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Sunday, May 01, 2005
A semester in the life
 
We all suffer from executive burnout from time to time. It's that point where you just have no interest whatsoever in continuing to work on whatever project you are on, and need to get away and work on something else, even if just for a little while.

Everyone has their own ways of coping with this event. Some people just get frustrated, but keep plowing on in hopes that they can finish it up just a little bit quicker and now have to worry about it. Others are able to put it aside for a while, and either focus on another task that needs to get done, or else concentrate on nothing important for a while, just letting your mind relax. Still others drop whatever it is they are doing, never to return again.

While an extreme case, Rootbeer Racinette of Gordon Korman's 'Losing Joe's Place' is a prime example of the last type. Whenever he gets stressed out with his current hobby, he immediately drops it, only to pick up a new one. Throughout the course of the book he manages to hit on photography, knitting, playing the harp, astronomy, philatily, charcoal drawing, competitive bubble blowing just to name a few.

I on the other hand, am much more of the middle type, unfortunately leaning towards the do nothing side of it, although I have been known to have fits of productivity while osstensibly avoiding some other task. Often times this appears in the form of cleaning, be it my room, the apartment, or even my email inbox. I have a slightly obsessive need for things to be neat. They don't have to be perfect, and I can tolerate a lot of disorder, but something in me just wants the corners of piles to be straight.

And to those in the first catergory, I'm often impressed by how you manage to stay on task, even when I know parts of you are screaming for something else to do. I know it's not easy, and its hard for me to do sometimes, but its something I'm working on. I think it is something I can do, as long as I push myself, and maybe as long as I don't post more on here to keep me in the middle group.


Comments:

Yeah, AR tendencies you have definitely. I'm more of the ignore-and-get-back-to-it-later kind. Unless there's-someone-after-my-next-situation, i will get it done even if it cost me my sanity. :P
 
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