Confessions of a recovering workaholic, pt. 2

The last fortnight has been really good. Despite being at a conference for the larger part of one week, I have managed to mostly stick to socializing, reading, worrying about being completely unprepared for the two talks I was giving and actually preparing for those talks.

For the first time in years, I have actually finished more than one book in a single week.

Confessions of a recovering workaholic, pt. 1

As I’ve mentioned before, I am a workaholic. Working is my default state of mind. I pretty much do it whenever there is no particular reason to do something else (and usually even then).

It’s not about the results. It doesn’t really matter what I work on. In fact, I often procrastinate and work on things that aren’t particularly important.

I’m trying to break the habit, with mixed success. For the last week or so, I haven’t spent any spare time working on code. Usually I only manage this during my vacation, when I simply don’t have any access to a computer.

It’s been a relief in a way, but also immensely frustrating. Not writing any code makes me feel unproductive, anything else makes me feel like I’m wasting my time. It makes me feel extremely guilty.

On the other hand, it has been very rewarding to finally do some things I have been putting off for so long. I’ve finally organized the mess in the other rooms of my apartment. For the first time in years, I’ve managed to pick up a novel for more than an hour. In a previous life I was an avid reader, but for the last few years I’ve pretty much only read books when I was away from my usual surroundings.

Workingman’s Blues #2

I am very prone to procrastination, and have been for as long as I can remember.

This post goes into the background of procrastination and how to overcome it. I’ll stop blogging for now and see if I can get back to work. Or perhaps I should go for another coffee, first…