It’s tempting to see the next little while as a space free from work, a space that gives you time to work. Well, of course you can do this if you want to, if you need to. For people who are part time doctoral researchers, sometimes the late December period is one of the few times you can get a day – or days – uninterrupted time at the desk. For people who have heavy teaching loads, sometimes the late December period is one of the few times you can get a day – or days – uninterrupted time at the desk. And for people working on other people’s projects, sometimes the late December period is one of the few times you can get a day – or days – uninterrupted time at the desk to do your own work.

Of course if you have children or family commitments, then there is no time to work. The trick is to not feel guilty or anxious that you are not working. This is easier said than done. I have no real commitments other than the commitment I made to myself to do less. But I’ve just had two days not working and I feel that I have done nothing nada zip zilch and I should have. Of course I have responded to emails, read a bit, checked the latest issues of a few journals and made a few notes. But this is nothing, nada zip zilch, right? Wrong.

It really is OK not to work sometimes. Well that’s what I try to tell myself. And so as a first step, and this is something I don’t do every year, I’m taking a bit of time off from the blog. I will be back on January 9. Of course I do hope in this “time off” to make some headway with other writing. I was just composing something about AI and journals in my mind this morning, and I do need to write it down before I forget…. and before I go away leaving my laptop behind.

I do hope that you all have a happy and healthy festive season, and that you too can find some down time. But if, like me, you still have to do a bit, that’s OK too. Just dont make it all day everyday. And I’ll try not to too.