A, perhaps The academic paradox: or, bring on the typing monkeys!
Why is it that so often, when you have a really good work day, the next day you just cannot get anything done? Yesterday I spent all day being super-productive-girl, and today other than dropping my course pack off and dealing with a little email, nothing. And the task I have to finish from yesterday is pretty mindless, too, so it's not like there's some massive writing anxiety there or anything. Just a little feeling of time pressure, that if I could get this stupid thing off my desk I might be able to move on to other, far more important and interesting things before the semester starts. And I started the day with the absolute best intentions in the world, getting up early (9:20!!! shock!!), getting in to the office before noon, settling right down.
And here it is, 6 pm, and I've just not started and damnit, it's 6 pm. I wanna go home. Actually, I wanna go to the hardware store and get some more shit for the kitchen--I feel awfully antsy and restless today, which isn't helping with the "settle down and do your mindless but lengthy bureaucratic task that really should be off-loaded onto a machine, except that there isn't one" problem. I would go with the "I guess I just prefer to feel under pressure all the time" theory except that that really isn't the case, and my gut tells me it's not why a big work day almost inevitably provokes a slothful backlash. I don't know what it is, but it's annoying. I think in this case it has to do with the sense that this thing I have to finish, which really could be done by a typing monkey, is something that is such a huge and massive waste of my time that I somehow believe the typing monkey is going to show up and take it off my hands. Where are you, oh typing monkey???
But you know, fuck it. If the typing monkey is busy elsewhere, I'm going to get out of this office, where clearly I will do no work today, and I am going to go home and see if I can talk Mr. B. into going to the hardware store with me (open 'til 9!!) and maybe if I am a very very good girl indeed I can work on mindless bureaucratic crap tonight in bed. Maybe I can pretend to be a monkey while I do it.
Oh well. Thank god it's only Tuesday.
And here it is, 6 pm, and I've just not started and damnit, it's 6 pm. I wanna go home. Actually, I wanna go to the hardware store and get some more shit for the kitchen--I feel awfully antsy and restless today, which isn't helping with the "settle down and do your mindless but lengthy bureaucratic task that really should be off-loaded onto a machine, except that there isn't one" problem. I would go with the "I guess I just prefer to feel under pressure all the time" theory except that that really isn't the case, and my gut tells me it's not why a big work day almost inevitably provokes a slothful backlash. I don't know what it is, but it's annoying. I think in this case it has to do with the sense that this thing I have to finish, which really could be done by a typing monkey, is something that is such a huge and massive waste of my time that I somehow believe the typing monkey is going to show up and take it off my hands. Where are you, oh typing monkey???
But you know, fuck it. If the typing monkey is busy elsewhere, I'm going to get out of this office, where clearly I will do no work today, and I am going to go home and see if I can talk Mr. B. into going to the hardware store with me (open 'til 9!!) and maybe if I am a very very good girl indeed I can work on mindless bureaucratic crap tonight in bed. Maybe I can pretend to be a monkey while I do it.
Oh well. Thank god it's only Tuesday.
