I am not good at doing nothing. I can sit still – to watch a TV show or a movie, or read a book. I can enjoy a day at the beach, or a walk in the woods. But I’m really not good at doing “nothing”.
I am supposed to be “on hiatus”. This was supposed to be a break from a pretty constant 3 years of running TasteTO without a real break. Because even when we took breaks – over the Christmas holidays when site traffic is slow, for instance – we were still fiddling around with stuff; cleaning up the back end of the site, planning for new stories, columns, etc.
The plan was to take at least a week and do “nothing”. That would probably include lots of reading. Maybe some shopping, or lunch with friends. But not work. There was work to do, and the plan was to start mid-month. Instead I started this week. My days of doing nothing consisted of 2 days of being sick with a cold and sleeping. Then it was back to work, because I can’t seem to not turn this damned computer on.
Inevitably, other stuff got added to the list. The freezer needs defrosting. Clean the windows. Clean out closets and wash spring/summer clothes since we have fallen headfirst into the balmy season. Bake bread, and crackers, and try making Turkish Delight again to see if it can be done without it getting slimy. Oh, and I could sort those recipes, or scan all those old photos and put them on Facebook. All things I’ve been meaning to do forever, things that are not urgent but that are in some list in my head that I suddenly keep adding to.
One of the important things on my list for this month was to at least start on the book that I had outlined 18 months ago. It was supposed to be an uninterrupted stint where I could just do a brain dump. Instead, my silly brain is making up things for me to do in order to procrastinate sitting down and starting work on this book. Because if I’ve got nothing useful to do – I could be writing.