I posted this on Facebook yesterday:
I like the work I do and this is one reason why I tend to work a lot. As I also usually work on many different things, there’s always something to do, it never gets boring. For several years now, I’ve also been working during the summers, teaching on pre-sessional courses (which I love doing, but that’s another blog post). When I take off time to go on holiday with my family, it’s usually more a change of location/office for me, with reduced hours of work, but never without any. That’s how it’s been for some time now and it’s been good actually, as I can be in nice locations any time I want as long as there is internet access, and I don’t have to worry about work not being done, not earning an income, etc. A dream!
On the downside of it, I haven’t had any real time off for very long and I seem to have lost the ability to do nothing… or so I thought.
This year, we are in our lovely timeshare flat again, which has got thermal water in the bathroom and is situated in a lovely village where cows eat grass and wild flowers on the pasture and produce the fattest, tastiest milk, where the eggs and vegetables are organic, the cheese is made of the tastiest …, where you can walk in surrounding hills and collect tea leaves… You get the idea. AND, for once, this is at a time when I don’t have much to do as some projects have just finished and others are not urgent.
So, I was sitting on the balcony yesterday and suddenly realised that I still am able to do nothing! Hence the Facebook update above 🙂 And I noticed how good it actually is not to be doing anything (work-related).
Then, when I wasn’t doing anything or thinking of anything particular again later (yes, I’m enjoying this now), I suddenly had lots of ideas pop into my mind — work-related ideas! Ideas for new projects, for new blog posts, etc. So, after all, it seems that doing nothing actually means doing a lot.
Now, back to counting the shades of green… or the sheep…
In the meantime, when and where do you have your moments of doing “nothing”?
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