Thanks for getting the thing with my work. It's so truly bizarre, especially working from home... I haven't talked to my boss (or emailed) all week, literally. I haven't had anything to do all week. I think I've finished all the free classes that I'm required to do (we have a bunch of classes they want us to do, so that we're ready for all the tech changes going on around us). I'm not allowed to do the paid ones, because my organization hasn't figured out how to pay for them yet I'm sitting in on a phone meeting (now!) for a project that I'm on, but there's no front-end work, so it's all back-end development that doesn't have anything to do with me...

I really don't mind some downtime... especially between busy projects. But, this... this feeling of having *nothing to do* for years and years (!) is just mind-boggling! And very crazy-making to me. I used to feel like a fairly smart person, but this is just killing my brain and my self-concept!

That's kind of awesome that you're catching up on fun stuff, now that you have money coming in! I love what your friend said about carpe diem! But, it's really cool that you've got things that you want to do, and have a little time and money to pursue them! It's a nice position to be in, even if it can be tiring at times!

re: Figuring out your next move, I wonder if you just set a tiny bit of time each week aside to think about it, like one hour on one day? That way, you might be able to prevent yourself from being overwhelmed with it (or from worrying too much, since you know you're working on it) - but you can still make a little progress? Do you have any ideas about what you want to do, or are you still sorting that out?

Oh, and re: management activities - no, I'm not really interested in that. It's not really a strength or interest of mine. But, thanks for the idea. You're right, if someone wanted to take over some of that, it could be helpful for my boss. Honestly, he really needs a secretary/assistant, and he gets a little help from our administrative person for the bigger team, but he's just so not detail-oriented. And, since he's not really (apparently) expected to act like a manager (i.e. his boss is giving him plenty of "individual" work for him to do), I don't know... the whole system is just screwed up! Sigh, I don't get it.

And the motivation study! You know what? I didn't write any notes about the "thinker" type because I thought, "Aha! Thinker, yeah, I get that!" LOL! If you want to check the guy out, his name is Chester Elton, and his book about this is "What Motivates Me: Put Your Passions to Work" (here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/099...=ATVPDKIKX0DER )

The new version of the book (as opposed to used) apparently comes with a key to do an online test, but he said that honestly, you can usually guess your type pretty easily. And, you aren't necessarily just one type, you can be one primary type with a little bit of another type.

He mentioned that "thinkers" (probably because of all the thinking!) tend to be a bit slower getting things done sometimes, and need time to adjust to change. He gave the example of something as simple as getting his family out of the car at the mall - that he's out and ready to go really fast, but his thinker son takes a bit longer to get himself together and organized and out. It sounds kind of odd now, but it made sense when he said it !