Holiday season is upon me. I am all up in the realm of tidying up the house, restraining (or entertaining) the children while my wife gets stuff done, getting stuff done while my wife wrangles the children, rhyming on presents, checking if the slight fever that blipped onto our radars will be gone in time for christmas eve. Tons of things. None of them tech.

I'm very excited to actually get rolling with the Elixir CTO project. I will share more when it is ready to be presented but for now anyone interested can sign up to be notified when it launches. If I interviewed you for this and you agreed to be notified your are already on the list 💜

Reframing the dull

Work is not always fun, exciting or a resounding clear tone of success. Sometimes it is struggly, messy and human. Sometimes the grand goals and outcomes from up high are not actually things you care about. This sucks.

I'm pretty driven. Specifically I'm driven by a mix of enthusiasm and boneheadedness. The enthusiasm is the good fuel. The boneheadedness is an occasional necessity but running on it for long makes me cranky. When I'm not enthusiastic about what I'm doing it has a negative effect on my output, my creativity, how well I apply myself and how well I take ownership of my work and my outcomes. I start to disconnect and begin drifting to find other things to be enthusiastic about.

This is how I get bitten by distraction or new shiny things. A new shiny has very little chance if I'm sufficiently engaged in solving something I care about or enjoy.

What usually helps me reattach and reengage is to reframe things. Maybe I don't care about the grand product goal. But maybe I can drive one strand of the product goal that I do think makes sense. Or perhaps I can drill down on the technical bits and find the reason there. Getting paid means I need to find a good way to engage with the work. The way I'm wired I don't do my best work when I'm not engaged.

I find it very easy to engage on a new contract, new project. Lots to learn, high level of challenge, good impressions to make. Everything my brain needs to be highly motivated and stay on task. But I've successfully worked in long-term product work and that has always required occasional reframing.

What are the things that I find worth caring about in this work?

Which of those are important and valuable?

I can do boring work. What I need is to be engaged overall and have a sense that some of what I'm doing is worthwhile.

Now I need to reframe my interests to be about hanging out with family for at least a week. Also a challenge but well worth doing.

Does your brain require similar trickery or does this all sound incredibly strange to you? I'd love to hear your perspective via lars@underjord.io or on the delightful Mastodon fediverse as @lawik@fosstodon.org. There is also a Twitter, @lawik.

Merry Christmas if that's your jam. Happy Holidays if you want to be more vaguely inclusive. We say God Jul over here because we're christified heathens gone largely secular which is a hell of a mix. If it is the right time for you, enjoy your rituals. Otherwise, have some good mojo from mine.

Thanks for reading.