Skip to main content

Unplugged?

I keep reading that I shouldn't check email in the morning lest I ruin a good run of productive breakfast-fueled time. Of course, I can't do that. I am too afraid I'll miss something from an editor, or something fun to read, or anything. Given how much time I spend alone working at home, email is almost a life blood.

But then there's the time suckers like, say, reading blogs, :), and organizing my sock drawer (which I swear I will do if pressed to procrastinate.)

Mostly though it's email. I am grateful I don't have a Crackberry. But I do occasionally load up IM (because The Prince prefers to chat mid-day this way). I'm starting to wonder if I'm actually more productive tethered, or just more stressed. And if I'd be more productive if I pulled the plug -- if even for a few hours a day.

Would love to hear from those who are cheerfully floating without their digital leash...

Comments

Anonymous said…
I check my email every morning :-) I can some how get up 20 minutes before my three children to check my email - but not to go to the gym ;) go figure !
Sugarmama said…
I find that I can EITHER cruise around online OR do the projects I like. I just don't have enough free time in a day to do both, no matter how hard I try to be disciplined about my computer time.
Anonymous said…
PULL the blug! I just signed off facebook (for lent or something) bc that's become my latest time sink. Keep on reading and keep on writing but oh, how the hours do wither away. and if you can avoid the bb, good for you. I'm hooked on bb emails - seems to save time and I'm firm about not reading/writing when i'm with the littlees. I've hung on to my paper calendar... good luck to you.sSs

Popular posts from this blog

Apologies for being incommunicado this week and hope none of you out there are too distraught not to be receiving the usual almost-daily MotV missives. The reason for the silence is that I'm up to my neck, metaphorically-speaking, in research papers for my first grad course assessment. This experience has made me realise how rigorously un-academic I am in my thinking. It has also illuminated how reliant I am on red wine in order to get through endless evenings typing furiously on my laptop, not to mention the fueling of increasingly colorful curses that I feel obliged to aim at the University's online library system which consistently refuses to spit out any of the journals I'm desperate for (I refuse to believe this is 100% due to my technical incompetence...) Oh well, if this is the price one has to pay in order to realize a long-cherished dream then it's not all that bad... No one ever said a mid-life career change would be easy. Wish me luck!

Environment

Being an expat, a favorite topic of conversation is 'where I/you want to go next?' or 'When do you plan to go home?' It's a good question. I'm not sure I want to stay in Dubai for ever, but I'm also not sure about how long I want to be here for or where else I would like to live. For almost the first time ever, I have no fixed plans apart from keeping my eyes and mind open to interesting opportunities. And as to going 'home', I have no idea where that is. Constantly moving around as a child left me with the feeling that 'home' is wherever I am right now, so in effect 'home' could be anywhere. The longest I've ever lived in one fixed place was 18 years in London, on and off, but that doesn't feel like 'home' either - I love going back to see family and friends, and it's a great place to shop, but that's about it. I have a great love for California, which is where my extended family is from (and where most of the