Shortness of Days

Back when he used to be funny Chris Rock made a joke where he mentioned that the old assertion that life was long was indeed false. His retort, life is long. It is. As a whole, it is the days that are short. A couple of days last week really reminded me of this.

I just happened to not accomplish much. Thinking about it, the truth is that I did not happen to goof off all day or anything, it just seems that there was much left for me to do that I couldn’t get done and the sum total of things that I had indeed accomplished just didn’t seem to amount to anything. Come to think of it, I’m often familiar with this kind of situation.

Sometimes there are tasks that just take longer than you could ever imagine. Everything seems to be alright when you start but once you start to make progress the time just flies and it’s easy to wonder whether or not I’m incompetent or something. It’s markedly similar to playing a video game that takes up a whole lot of time and you’re left wondering where the time went just after realizing that you don’t remember what exactly happened.

In a sense it was confusing and it seems to be one of those things that are to be expected as my career continues to shift more and more away from the work of doing real, actual things. When I first started working full time there were tangible things to be done in a day and as things were done or not, there was a real sense of accomplishment.

It’s not necessarily that I no longer have a sense of accomplishment, just that often the days seem short and when there is a lot of waiting and tons of paperwork that needs review or small edits. It’s a change for sure.

And for what it’s worth, I still think Chris Rock is kinda funny. Just not like he used to be. And that joke works with a lot of comedians that are no longer funny. Lewis Black, George Lopez, Dane Cook, etc.