Back to basics, again...

It's Day 84 of lockdown in our house and it has been an interesting time. As someone who works from home, lockdown has not, on the surface, seen any great changes in my day-to-day routine. What I have realised over the last few weeks, however, is that I am taking less time off that I usually would. The restrictions on going places and doing things have meant that, without making a conscious decision, I have actually been working seven days a week. That's a lot of time staring at screens and it has started to take a toll; yesterday I was trying to work across three separate projects and I realised I had lost the ability to think clearly about any of them. Diminishing returns have kicked in.

And so it's time to break the pattern and step away from the digital as much as possible. I've dusted off the notepad that was languishing on the corner of my desk and that is now going to be my daybook (not quite a bullet journal, because I've never got along with that system), and outlining is going to happen on large sheets of paper, rather than through MindNode and OmniOutliner and the various other apps that slotted into my workflow.

I need to kickstart my brain and ditch the idea that I'm only working if I'm in front of a screen.