Three days! That’s the amount of time I spent ‘out of office’ last week. Still working, albeit from a mobile office on location. I reviewed some papers, worked on conceptual figures for a paper I’m a part of, and even looked at some data. It was, however, also working remotely, with limited (mobile) internet access. It is at times like these that you become aware of how much we depend on the internet.
What the 🦆 do we do without it?
I can tell you what: you create to-do lists. Lists that become increasingly long, filled with endless tiny tasks that require some connection.
The list became so long that I couldn’t memorize them. Or count them on both hands. Things got out of control.
Then I let this list simmer and stew over the weekend. Just long enough so that its contents or the value and time they would consume blurred a bit.
Long enough for it to become a mind-racing thunderbeast that kept me up all night. (Admittedly, the exposure to hours of driving on busy highways in the dark didn’t help either.)
By the time it was morning and time to rise and shine the beast list had grown to a 300-page document that made my dissertation seem like a flyer.
By the time I looked at my actual list, it had about fifteen to-dos.
Ten of them I finished today.
The remaining five I might beef up a little overnight, and then finish tomorrow.
This brain. God I wish I could just shut it up sometimes.
Robin Heinen 