Back

I'm back from my vacation to Spain. Curiously, I don't have any new gimmicks for you, but I would be glad to post on any relevant topic of your choice. Suggest topics in the comment box and I'll choose those I want to address over the next several days.

Bad at Vacations

I'm not that good at taking vacations. If I were really good, I would not be blogging now from my vacation in Spain. Here in Pontevedra I went to a museum where they showed some statues from the workshop of Mestre Mateo de Compostela. Of course, I thought immediately of Lorca's mention of this medieval master-craftsman in "Juego y teoría del duende."

Trabajar sin estar trabajando

When I am in Spain (like now) I try not to do any work-work, but I end up discussing ideas with colleagues here, buying books, speaking Spanish, and gaining some mental distance from my projects by seeing what they look like on this side of the Atlantic ocean. They sometimes look very different indeed. I think that if I were even better at taking vacations, my capacity for work would improve by just that much more.

One Thing I Learned on my Vacation

was that I didn't have to sit in front of the computer when I wasn't working. That lesson can carry over into everyday working life. Try to only use the computer to do what you have to do. No random surfing or facebook. Don't go into your office, turn on your computer for an hour, and avoid work during that time.

Anticipatory Vacation

It was hard for me to concentrate in the week before my vacation. The "cycling through" technique was good because my attention was wandering anyway. I was already anticipating the vacation itself, putting myself in that mind frame.

By the same token, the final days of a vacation can be less restful, because of the anticipation of going back to work. I actually cut the vacation short and began working a few days earlier than planned, because I could not stand having so many pending tasks--a tenure case and a peer review of an article for a journal, my sabbatical application...

Cycling Through

Before my recent vacation I tried a technique of "cycling through" all 8 chapters of my book, looking at them and revising them /adding to them one by one. I could spend as much or as little time as I wanted on each chapter during any given day. I wanted to get all the project into my head at once before not thinking about it all for a while. Whether I was able to write very many words on any single chapter was secondary.

Normally, it isn't good to scatter and fragment one's attention like this.

End of Vacation

If everything will have gone as planned, today should be the last day of my vacation. I'm hoping the vacation went well, though I don't know yet, because I'm writing this a month early to provide with uninterrupted content.

Stealth (second cycle)

I tried to reproduce my "stealth attack" mode of work on Monday, June 28. I decided that week I would write my preface. I had about 700 words and doubled that the first day, working about an hour and a half, from about 9 to 10:30 a.m. The rest of the day I just worked on some blog posts and relaxed. Eventually the metaphor of "stealth" will lose its potency and there will be no difference between a stealth attack and a normal day of work. In the meantime, I will try to exploit the verbal suggestion of the word as much as possible. I began rather late (9 rather than 7), so I lost a bit of momentum.

I've decided after my vacation (ending July 31) I will work on my courses and my sabbatical application. I have to figure out a way of making a course as good as an article. This is hard for me, because it means sustaining attention from August to December, preparing about 30 separate class meetings. I have a hard time keeping my intensity and organization for that long a stretch.

Digital Vacation

I'm also going to make this a digital vacation, checking email only once a day and not surfing the web at all.