Saturday, February 08, 2020

There'll be some changes made

This time of year, while not exactly hibernation, is the February slump. But as Sophie Tucker sings, there'll be some changes made today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw2bZFEztjc
  • I've been working on the same endless project (Project A) daily--daily--for 6 weeks and it isn't done, all while fending off an editor on a far more interesting and closer-to-done project, Project B. I just didn't want to give up. This stance made no sense: Project A doesn't even have a publisher (it's in a collection), and Project B is accepted. Well, this weekend I'm getting the final edits on Project B done because the issue is going to press. Does this mean I'm a quitter? Maybe, but I have to shake something up.
  • Because I was so bored with avoiding Project A, I had gone back to reading distraction stuff--advice columns, FB, etc. Am now stopping that, too, including less Twitter. All FB and Twitter do is make you angry or leave you feeling like a failure, not to mention calling attention to the death of democracy.
  • Much as I love hanging out with Spouse, if we watch a TV show together, he gets up after it's done and does something else. I sit there and look desperately for other distractions. I told Spouse that until I break the pattern, we need to change it up.
  • As gwinne has done, I'm making a few policies:
    • Truly not looking at email on weekends.
    • Answering email in batches. Letting my collaborators' emails, which can easily reach 15-20 a day, pile up and answering them in a batch. 
    • Walking every morning. I have too much energy to go to my desk right away, which is what I have been trying to do, and all I do is get anxious and fidgety. A walk calms me down. 
    • Beginning by reading, as gwinne is doing. 
Back to work!

4 comments:

heu mihi said...

I deactivated FB (again) on Thursday night. This is always the best possible move. Don't know why I ever go back! Here's to changes--

undine said...

heu mihi--Absolutely! I haven't done it yet--I have a lot of cousins to keep up with--but it's not what you'd call a happy experience going there. I usually take a 6-week break in the spring & may reassess after that.

gwinne said...

Yay for this list (and thanks for the link.)

I like the addition of TRULY to you email strategy. It is just so easy to open that inbox.

I’m also making sure I get a workout in daily.

Thanks for reminding me that I have a deferred b project I need to proof and get back.. oops.

undine said...

gwinne--I have a couple of colleagues who are addicted to sending long emails with urgent-to-them messages over the weekend, which does not mean that they are urgent to me. The only way out is not to look.