered into a system where plant engineers, maint. engineers could sign off on it and agree with the conditions I proposed. I then spent the latter part of the week conducting the plant trial, submitting samples to the analytical lab for analysis, and having meetings discussing the things noted during the trial. Earlier this week I was going over a business proposal from our marketing department on a new development opportunity, reading through it, and giving my feedback on the viability of the project. Later this week I plan to do research on this proposal, and see if there are already patents or litigation in place to verify we are not over-stepping our boundaries on said process. Also, lots of meetings in between on just about everything. You will rarely focus on one thing for a straight month or two, it's a matter of being able to multi-task your projects, along with doing all of these other things. Hope that gives you a better idea of some of the things I do, and the things engineers and chemists do in research and development sectors.