I don’t know about you, but I’ve chosen a job for myself that has its own rewards, but usually they are far and long between and are certainly more of the ideal type. In my eyes, I earn enough to live comfortably, but any sort of luxury is hard to come by and usually demands keeping a rather strict budget, which I’m definitely not very good at. On top of that, my job – if done right – regularly provides me with insane working hours and long phases in which I’m basically busy between opening my eyes in the morning and trying to close them again at night. Every single minute inbetween, even those in which which the stomach demands some food, are taken up by work. I know that’s not a healthy way to live, but I also do thrive on it at times (yes, the definition of workaholic fits me perfectly).

Very early on then, when I was still at university, I devised a gratification system for myself to help me get through the most insane work phases. Because I also happen to be a procrastinator when I get the chance, I usually also end up with a seemingly unscalable mountain of work which then has to be completed in a substantially limited time frame. Stupid, I know, but in the past it also lead to the best results possible. One starts conditioning oneself to work that way if the results are good, only to notice once one gets older that it might not have been a good idea. Just like one of Pavlov’s dogs, my engine starts humming when the work starts piling up, not when it is in the process of slowly accumulating. It’s an automatic thing and very difficult to keep in check. Continue Reading →