First Week

End of the first full week back at work (although not the first full week back at home). Time to take a step back and take stock of how things are going. (This is one of those annoying self-centered introspective blog posts that you probably want to skip if you just read for the book reviews. *grin*)

I'm exhausted this evening, I think because I started working the moment I got home from the train ride and have been doing a flurry of "coming back home" things ever since. That's been a good use of initial momentum. I have a physical appointment made, picked up my mail, have walked every night on the treadmill since I've gotten back, am mostly unpacked, and have taken care of a pretty good variety of random chores. That's definitely a positive for the week (and since I didn't get as much done on major projects, I need to stress to myself how much of a positive it is).

Also a positive is eating habits. I think changing habits is all about taking advantage of energy and momentum. If I'm thinking about something, that's the time to see just how much I can do about it, the time to pay close attention, and the time to carefully monitor what might be sustainable. So far, I'm eating far better than I had been, without a lot of effort. As long as that's feeling comfortable, I'm going to keep it up, and I'm doing well enough that I have some distance to slip as long as I can keep the slip gradual and under control and not as backlash. (The trick is to not push, just take advantage of momentum, so that I don't get into the guilt and guilt backlash cycle.)

One interesting discovery is that, yes, I really wasn't all that thrilled to come back to work, and that didn't change when I got back. It's not that I'm unhappy, but I'm not raring to go do a ton of work for Stanford right now either. Also, all the pressure and insufficient time problems are still there, just like they were before vacation. However, I'm dealing with all of that much better, and I'm easing myself back into things rather than burning out again right away. The month of January is going to be painful and a lot of deadlines are simply going to slip, but I'm also not going to do work on the weekends and I'm going to do a minimum of work in the evenings. I need more space to relax, calmly think about what other projects I want to work on, and read and play video games more.

Of course, another thing that will make this month weird is that the football playoffs are in full swing, so the next weekend and some of the weekend after are spoken for and simply need to be worked around.

So far, so good. Surprises are tiredness and the realization that the problems I was having before break weren't just being burned out. But the strategy is working so far.