Challenges

I had to decide what to do about my outstanding annual leave, prior to my retiral at the end of June. So, I decided to take a very long weekend off (Thursday to Tuesday – you could call it a short week), to use up a few days.

• Today, Wednesday, was a research day – as usual. I finished drafting a research paper. With no deadlines today, I allowed the ‘intellectual’ work to merge into a bit of eBay searching at 5 pm, to find the perfect specimens for a couple of PowerPoint images. (It was a rather complicated operation, involving looking for recordings in a particular year, in the British Newspaper Archive, and then searching for those titles on eBay. Not as easy as you’d think!)
• My Out-of-Office was set at 5 pm.
• Now, here goes. Tomorrow is holiday. I should be researching tomorrow morning – and the new, semi-retired me will still be researching on Thursdays. In fact, I have a PowerPoint to prepare, but – tomorrow is holiday. I have to get used to not working even when it ISN’T the weekend.
• Friday to Tuesday are, likewise, holiday.

HOW AM I GOING TO KEEP AWAY FROM MY RESEARCH UNTIL NEXT WEDNESDAY? A WHOLE WEEK?!

3 Challenges for the Nearly Semi-Retired Researcher

For my first challenge, I have to resist leaping out of bed early tomorrow morning. I have an audio book to finish – the Slow Productivity book – and a paperback about ultra-processed foods to continue reading, so I should manage this – providing I have enough tea to keep me going.

And my second challenge is to eat as little ultra-processed food as possible, so food prep might occupy me a bit more than usual. The trick will be to strike a balance between healthy eating and actually benefitting from more free time.

Lastly – might I dust off the bike? We’ll have to see about that.