WHOOSH!

[athelind]

After six weeks, our houseguest left this morning, returning to the East Coast.

I immediately got hit with the wave of creative energy that I'd been expecting to experience when I gave up the MUCK for Lent.

He and Quel left at 4:30 to catch his plane, and, despite repeated attempts to get back to sleep, I found myself up and working on my capstone by 6:30.

I don't think it was really him, per se. I have a hard time concentrating and writing when someone else is around, even if they're quietly coccooned in their room on the other side of the lair. When I'm writing, I pace, I talk to myself, I growl at my data, I randomly get up and do dishes and laundry and clean the bathroom whenever I need to think. The presence of another person, for some reason, can disrupt all that.

Quel's about the only exception, and I even have trouble working around her most of the time. That's why she seldom actually sees me doing homework unless a deadline is involved -- most of the time, I try to get it done before she gets home. You'd think that when she brings work home and telecommutes, it would be an ideal time for both of us to work -- but she talks to herself and swears at her data, too.

And neither of us mutter, either. It's a full-fledged conversational tone of voice. Two of us at once would be nigh-intolerable.
The Music Choice for this entry has nothing to do with the above. It just happened to be playing on the CD player. Really.

Of course, the Imminent Deadline (3PM Thursday) probably has something to do with the sudden burst of activity, as well -- but I can't help thinking that it would have hit sooner if I'd had the lair to myself.

Comments

[araquan.livejournal.com]

   You should hear me trying to deal with Office 97 sometime. I had to really watch myself at Werk when writing up a construction permit, let me tell you...
   Otherwise I tend to work relatively quietly but I can be very easily distracted by the activities of others. I may mumble a little to myself now and then but I don't have conversations with my work- I'm convinced that one day it will talk back and I won't like what it has to say...

[athelind.livejournal.com]

I'm a scientist. My work is supposed to talk back to me.

"So, what does that mean, little numbers? What are you trying to tell me? Oh, of course! COOL! And that means this and this and this..."

[araquan.livejournal.com]

   Sheesh. Again with that. You aren't the only scientist on the planet, you know. At any rate, that's not the kind of talking I'm talking about, of course.
   More like having the work say, "Hey, who the hell are you and what the [CENSORED] do you think you're doing? Put me down before one of us hurts the other!"
   Actually, it already does that... It just tends to phrase it in the form of "Syntax error on line 97. Compilation aborted due to errors..."

[kreldon.livejournal.com]

Does listening to music help/hinder at all? (It's what I do at work -- people tend to park themselves outside my cubicle and chat, which drives me nuts)

[skorzy.livejournal.com]

, per se. I have a hard time concentrating and writing when someone else is around, even if they're quietly coccooned in their room on the other side of the lair. When I'm writing, I pace, I talk to myself, I growl at my data, I randomly get up and do dishes and laundry and clean the bathroom whenever I need to think. The presence of another person, for some reason, can disrupt all that.

I'm precisely the same way. I can't work, write or use the right hemisphere of my brain when others are around in my home. However, late at night when people are asleep.. my muse hits, or my mind turns on and I'm productive again.

Oddly.. I get my best work done *at* home..

[hedgegoth.livejournal.com]

I talk to my computers at home and at work all the time.
And the cats.
And the idiot customers with the mute switched pressed.