It has been over a month since I have switched boats and may I say that this has been one of the most productive periods in my professional career by far. As of this writing, I have reviewed about 9-inch tall pile of back-to-back letter-sized documents (e.g. laws, policies, reports, proposals, studies, academic articles), and have written brief policy analyses and recommendations for the said documents. In between these periods of enlightenment, I have attended seminars and conferences, in which the main points of each have been succinctly summarized in less than five sentences or a few bullet points.
Picture me as sponge and food processor rolled into one where you dump all the food - in this case work-related brain food - you can find, squeeze out all but the necessary essences, and throw out the pulp faster than you can say “Hey! Hey! Are you OK? Unresponsive. No breathing, no pulse. Call EMS!"
To accommodate all these things, I needed, on average, an 11-hour daily working schedule. This left little time for non-work things, such as going to the gym, shopping, meeting co-workers/friends/potential mates, and sometimes even eating lunch/snacks/dinner. This sent a clear message to me: “Don’t even think about enrolling in grad school while you’re doing this gig or you’ll die early.”
Ironically, for my superiors, I still come across as ‘bored’ and it seemed that my time was ‘underutilized.’ They felt that I potentially can accommodate wider involvement and assist them more in their work. Thus, they gave me more food on my plate.
Does this mean that I make this gig look easy and stress-free?
Damn. I make this look good.
I’m not sure if I should be flattered though.
I need to change strategies without compromising my commitments or else I might soon be missing out on my youth or what’s left of it.
Time check: 1811h... Here's to hoping the check is IN THE MAIL.
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