I never tire of sharing this quotation by Clay Shirky:
I actually don’t want a “dream setup.” I know people who get everything in their work environment just so, but current optimization is long-term anachronism. I’m in the business of weak signal detection, so at the end of every year, I junk a lot of perfectly good habits in favor of awkward new ones.
I find that when I’m not tinkering with my digital environment, then I’m allowing my curiosity to atrophy, and I become stale in my habits.
This morning, even though I’ve been pretty happy for the last few years using DuckDuckGo as my default search engine, I’m trying searX. At the weekend, I replaced the Mi Fit app I’ve been using with my smartwatch with an open source one called Gadgetbridge.
The same goes with our physical environment. Moving things around and mixing things up keeps us sharp and prevents us from getting into a rut. I made a collage from old WIRED magazines recently, and put it on the wall next to my monitor. I’m thinking about replacing the Camus quotation above my desk and replacing it with one from Epictetus.
I agree with Shirky, who I had the pleasure of meeting this time last year: over-engineering the status quo leads to eventual irrelevance.
This post is Day 74 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Want to get involved? Find out more at 100daystooffload.com.
A podcast I listened to recently took the structure of a Q&A hosted by Jocelyn K. Glei. The theme was ‘tender discipline’ and another episode was referenced where she asks the question someone once asked her: who are you without the doing?
Earlier this week, I wrote a personal email to my wife for the first time in a long time. While we live together and are in constant communication either verbally or via a Telegram backchannel, sometimes things (kids, events, stuff) get in the way of having important conversations.
I kept the email short, saying that I’ve been talking for years about taking December off work. I told her that I’m done with 2020, that I don’t want to put any more energy into this year of all years.
As a result, we’ve worked out that Team Belshaw will be OK if I finish up my work next week and take three weeks off to stop… doing. That’s such a relief! I’ve spent the last couple of days checking with others that my gently downing tools won’t affect them too much.
The funny thing is that I’ll probably still end up doing things that look a bit like ‘work’. I’ll no doubt still head over to my office to do some writing. There’s a bunch of work-related reading I want to do. I’ll probably occasionally check in on the multiple Slack instances of which I’m a member. But mainly I’ll walk and think and just be.
I need to recharge, and realise that I’m privileged to be able to decide when to pick up and put down my work. Nevertheless, effective care for others starts with caring for ourselves. So I’m looking forward to spending more time with myself without the… doing.
This post is Day 71 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Want to get involved? Find out more at 100daystooffload.com
Back before the pandemic, when I ran out of steam sitting in my home office, I’d go somewhere else to work. Often that was a coffee shop, but sometimes it was the local library, or even the beach.
I don’t have the same flexibility now that it’s getting towards winter and we’re in the second Covid-related lockdown in the UK. So what is a remote worker to do when they’re feeling less motivated than usual?
Here’s three things that I do, just in case they’re useful for other people:
- Take a moment to reflect — what’s going on? I’m not suggesting a full OODA loop, but I consider how I’m feeling and why I’m not getting on with stuff. Is it because I don’t have anything to do (unlikely!) or because I’m not sure how to do it, or something else?
- Gain clarity — can I move somewhere else? I’ve realised that, pre-pandemic, moving physical location was a proxy for moving conceptual location. So can I go for a walk to figure things out? Or shut down something that is taking my attention (e.g. social network) and move it somewhere else (e.g. email/Slack)?
- Act — what can I do? If there’s something that needs clarifying, I try to gain that clarity as soon as possible. If not, I have to decide how comfortable I am in sitting in the uncertainty. If that’s the case, instead of ruminating, I act, often by doing something else. Like writing this blog post!
This might seem like the world’s most obvious advice, but the first step is the most important. A healthy introspection helps me move from feeling stuck to understanding what’s going on, and then to action.
This post is Day 61 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Want to get involved? Find out more at 100daystooffload.com
