I took a very unwanted break

I have a lot of things on my plate. Sometimes that feels stressful, sometimes not. I've been in a stressful period for a bit. The market isn't as fun and easy to work as it was 3 years ago. Balancing work and family is a continuous challenge. I also travel more than I ever have for events and preparing presentations eats into billable work and/or family time. I've been a bit worn recently and it is not particularly mysterious.

I went to Stockholm recently to speak at the BEAM meetup. It was a lovely time. While I was in town I figured I'd sync up with the team. And a client wanted a workshop. So I had three days packed with activity. Which meant I was in Stockholm for essentially 4 days and had about 8 hours of travel time. This definitely cuts into billable time and that felt rather frustrating. My clients aren't particularly pressuring me but I have expectations of myself in what I want to deliver and I haven't felt like I am on top of it in the way I want. So I definitely felt some stress around.. everything.

But Stockholm goes well, a fun time was had, presentation goes smoothly, I get to hang out with a bunch of cool people on each day and evening.

I return. Fever. One of my colleagues had to bail on the meetup due to a fever and now I had something. Usually a fever is a day or two for me and then I'm good.

This one lasted a full week.

Then it spent an additional 2 days in my joints apparently.

I'm good now. And while I felt increasingly behind while I was sick I mostly feel okay now. I've written that time off. These things happen. And I did get a forced break and the break made me reset my headspace a bit. I've had better breaks.

Nothing has collapsed. I am technically further behind than I was. But I feel like I'm caught up because I let go of the frustration and stress. Having the time off also let me come back with less of a scattered brain. Focus has been on point, thankfully.

Do you ever get a break? I take replies here on email, on Fosstodon where I'm @lawik@fosstodon.org, on Bluesky or by responding to this email to lars@underjord.io.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate you.

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