Ok, I know that November is not officially over yet. However, it is for me and blogging here. With the holidays around the corner and meeting family time demands, I know I’m not going to have much time to write.

Alas, I wish I didn’t. 

If you’ve known me for long, you know I’m not a “run around and do things with other people” person. Holidays for me have always been taxing instead of relaxing. First, I run this way for one holiday thing, then, I come back and do it again the next week for another section of the family. I’m just glad I don’t have to juggle my own family in there — just my fiancé’s is more than enough to really deal with.

I know, I know. Holidays are supposed to be about family, good times, good cheer, and all that stuff. Scrooge would still give me a run for the top Humbug Awards, but this is the way I’ve always felt about holidays. Reason? I’m not entirely sure. I always want to be doing something to pull myself ahead. It worked when I was a kid — I graduated from uni with not one, but two degrees; it should certain work in business as well.

This year, though, is a little different. This year I’ve actually tried to get ahead so I can enjoy more of the holidays. In fact, I’m 3 weeks ahead on blogging for the Savvy Urbanite Farmer Project, I’ve got the Next Big Thing laid out for Ink‘s administrative workings, outlines for other projects that I’ll tell you about once they are more set in stone, and I’m even starting to get systems in order to make life easier.

Learning these lessons has been a long time in coming. 

This may be the first year I’ve had since I was a kid with no holiday homework that I might be able to relax a little. I mean, normally I do remarkably well at not twitching like I’m having a mental breakdown and seizure all in one, but not relax. This year I can say I don’t have to worry about certain things, and although I have a list of things I need to do, it’s not going to break me to take one day off for Thanksgiving. I might even be able to keep up this for the rest of the holiday season and be good for Christmas, too. Now wouldn’t that be something?

Learning how to juggle all the responsibilities and all of the tasks has not been easy. I had to learn a lot of tricks during my years in uni to be able to pull off this feat of having as many things lined up as possible so I didn’t have to fret. I also learnt how to do research while travelling.

And let me tell you, travelling research is not easy to do.

I liked to call it my travelling research because I was always being dragged somewhere to do something. Often times I had a lot of things to do, so I would seek out the easiest things to take with me to continue my research. Hint: It’s not reading papers.

Have you ever tried to read research papers when your family and friends are pestering you into playing some game with the family, recounting tales you’d rather left buried in the past, and generally trying to be happy and merry for a night?

It doesn’t work.

Instead, I found the best part of your research to take travelling with you when you won’t have much down time is the topic itself. Take the time to connect with your friends and family and listen to them. Listen to their concerns about the world, and you may be able to find a way to use it as a broader perspectives (for grant writing) or PR (for industry).

The best thing? This only takes a single conversation and few moments of reflection between the bird and the game. 

If you must work on the holiday, practise being with others and talking less like a scientist.