How long does it take to shed decade-old habits of working five (or more) days a week and completing multiple tasks simultaneously? The answer, it seems, is roughly nine months.
This week, my work commitments seeped into the time I typically reserve to work on this newsletter. I had anticipated this situation but had believed that I would be able to work on this newsletter on the side. Sadly, this was a gross overestimation of my multi-tasking capabilities.
It turns out that writing, unlike a lot of the work I used to do in my earlier professional life1, requires complete and uninterreupted attention. The white noise of a Zoom call is surprisingly distracting and far from being inspirational background music to creative writing.
Thus, dear reader, it pains me to admit that I have nothing novel to offer you this week. Also, while it brings me no joy to heap further misery upon you, I should disclose that next week’s newsletter is also in peril of being a washout. My aforementioned work commitments are scheduled to continue into the next week, and as I have now discovered, I do not possess the faculties to execute more than one task at a time2. If it provides any solace, my current work project should conclude in a couple of weeks’ time and normal programming will resume thereafter.
I know this is difficult news to bear, but duty demands. After all, one needs to earn money to be able to sit in hipster cafes and pay obnoxious sums for artisanal coffee, while writing sarcastic essays about people who sit in hispter cafes and pay obnoxious sums for artisanal coffee.
In the meantime, if for some inexplicable reason you do not follow me on Twitter/Instagram, you may have missed my subtle advertising of having a piece published in Scroll.
So, please read (or re-read) this piece in lieu of this week’s newsletter and feel free to check the QTs and replies for some entertaining troll content!
Disclaimer: To all my past colleagues (and clients) reading, this is a joke.
Hitting the mid-30s tends to slow you down.
Please don't do as I did, and let trivial things like making money to eat and pay rent get underfoot of The Real Work.