Slow down

I’ve decided to slow down a bit on this blog. Notwithstanding all my crowing posts about work-life balance, it’s catching up with me.

I started a new job just over three months ago, which I am finding far more interesting and enjoyable than my old job. The main thing is that I am learning, and continuously interested in what I’m doing (even when it’s frustrating). But there are two side effects; firstly that in getting up to speed with a challenging role, I’m spending about an hour longer on work every day (mostly at home); and secondly, that because I’m finding it both interesting and challenging, my brain is engaged for even more extra time. So I find myself thinking about work (when not at work) far more than I ever used to.

It’s a classic example of the employment phenomenen described in the book Better than Sex (which I reviewed a few months ago) – for an employer, you want someone who is engaged with their work for as much of their waking day as possible, and I am starting to become that person. I’m not necessarily moving that way voluntarily, but when you find a job interesting, sometimes it’s hard not to.

So I’ve decided that since my home life is suffering from this, I’d rather it didn’t suffer from thinking up blog posts all the time, too, so I’ll only post when the spirit moves me, rather than feeling slightly guilty if I don’t post every day or so. I can’t imagine that I’ll manage to cure my blog addiction entirely, so feel free to check in once in a while! While I’ve managed to cure blogging as a procrastination device in the office (largely by moving somewhere where I’m actually “engaged” (to use current HR jargon)), I find it hard to go a day without checking my favourite blogs, even just for “10 minutes” (hah!) on the way to bed.