What is with the rain?

This is what rainy days should be like

You get to snuggle into your warmest clothes, drink a cup of tea, and listen to the rain patter on the roof as you work. You drive or take the bus (on time, of course) home. Then maybe you’ll cuddle with your sweetie and watch a movie. If the power goes out, maybe you’ll light some candles and soften the mood.

But most days rain is just a pain in the ass

You discover that not only does your roof have a leak, but so does your raincoat, and you forgot your umbrella. You spend lunchtime dealing with the puddle under your desk, and your shoes get soaked through, guaranteeing your feet to be soggy the whole day. On your walk home, a car swerves into a puddle and soaks you head to toe. At home, you search the dirty clothes for your one pair of sweatpants, discover you’re out of tea, and resign yourself to watching reruns of America’s Next Top Model all by your lonesome. Until the power goes out, of course.

What is it with rainy days?

Something about rainy days is just so demotivating. Rainy days should be sleep-til-eleven-and-then-make-pancakes days. They should be automatic days off. Days for catching up on sleep and laundry and laziness. Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way. Just because I wake up to a “100% chance of rain” forecast (gotta love Scotland), doesn’t mean I can hibernate. The trick is learning how to stay productive even when you don’t want to be.

Running on auto-pilot

If I don’t have another task to complete, I tend to hit refresh on Facebook until my eyes cross. It’s as if my brain were programmed with this as default: IF no tasks THEN refresh Facebook. The trick, I think, is setting tasks in my internal library. If it’s not on my calendar, I forget about it. If it’s not on my task list, I don’t see it. If it’s not on a “do next” list, I ignore it. If it is so huge that I can’t fathom where to start, I pretend it doesn’t exist.

For example: revising my dissertation. This is the all-encompassing elephant in my brain that won’t present itself in a way that is easy to dissect. I come across it, receive an error message: DOES NOT COMPUTE, and move on to the next task.

We have to outsmart ourselves, especially on rainy days

I like to think of my brain as a computer. In order to make it the most efficient machine possible, I have to write functional code. I.e. I need to change my default and line up my tasks properly. Most importantly, I need to break down my dissertation into digestible segments that do not exceed the allowed file size. Preferably below 100KB. And I need to pull the plug on the programs running in the background, taking up valuable RAM that could be put towards more important tasks. That’s my goal this week: to streamline my tasks and feed them into my brain so that I can run on auto-pilot and still be productive. Even on rainy days.