Work takes up mental real estate as well as time. Even when I’m not on the clock, I’m thinking about it.

There are jobs where I could completely disconnect unless the work was in front of me but those jobs were simple. Anything more than effectively manual labour has a different effect on me.

Any work I do, I end up caring deeply about. Or I get bored and leave.

To care deeply means that I’m not just committing time. I’m committing idle moments of thinking, a constant part of my attention, and all of the skills I have, not just the ones I was hired for.

This is true for a job in the traditional sense of the term but it’s also true for a job as in a contract, a retainer or an engagement.

I’m putting to bed a current job and I’m now thinking about what the next thing I pick up is.

Yesterday, I taught the last class of trimester. I was teaching entrepreneurship to fourth year occupational therapy students.

I have loved adapting and developing the content for this unit but I have no engagements in place for future teaching at the university…and I kind of want to keep it that way. It is truly rewarding to deliver but the opportunity cost is high: the prep, travel, delivery, and student inquiries take time and mental real estate.

In addition, I have less control over the content. The assessment, structure, and learning outcomes are pre-determined and there is little room for iteration on the fly.

I want to keep up the teaching “habit” though. For the past few months, I’ve spent a half-day every week to put together a class. I’ll continue with that habit. The key differences:

The purpose is to keep the rewarding bit of teaching by helping people be useful.

Hopefully, I’ll become a better teacher.

And when I teach my in-person workshop on the conceptual stuff, I can point them somewhere that they can learn the tools.

I’ve been so driven by what’s available and helping in any way that I can that I haven’t thought as hard about who I would like to help and where I would like to help them get to. Here are some of the questions:

I don’t fight for separation between life and work any more. Instead, I fight to choose good work.