Wednesday, June 29, 2011

A change is as good as a rest, But a nap is better yet.

One of the truisms I often lean on is "A change is as good as a rest." Focusing on one activity for too long tends to decrease the effectiveness of the concentration, for me. In other words the longer I do something, the more often and more easily and often I get distracted and have to haul my concentration back to the main task. Errors also increase. This has always been true for me, even when doing homework as a kid. At such times I switched to another work task or homework subject and managed to keep working quite a bit longer.
So. I have been mostly focusing on two things the past few weeks. Massive ebay auctions and the kaleidoscope shawl/cape. I have been feeling pretty tired and logy, forcing myself through the work knitting and the last job of combining auctions for the recent ebay sales. Yesterday I told Oscar I was going to take a mini vacation and not do anything except pleasure knitting and some tv, since we are taking a bit of time off ebay over the holiday weekend. I did 16 reviews this month, which met my personal quota of a review every two days, so I felt I could take a break from review-writing as well.
Except I guess I hate not being productive. Sitting and watching the tube while messing around on the computer or knitting mindlessly just left me feeling dissatisfied yesterday. So I started playing around with textures and colorwork while knitting a scrap-yarn shawl and wouldn't you know it, I have another proto-pattern on the pile. Then I messed around with a lace pattern I have always liked and created a border design that meshed well with it. Now I am reading a book on traditional lace shawl design and figuring out how to work the new lace pattern combo into a bottom-up shawl with beads. (yep, yet another proto-pattern).
And I started to read more review books last night, and jotted a few notes this morning.
Perhaps I wasn't tired at all, but just wrung out of hyper focus for the month.
I shouldn't be surprised. I have been working since I was about 12 years old and got a paycheck for detassling corn during the summer for Dekalb. I just prefer to feel productive, I guess. Or I get bored easily.
Then again, I do feel a bit like taking a nap even though I only got up a few hours ago. Yeah. A nap would likely help me be even MORE productive today :-}
Oscar gets a bit exasperated with me when I over do and get cranky. I bet he'd be in favor of me taking a nap.

3 comments:

Don Meyer said...

I believe that what you have described is generally true. I know that it applies to me, and I've known it for many years.

Ria said...

I'm very hyper and so I have trouble with idleness. My husband wishes I could learn to relax but it just makes me more hyper. I guess that's why the most "relaxing tv" I watch is sports or educational stuff. I knit through tv because my hands moving allows the rest of me to be still.

I can't do one thing for any length of time. The only way I finish anything is to bounce between a bunch of things.

Anonymous said...

That's how I function, too! A bit of beading, one cleanup chore, some computer play, another type of chore, something I've been putting off, some quilting, reading a bit.... that's how my day goes. I've always been that way. Now, if I could only prioritize better!! lol!

hugs, Ysabeau