Weeknotes 2

This is a little late, but since I'm in charge, who's going to punish me?

It was one of those weeks at work where you do lots of stuff yet end up with nothing to show for it. It's something they never tell you about working for agencies when you sign up; you're mostly prepared for hard work but you're less ready for sheer amount of stuff you have to simultaneously do and think about.

I've been finding that multitasking leads to skimming over the surface of thing without getting into anything with the proper amount of rigour. Email, etc really doesn't help. So it's time to consciously go back to doing one thing well at a time and blocking email and internet for decent periods during the day.

In the swimming training quest, I had one of those days where everything felt wrong. It's a curious thing about human physiology that you can perform so differently in the space of a couple if days. The 'wrong' day was hellish, it felt like I wad swimming through treacle. Then two days later, everything was fluid, even the pain felt good. Odd, very odd.

I also made a decision to read magazines less for a bit. I've been reading the Economist and Prospect, along with two weekend papers, and it just doesn't leave time for anything else when you have a baby. There are too many books on my shelf waiting to be opened.

Comments

[John]

Is it physiology or psychology? I recently tried to lift the blues via exercise and found that my mind just kept sabotaging me. Next day when the mood was better, the exercise was way more productive. That was an extreme case, but I wonder if you think it's a factor at lesser extremes too?

Good call on the magazines. Not enough focus in them - even specialist ones. And too much of a single voice as well if you read them over protracted periods.

[northern]

Good point on physiology v psychology. In my exeperience it's kind of both - the body does follow the mind.
Working days really do seem to depend on your mood and overall mental state - if I'm stuck I just spend time with something green, I'm not convinced it really makes my mind more creative, but th act fools the brain into being more innovative than it really is.
It's certainly the case that your mental state governs performance, rituals provide a false sense of confidence for example. But there are still days when you're body refuses to work, or it decides to perform out of it's skin. I don't believe in biorythms or anything, though..