I’m currently going through an experience that I’m sure many people go through at this time of year.
It isn’t possible for me, or for many other people, to leave on summer vacation with a clean plate and a clear mind. There are inevitably things that continue on while we are away and there are things that we need to pick back up on our return. These things aren’t just ‘work’ thinks, there are many things outside of my workplace that are also in the same place.
I try not to multi-task anything because I know that I’m very poor at it (I’m also quite sceptical of anyone who tells me that they are). But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t things which are part completed or tasks that follow-on from other tasks left floating in mid-air.
The problem is that sometimes it’s not always easy to pick up where we left off and there are follow-on tasks that we know are there but can’t remember quite what they were. We have lists and write reminders to help us, but they don’t always quite get us there.
One good example of this are the set of blog posts that I’ve been writing on my changing workplace. If you are a follower of these updates you will have noticed that I haven’t written a new one for a couple of weeks. The truth is that I wrote the last post prior to my two week break and scheduled it to be published on the first week of absence with the intention of writing another one on the week of my return. The problem is, I’ve forgotten where I was up to. The thread of thought and the progress along that thread has slipped out of my memory and I now need to go back before I can go forwards.
It doesn’t help that I’m a better starter than I am a finisher. I’d rather pick up a new thread than finish the old one. So sometimes I get part way through a thread and just leave it there.
So apologies that you haven’t seen more meaningful updates from me, they will be coming, but it’s going to take me a little while to get back up to speed.
(I’ve also got some photographs to upload from our holiday, not many this time, but it’s another job I need to get around to)
Graham Chastney 