WIPO vs Home

I recently started an external contract with WIPO. This is basically the job I had in Switzerland but from home. It took a little while to get myself into a proper routine and the right frame of mind (this is my first major contract with consistent delivery of source material and deadlines) but I'm getting into the swing of things. I also needed to get used to the different working environment (I've gone from a big desk in an office with two monitors to a laptop at my sister-in-law's house, we're visiting the wife's family). Beyond this, I have noticed a couple of key differences since I started and had a minor epiphany.

The first key difference is that I no longer have access to the patents. Whilst this was not unexpected, it had a bigger impact than I thought. I think, when I was actually at WIPO, I took having access to the patents for granted and, like in most romantic comedies, I didn't realise what I had until I lost it. This hasn't proved to be a major problem, thus far, because I get a bit of extra information and I tend to do a fair bit of background research and, if I need to, I can ask questions. However, it still makes things a little more difficult than I expected.

Another difference is that I have ended up talking to myself more than I normally do. When I was at WIPO, I had other people to bounce ideas off and to test if a given sentence sounded natural or made sense. At home, I am the only native English speaker in my household and while my wife speaks fine conversational English, she's not very useful for my purposes (my daughter doesn't say very much at all, mostly she laughs at me). I'm aware that most of the time I just need to hear the sentence out loud, even if it's me saying it, so I end up talking to myself a lot.

My epiphany is hardly road to Damascus stuff so let's call it a sudden realisation. My sudden realisation is that I can do whatever I want. To elaborate, when I was working at WIPO, there was always the knowledge that I was being paid to be there so I should do something constructive. But the other day I realised that that is no longer the case. So long as I meet my deadlines, I can do anything I want. When I realised this I was feeling stuck and that I wasn't accomplishing anything and then it hit me that I could stop, so I did. This blew my mind. Today, I had a very productive morning and I thought I'd like a nap after lunch, so I took one. I probably shouldn't have but that's a whole different kettle of fish. I knew this before in an offhand way but it's only recently that it really hit me. I love my job.