Whut! That’s you-know-who at HPSN holding a laryngoscope. Had so much fun at the conference; gained lots of valuable feedback about what Cam and I have been working so hard on for the past several months.
The past week has been a muddle; long hours, disc golf (pictures are up!) and the Oscars last weekend; last-minute conference preparation and a 9:30pm bedtime Monday; 16-hour work days in Tampa Tuesday & Wednesday; trying to get back into the swing of regular work-life and coordinating new Ultimate Frisbee players on Thursday; Friday, back to Tampa to see a hockey game. Thank god the Laundry becons.
Seems I’m always doing two things at once. This morning I became conscious of it while I was trying to listen to a radio show, watch a movie trailer and read a blog. It just wasn’t working. I ended up turning off the movie trailer, turning off the radio show and replaced it with music, and read the blog. Ah, much nicer.
I think this is in part why I have such a hard time making progress on my books. Scratch that, I know it. I actually enjoy moments like these — doing the Laundry — because it means I am physically stuck in a single place. So I can’t possibly be distracted by anything else. Weird as this sounds, I blame my lack of book reading on Sarasota’s poor public transit. I used to get the majority of my reading done on the bus in Victoria; Sarasota’s busses stop running at 6pm on the weekend. (It hasn’t been all bad. I finished Fast Food Nation back in January; I’m never eating ground beef again.)
Once I get into something though, forget it. You could be knocking a house over beside me and I wouldn’t notice. It’s almost like I operate in two modes.
I explain it away by telling myself that I’ve adopted this behaviour because, in the tech industry I work in, I’m constantly being presented with new information while at same time getting blocked (causing a “sideways” branch into another task). But I’m worried it’s kind of excessive.
Oops. I should really change over the Laundry.
Does anyone else have such a hard time with concentration/distraction?