There is a lot going on. Following my wife’s suggestion around Christmas, and after a lot of consideration, I’ve made a formal request to cut my work days from 5 to 4. Things haven’t been enjoyable for a while because I’ve not been busy and there is a catch-22 at play. The less busy I am, the worse I feel, but if I was fully busy I’d have hit my current burnout earlier. Taking every Friday off work will enable me to spend more time on my personal interests (as seen in The Quantum Garden), write more and connect with the things that make my heart sing. I’m completely sure that will benefit me and my employer. The tricky bit has been negotiating the minimum salary my family requires against the change in hours whilst being in a state of burnout and having no experience with this type of negotiation.
I have had to dig real deep. A day off recovering from my latest COVID vaccine didn’t help.
My philosophy reading has stalled somewhat and I find Plato’s Socrates a bit of a fool. Through my eyes it appears to me he makes a lot of broad and untested generalisations that support his arguments. That’s not the point but it does get in the way of my reading.
I want to do a little work each evening cleaning up my Digital garden notes and photos. This evening I managed to finalise a whole nine photos that had no information with them. There are 1,500 or so that need the same treatment and I have given myself permission to back off my standards. Close enough is good enough. What “close enough” represents I’m yet to find. Along the way I’m deleting photos with a vengeance. I’ve even deleted a couple from my Exchange to Denmark in 1988 and they are precious to me. Some of my daughters as well which are also precious. The thing is, I don’t need to keep bad photos from a set. I don’t need to keep six photos of my daughter in an Easter bonnet in a group of her classmates. One is enough to set the context. And if I can’t remember who you are, you’ve already gone from my mind and the photo may as well go as well.
Looking forward to Friday. Though a 4-day deal hasn’t been done yet, I’m taking the next three Fridays as annual leave. Might watch Gattaca and play some more Cities Skylines II.