Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Procrastination

I'm not quite sure how it happened, but my life and my job have gotten in the way of living my life and doing my job. Suddenly I have developed quite a list: letter for Josh, two letters for Sylvia, six articles for Loren, a presentation for Fritz... These things have all been staring me down for close to a month now without much if any progress, and all of them are sort of extra-curricular. Things that come on top of the normal load.

I got to tell you too, I am becoming nostalgic for my project management days. At least then all of the jobs had an end. You might be buried to well over your head from time to time, but at least there was real turnover in projects, and eventually - although it wasn't great for the shop - things would dependably slow down.

This gig I have now never ends. Kevin likes to say that the academic gig is good because every couple of months you get to start over. That's really not the case though. That really has to do with coursework, and in that respect it is true. I could however stay busy 40 hours a week, 12 months a year and never really even get to course work. Recruiting, marketing, troubleshooting, program development, advising, these are more than a full time job themselves. The worst part is that they are always there, and I rarely have time to get to them because of the day to day of coursework - and production.

Unfortunately they can't be ignored forever or things start to fall apart. This is a source of stress in what should be a nearly stress free gig.

And then of course there's the non-career list, it has the same kind of every day and extra-every day items too. House, pets, life, the wedding - that stuff could be a full time job even if I didn't have a job.

Ever had so much to do that you couldn't do anything? Welcome to my world.

OK, back on your heads.

5 comments:

Peg said...

I'll quote you: "This is a source of stress in what should be a nearly stress free gig." Who was the genius that sold you on your job with the premise that it would be a "nearly stress free gig?" You're a teacher! (Wonder what your dad has to say about that.)

Sorry things are piling up for you these days. Here's to it getting better, sooner.

BabelBabe said...

I've always loved that joke; thanks for the laugh.

David, david, David...you came back to CMU. Did you TRULY expect little stress? Ah, my sweet naive one. Hang in there, and remember, you can only really do one thing at a time.

Plus, you're getting married soon. Wedding trumps all, didn't anyone tell you that? : )

Anonymous said...

i thought the queen of spades trumps all?...i can never remember

dean-"worst euchre partner ever"-o

Katy said...

actually, the right bower (Jack of the trump suit) trumps all.
-Katy "I know just enough euchre to play at the second table at BEERS"

BabelBabe said...

Jesus, Katy, you must really know what you're talking about, false modesty and all, because my in-laws, the card sharps that they are, blather about bowers all the time. But what the hell do I know? I haven't played a real card game in fifteen years (hearts on a ski trip, very drunk) unless you count my riveting round of Go Fish with my four year old last night?