a comma, a pause

I once mentioned the film Wit starring Emma Thompson in a 2016 blog post and I remember seeing the made-for-TV film while still mourning my mother's passing due to cancer. With my father's declining health and my bleeding heart that is worsened by my inability to be physically beside him (irksome passport processing times), I take comfort in John Donne's Death Be Not Proud: 

[05 July '17, I have now edited the punctuations below based on the "Gardner" edition]

Death be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,

For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,

Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me;

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

Thou art slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,

And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,

And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,

And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die.

In the scene above, Emma Thompson recalls her exchange with her metaphysical poetry mentor. It helped me appreciate the essence of John Donne's poem. I could relate to Emma Thompson's desire to best understand the poem in an academic sense, but I could also very well relate to the professor's intention for Emma Thompson's character to apply the meaning of the piece. Carpe diem.

Multitasking

Source

Today's productivity level was above satisfactory (pat on the back). I had to remind myself that it is of far more benefit to focus on things that I can control. There is this book entitled Real Happiness at Work that I purchased for ~1/3 of its original price at a discount book shop and I would like to quote a section called "Multitasking..."

We would like to believe that attention is infinite, but it isn't. That is why multitasking is a misnomer. The brain can focus only on one thing at a time. We take in information sequentially. When we attempt to focus on multiple tasks simultaneously, what actually happens is that we switch back and forth between tasks, paying less attention to both. This does not mean we can't walk and chew gum at the same time, of course..."Successful" multitasking has been shown to activate the reward circuit in the brain by increasing dopamine levels--the brain chemical responsible for feelings of happiness. The danger of this is that the dopamine rush feels so good that we don't notice we're making more mistakes...In addition to dopamine, multitasking prompts the release of adrenaline and other stress hormones, which contribute to short-term memory loss as well as long-term health problems...Rather than divide our attention, it is far more effective to take frequent breaks between intervals of sustained, one-pointed attention.

Absolutely.

This book also recommends taking frequent vacations to boost productivity when one returns to work. I realized that most people I know who are from North America or Europe take regular long holidays abroad, which is almost taboo in the third world country I come from. Perhaps, I'm wrong--or maybe it's a third world middle class thing. I'm not certain. 

I've never been to Maldives...