Probably the biggest problem I’ve had in my “early career mathematician” life is that I do too many things. I wrote a bit already about my over-functioning issues in an older post. In part, this is how I have always been. I was the kid who tried to get A’s in school at the same time as taking piano, ballet, and musical theory lessons and playing (poorly) in the volleyball team. Sometimes, doing all these things keeps me activated, like knowing I don’t have much time is good for getting things done. The problem with math research is that it is not something you can just get done. It requires creativity and long periods of time where your full attention is devoted to a problem. Today, a friend of mine shared a blog post that made me think a bit harder about something I suspect needs to be done more often (at least in my case), which is to say no.
