Triggering the basal ganglia

I’m pleased to say that I managed to reestablish the habit of daily blogging through July. OK i cheated on a few days in changing the date but I operated on a simple heuristic – as long as it was that day somewhere in the world it was valid to use it. It was a bit of a struggle at times as I had allowed myself to get out of the pattern and had lost the ability to find subjects. I’m especially pleased with the July results as it included a major set of seven blogs on the history of Cynefin and some substantive ones on organisational change. Checking it out I have now written 1,287 posts since I started on the 25th July 2006. I missed an anniversary there although the Limbo Cube was an appropriate marker. That means I have managed 0.88 of a post per day on average and assuming I don’t lapse again a backlog of 174 to get back to one a day – that is a lot of conference blogs!

Mind you, the blog is an enjoyable habit; my procrastination in the face of a mountain of over due (well long overdue) paperwork this past week is at the opposite end of the spectrum. Most days I have been swearing every day at myself for not doing things like filing expenses and statements on a daily basis. That large drawer in the desk has been too convenient of recent years. Fortunately I have a son in need of additional allowance and with the application to spend five solid days entering stuff in to spreadsheets. Ok it will cost me money, but its a small price to pay for finally persuading him that he never ever wants to become an accountant.

I also discovered (or rather re-discovered) the wonderful value of test cricket. Aside from the fact that it is exciting for the whole of the five days (or four and a half in the case of the current one) it doesn’t require the intense concentration of Rugby. So its more than possible to sit on the floor of the sitting room surrounding by piles of paper, some of it yellowing, while keeping the brain engaged with run rates and the like.

Either way, we know that context triggers the basal ganglia so I think I had better record several cricket matches and play then briefly each evening to trigger the filing and referencing reflex which has developed over the past few days.