My work-related travel has increased in the past few months; I’m out of town about half the time nearly every week. Setting aside the drawbacks of being away from home, my current project has an acceptable balance of challenge and satisfaction.
Outside of work, though, I find I’m a little withdrawn. I’m not maintaining much contact with other people and other ideas, and that tends to be reinforcing in an unhelpful way. And I haven’t posted anything to my whiteboard for two months.
There’s some relationship there — if I haven’t been connecting with thoughts or with people, then I don’t have much to write about. Nor do I come across things to turn over in my mind. Not writing, in turn, can leave me less mindful of what’s going on, and so my awareness tends to atrophy.
In a related vein, managers at the client site have been working on performance reviews for their staffs. I don’t always take time to review my own goals, progress, and performance.Â
Noticing what I haven’t been doing (especially if I say I want to be doing it) is a first step in reviewing where I am and taking steps to move to where I want to be.
I can relate to this. On the plus side, when the unproductive feelings and withdrawal subside, I am nearly overwhelmed with productivity and creativeness. I often wonder if my antisocial periods are self-inflicted…a way to get creative again. There’s probably a name for this in the physicians desk reference ; )