Some days I feel like nothing that happened in my work day that is worth mentioning: it’s all ok, not great, not bad. What are you supposed to write on those days? I’ll force myself to walk through my work day, in order to see if by recalling experience I might find something interesting to write about.
I woke up after having slept 9½ hours, it felt nice. I always sleep all I can. Sometimes it’s six hours, others it’s ten. At the slightest hint of sleepiness I have a nap. Usually naps last between one and two hours. I love napping because A. dreams usually happen at nap-time and B. It resets my focus battery, and I always get most out of the day if sleepiness is absent.
I think schedules were invented in times of mechanical labour. We were required to act as machines, because there were no machines available to perform the work. A line of production can’t deal with unscheduled workers, but modern workplaces have little excuses to deny a nap in the middle of the day, yet it seems taboo to shut yourself in a conference booth for a nap. You’re allowed to take a drink if you’re thirsty, to eat a snack if you’re hungry, to use the restroom if you need to take a dump, but take a nap? Hell no, better sit on your chair with your eyes glazed over and click around mindlessly, because you’re getting none of that until you get back home.
When I think about these things, I think like a kid: when I grow up, I will give my children all the toys and all the candy they want, because parents are so unfair. And so I make the same vow: if I ever have a company, I’ll provide napping facilities.
Anyways, I digress.
I alternated day rituals with light work tasks, preparing coffee/ answering emails, breakfast/collecting resources, showering/light work and so on. Though pleasant, I rarely indulge in this kind of activity, because I’m much more efficient at single tasking than the alternative. I’m proudly not a productivity zealot (as anyone who reads this may know) but work is somewhat sacred to me, and like all things sacred it requires the proper space and time to perform.
Light, semi-focused work is work, of course, but it can’t compare to the cascading flow of deeply focused work. This kind of work renews the soul and often leaves you feeling pumped up rather than drained. It usually involves the full use of your body and your mind, and the computer feels more like a musical instrument rather than a tool. I absolutely love this feeling, for some people it reaches spiritual stages because it dissolves the ego: there is no “I” and the experience is that of chanelling something that wants to emerge from it’s own will. The person who creates, along with all his doubts and fears disappears, and the act is a rapture of oneness.
Anyways, I digress.
After lunch I took work to the study hall. As usual, my focus was better there, and I tackled a larger challenge I had in mind for some time. I won’t write about the details of the project, since this is client work (and both you and I find details of implementation boring). But an interesting observation came up:
In the Boolean Game I didn’t have to communicate or justify any decision with anybody, yet there is still inner conflict and communication between the self that designs, the self that implements, and the self that organizes and schedules things. What is interesting is that there is actually less conflict in collaboration than in solo work (at least so far). It’s still too early to tell, but I will most definetely put awareness here.
A larger amount of time goes towards documentation and justifying your decisions, since clients and collaborators don’t have direct access to your brain (fortunately!), and I’ve also seen that the larger the company, the more of this they need, because they must justify decisions across teams, even if they are not directly involved in the project. Some people say that you cannot over-communicate but I’ll be damned if it’s not evident just how much effort and time is put on communicating effectively. And, unfortunately, many creative people get caught in this machinery, and instead of creating they end up spending their entire day in meetings. Of course you can over-communicate!
Anyways, enough digressing, it’s time for bed.