Discipline

Lest you worry that I've fallen into a post-thesis stupor, I'm currently juggling deadlines for quarterly fund commentaries, petsitting for the neighbours, volunteering, and doing the odd household chore. I haven't really dug into my job search yet because I want to bring more focus to it than I can right now.

I read once about how Americans have this disease of trying to outdo each other when it comes to talking about how busy their lives are. I know I have this disease because when David comes home from work I try to impress upon him how busy I've been all day. The reality is I wouldn't feel stressed about getting things done if I had more discipline. I waste an inordinate amount of time on Facebook, for instance. I justify it by saying I like to keep up with my friends in the U.S. But really it's a classic example of letting a virtual life replace your real life. Today I should have ignored FB and gone through a huge backlog of e-mails that accumulated while I did my dissertation. I maybe got through only a third of the e-mails before I had to leave for the refugee agency, where I entered names and phone numbers into the contact fields of a mobile phone. I haven't adapted well to the mobile phone era so I think it's funny that this is my assignment.

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