I´m on a slump. I don´t know what´s wrong but this past week or so have been really painful. Maybe the repetitive nature of my sources is getting to me. Maybe I´m just tired. Whatever the reason, I haven´t been able to concentrate much during this past week and a half. I sometimes spend over half an hour just staring at the microfilm reader´s screen and I´ve been stuck on the same register for the past three days! Alan thinks I should just take a week off. I´m not so sure, there´s stil too much to be done. But maybe he´s right. Besides, I could use the time to browse through some libraries, do a little research on secondary literature, read Elka Klein´s book on the Jews of Barcelona… I´ll think about it over the weekend.
Alexandra Guerson
research & teaching
Taking some time off is likely the best thing for you to do! You need time to process everything that you’ve been looking through so you can approach it with fresh eyes, and much more relaxed eyes. Towards the end of my research trip, I actually took quite a bit of time off. I was burnt out and needed some down time for my brain to regenerate and start to process all the mounds of information I had been shoving in it for months.
I ended up going to Morocco for 8 days, working for 2 weeks, going to a music festival in the south of Spain for four days, working for a few weeks, then traveling again. In the end, i felt so much better because I think my time off great improved my time working.
See, time off will be great for you to rejuvenate. Besides, we’re moving next weekend so we can pack a bit, then go on a day trip, pack a bit, then go on a day trip …………….
Sometimes it’s good to take some days off, but if you have a lot of work to do, maybe it will be a good idea just to change what you are doing now, instead to go to the archives, start doing something different and useful for your research.
Do it! At least a couple days. I played hookie today, and it was great, and totally educational.