Stay Calm & Get Out the Brolly
CoVID-19 Day 43
It was a weekend. Yes it was a weekend and not everyone can say that. It was a weekend of few accomplishments, less than I'd hoped for but hey, who's counting. When you code software a minor breakthrough can take a major amount of time and small detail can take big thoughts. I had to put one problem down on Saturday and pick it up on Sunday because my brain just wasn't computing. You sometimes have to hold many things in your head and when your head's full of other stuff even simple tasks can be impossible. Sleeping on it works wonders. It's like passing it on to your backroom boys.
very little of what we have to do is so urgent it can't wait
That's what weekends are for. I've got a crowded Monday but I'm sure I have enough hours if I can knock the things down one by one. We punish ourselves for procrastinating but doing something today just because you can is not always the best option. Priorities are fluid because life has a habit of throwing things in the mix and very little of what we have to do is so urgent it can't wait. So keeping lists short is a good tactic and resisting pressure can make us more efficient. Our cognitive thought is clumsy and slow compared to the back office in our brains which is insanely fast. That's why overthinking is such a waste of time and energy. It's not that we're thinking too much but too much of it is conscious.
That's also why sharing ideas and concerns is such a good thing to do. You not only take the weight off your mind, voicing it is like dictating to your assistant (your unconscious brain). How many times have you asked someone a question and then come up with the answer yourself before they've had time to process it? How is it that your dog or cat solves problems for you? Even talking to brick walls is underrated.
I've been criticised for being too negative and that's something I bear in mind. Dwelling on the negative can be destructive as can voicing it in the wrong setting. But dealing with the downs on your own can be bad for your mental health. Sometimes they need to be parked and other times trashed but they have to go somewhere. We need to be more patient and mindful. We all have different ways of expressing ourselves.
So it's another sunny day with clear blue skies yet heavy clouds are over us. I gave up on the press conferences a while ago and don't read the government bulletins anymore. Social media is getting repetitive and the government lies are like elephant carcasses in the room.
The dry British humour is borne of trial and perseverance. It's an outward expression of our inward pessimism, a way of exorcising our doubts and fears and clearing the floor of debris to make room for hope. It's a way of acknowledging reality without having it dominate us. It's a way of telling the self-important to piss off and defiantly press on regardless.
What we have to avoid is the so called Dunkirk spirit where we mythologise our near misses and ignore the collateral damage. Don't be fooled by that blue sky - you will be pissed on. Just stay calm and get out the brolly.
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