managing distractions + taking time for relaxing

 A key strategy to maximizing my productivity is to not check email. And yet, the past week, I found myself jumping into my email immediately. Old habits are hard to break.

It's not surprising, though, given the past year and the massive increase in emails as a mode of communication. Given that I can't just pop down the hall to chat with a colleague, I send an email (though, lately, a text in order to set up a phone call). My brain has also come to associate email with doom--I literally opened my email inbox the other day with a sense of dread, and while that paricular moment was met with pleasant emails, a few hours later something terrible popped into my inbox. I tried to ignore it (chanting "I'm on sabbatical"), but it was still hard to deal with.

Anyway, I plan to return to my method of ignoring emails for the first half of the day in order (or even completely one or more days a week) to spend time on my writing and reading tasks. And since I paid for a Freedom subscription, I'll be using that in order to block what I need to block (phone apps, websites, email). If you try to go to your email when you have the block running, you get this pleasant screen:

Which, charming. I am free of the emails. I recommend buying this program if you're trying to find ways to block out the distractions--I know that they are to be avoided, and yet I still get sucked in. It's not my fault--it's all the habits, pressures, and design of technology working to disrupt my brain and steal my attention. So I've got to fight back with technology and the other tools I have access to. My next step will be to schedule my blocked times ahead of time.

Anyway, basically, I had a productive morning: I submitted my IRB (Institutional Review Board) application in order to begin my new research project. I reviewed a book chapter and figured out some recommendations for my team to revise. Mostly, I am wrapping up my deliverables from August, and I feel like I'm on track.

I'm also fully embracing the flexibility in my time to do other things besides work. After last year, I exited the spring semester bruised and feeling neglected, abused, and overworked. It was a rough year for a lot of reasons, and it continues to be rough for my colleagues, so I'm grateful for the chance to step away a little to shelter from the continued onslaughts. 

This morning, I read an article in Inside Higher Ed about using sabbatical for rest--and I agree with the points. We have so much pressure on us to do, do, do, and go, go, go, and produce allllll the things...well, it makes it hard to also see resting as a priority, even on sabbatical (which, by the way, the word sabbatical is related to "rest" or "break"). Thus, despite living in a culture that values giving all of yourself to your work and your productivity, rest is something I should be considering while on sabbatical. For me, this takes the form of playing with my kids, sleeping in a little, exercising, and reading many, many books. All awesome things.

And on that note, time to get up and move around and do a little exercise! I have to run later because the air quality is horrible at the moment, so I can stretch and counteract the sitting I'm doing with a little barre workout in my basement.