Reverse temporization of critial tasks

procrastinate
dilly-dally, delay, defer, postpone drag-out, day-dream, hesitate, hold-off, shilly-shally, temporize, tarry, suspend, stooge-around, protract, let-slide, dawdle, fanny-around, linger, piss-about, ...

... something I'm good at.

International Robotics Jet-Set

I have decided to try and write a record of my trips around the world in the past two years. Only because my memory is so bad I have already forgotten half of the places I've been. In a few years, I'll have fogotten it all. That would be a real pity because those trips are real high points of my PhD.

You can't run through treacle

Amazing news: I have my article accepted for publication in Adaptive Behaviour. I should have been over the moon, but I found myself getting quite anxious. I can tell this because last night I had a classic anxiety dream. I was due to give a presentation and it was being built up more and more, but I had forgotten to put the presentation on my laptop, so I had to rush back to get it, being way-laid and held-up at every turn. Like running through treacle. I don't get this kind of thing a lot so it must have been down to the news.

The reason I am so negative about it is something those in the media spotlight might know something about: bad reviews. 2 negative reviews out of 4. Which would not be bad except that the points they made were the ones that have been troubling me anyway.

Worse, I need to send a final version, answering all reviewers comments, by January 1st. That is going to wreck my family's christmas. Not mine because I am miserable at Xmas anyway, but theirs because I'll end up making it a misery for them too.