work done for the day

As a general rule I set work quotas for myself each day. But my usual habit is to keep on working past the quota.

While in Paris, of course, I’ve taken a different approach. Once the quota is reached (and I set challenging but reasonable ones), I forbid myself to work any longer.

One reason is to stay mentally fresh. The other reason is to avoid the frustration of being in Paris and sitting and working all day, which would be absurd.

But this system is probably worth applying even at home. I seem to recall Darwin refusing to work past noon on any given day (he’d work hard in the mornings), and Philip Glass has spoken of “training the Muse to come calling at my hours,” to such an extent that he refuses even to write down musical ideas that occur to him at other times than, whatever his work hours are… 6-11 AM, something like that.

At any rate, I’ve hit my quota for the day, and now it’s time for fun.