It seems like I go through these cycles where for a while I will hardly get any research done, and then will suddenly start working really hard. It’s like I’m a 2-state system:
State 1:
- Go in late, come home early. Take days off.
- Twiddle around at work, reading news sites or blogs.
- Uninterested in astronomy.
- Hang out with people on weekends.
- Really slow progress on research.
State 2:
- Go in somewhat earlier, stay late. Go in on Saturdays.
- Fairly productive at work.
- Interested in my research.
- Withdraw from social activities.
- Lots of productivity.
I don’t like either of these extremes. I don’t want to spend all of my time working, to the detriment of socialization. On the other hand, it is not cool to be a State 1 slacker either. I have been in State 1 for several weeks now, and I think my collaborators are going to start wondering soon why I’m not contributing very much. I need to strike a balance.
Um, this doesn’t mean y’all should stop trying to distract me from work. I would take that personally. :)