Professor Bueller's Day Off

They tell me that one of the biggest benefits of the professorial life is the "flexibility." A professor has a a great deal of latitude in organizing his or her work schedule. Other than showing up to class on time (or at least close to on time) and attending required meetings (e.g., departmental meetings, faculty senate meetings, the grand investiture of your new president, et cetera) you have a great deal of flexibility in organizing how you do your work. This is why we get the complaint of the "professor mowing his lawn at 3 o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon." (By the way, why is it always "3 on a Tuesday afternoon"?) That professor may have worked last Saturday, been part of a panel the night before for International Education Week, or been up late grading papers. Oh, wait...that was my week.

I say "they tell me" because I have my big to-do list and just try to make progress on it as many hours as I can stay awake per week. I need to take a break and get some perspective more often.

So I did just that yesterday. After dropping the kids off, I headed to Books-a-Million and bought a book I've been waiting for, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and sat and read it (excellent so far, more on it later), then caught a movie ("Role Models"—some good "mind candy"), read some more, got in a little workout at the gym, and then was going to take the kids to see the women's basketball rivalry game—USC vs. Clemson but that didn't work out (which is OK because apparently it didn't work out for the players either). If it had been warmer I probably would have taken in a game of golf instead, something I have done exactly once since moving here fifteen months ago.

So, the question is whether yesterday's breather will fuel today's work. We'll see...