I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’ve been on work burnout for the last few weeks. Between all the traveling I’ve been doing and working on 20 things all at once the last few weeks I’ve had a real hard time to get motivated to sit down and work productively.

It’s funny how this works sometimes. When I’m in this mode it seems I just can’t concentrate – I can spend all day ‘working’ but not getting a whole lot done or so it seems. The scatter ratio goes way high – spending too much time reading WebLogs, message boards or newsgroups and fiddling with and sinking lots of time into odd pieces of code or problems for way to much time. All of this of course is no help and only seems to get me deeper into this funk of non-accomplishment <g>.

I love what I do. I do get burned out though. I have a billion things I am actually excited about, but I’m in one of those phases where everything that needs to get done is a major project that requires a full time commitment for a fairly substantial chunk of time. And with all the different things going on at the moment it’s hard to find that time and see the end of that tunnel.

This certainly isn’t the first time I’ve hit this particular wall – it happens from time to time. But this time around it’s been more prolonged than I can remember in a long while. The best cure of course is to get out, get away for a bit - clear the mind, let it all gel, come to  a new understanding, letting the subconcious do its thing and lead the way. Get away completely, even just for a few days. This is getting harder and harder to do. While I don’t consider myself very badly addicted to my communications like some people who can’t be without their email and latest stock quotes on their phone, I can’t remember the last time I’ve gone without at least checking my email for the day. Even with all the play time I do get and make time for, getting completely away is so very, very rare it’s kinda scary to think about.

So, today I decided that I will step away for a few days. I’ve had it. We have a HUGE swell rolling into the Hawaiian islands these next couple of days and I’m getting on a plane with a couple of friends and heading over to Oahu and check out the big surfing action over there for a couple of days. No I'm not going out, but going to watch. Big waves of that size are a teeny bit out of my league. 

Maybe part of the burnout is island fever too. Maui is a small island and there’s no such thing as ‘the city’. So getting over to Honolulu (bad as that might sound for most people) might actually be a nice change of pace for a couple of days. Getting out on a different town.

Taking a few days off can be a big relief. If nothing else it sometimes just feels really good to come back to your computer with a fresh attitude and fresh ideas...

One can only hope <g>...