Inventing Things to Do

I'm on a little vacation in Long Beach Island, NJ.So, I set aside most large projects for the week so that my brain could catch a break. I cleared my to-do list.In theory, this sounds great.Unfortunately, being the workaholic I am, I have been inventing things to do all week. That is, I have been finding small, insignificant, meaningless things to work on. I have been finding "busy work."For instance:

• Spending over an hour in photoshop to create my new Twitter cover photo

• Spending multiple hours implementing a new emoji reaction software for posts (i.e. you can now click on a face at the end of posts in your browser that communicates "happy," "unmoved," "amused," "excited," "angry," or "sad"). (see example screenshot here)

This sort of busy work is the enemy of productivity. It's like being a lion that chases after small field mice instead of the more satiating antelope.

It's funny because only last week I put a notecard on my desk that reads, "Am I inventing things to do to avoid the important?"