Over the years, I’ve noticed that whenever I travel to work, no matter what the job, the day after I get home, I always have trouble focusing. Jane calls this my ‘post-princess syndrome’.
She’s not wrong, I reckon. It’s worse when I travel to go to a festival, which is basically a big party full of people telling you how cool you are.
Canberra wasn’t that. I was just giving a writing class to a bunch of high school kids. (Good kids, though. All very keen and scary talented). I did have a couple of gigs at the Brisbane Writers Festival on the weekend before I flew out, however, so I guess that accounts for some post-Princess lag.
I thought I would have some trouble concentrating today. And, spoiler alert, I'm having some trouble concentrating today. In the olden days, I would’ve tried to muscle through this, and I would have failed. I’ve learned not to do that. Instead, this morning I took a bit of extra time to do a long, full-body workout because I spent a heap of yesterday sitting around airports and on planes. And rather than trying to bank my normal six hours of writing, I'm only shooting for three or four today. But if I get those three or four hours, it’d be more than I would normally get on a day like this.
I'll let you know how it goes at the end of the day. Kinda interested to know if this is just me, though. Or if anybody else suffers from this after work travel.
Yeah it’s not just you. I think of it in the (rough) context of I only have so much energy that I can productively “output “ each day. On travel days/trips we want to maximise our value, so we crank up the “output “, and borrow said output from future days. So when we get home and switch off/ down gears there is a need to recharge the energy banks before we get back to usual service.
i build in a day off after holidays as a rest day, does that count? As an office worker i'm probably only working at 80% efficiency most of the time anyway so getting to work the next day after a work trip is probably business as usual. I havent travelled for work since before the covid years. Management got really comfortable with the video meeting - although things are starting to gear back up in the place i work. Will have to keep an eye on it when i am asked to start travelling again but usually i have more work from a travel event rather than less.
I am always amazed by the endurance of campaigning political leaders. They are working long hours before the campaign, meetings, lots of homework, roleplays etc.
Then into the campaign, 6 weeks in the case of the last Australian federal election.
Working long hours, 7 days a week, lots of travel, meetings, press conferences, answering endless barbed questions, camera following you everywhere, pressure, pressure, more briefings, more homework. I noted, at one stage, that Albanese was in Perth one afternoon and North Qld the next morning. All this must be epically draining.
Then, finally, the Saturday election, another huge day.
Sunday, maybe a little sleep in, then more meetings and phone calls.
Monday, Albanese attended his PM investiture and then flew to Tokyo for the Quad meeting.
It's weird but working at that kind of relentless pace you just accept that is your life now and get on with it until you can breathe again. It's having a couple of highly intense days then a slow day in between then back into intensity that fucks you up.
1000% suffer from this. You are going from an environment where someone else is making your bed, cleaning your room, washing your clothes, cooking your food etc. and then when you get to work because you travelled people often say “thank you so much for coming all this way” to “the dog shat on the rug again why haven’t you cleaned it up yet”
As an anecdote to the "post-princess syndrome" caused by sycophants treating you like a God, I am prepared to lavish insults upon you regularly, purely for efficient writing practices to prevail. Just let me know when I should start.
Can't say I travel enough to have experienced what you have described. These days all my time I seem to spend in a strange daze, I figured its living through a period of time facing fundamental existential threats but acting like its the usual sustainable world I grew up in. I was curious as to how it got dubbed the 'post-princess syndrome' as it seems a bit hard on princesses but having met Jane my only response is "yes of course you are correct and I am sorry to have asked".
I’ve only travelled overseas for work, to Europe, so in a week doing 4 days work and essentially 3 days travelling, I end up exhausted at the end. There’s no hope of anything productive after that.
Yeah it’s not just you. I think of it in the (rough) context of I only have so much energy that I can productively “output “ each day. On travel days/trips we want to maximise our value, so we crank up the “output “, and borrow said output from future days. So when we get home and switch off/ down gears there is a need to recharge the energy banks before we get back to usual service.
Oh man, I’m glad to hear this as I sit with my feet up, staring out the window
only other suggestions I have are
1. a good workout (i like a bike ride or rum myself) and
2. a cold beverage should be in your hand already, the workout first justifies it entirely.....like we need a reason!
Travel, period, does this to me.
i build in a day off after holidays as a rest day, does that count? As an office worker i'm probably only working at 80% efficiency most of the time anyway so getting to work the next day after a work trip is probably business as usual. I havent travelled for work since before the covid years. Management got really comfortable with the video meeting - although things are starting to gear back up in the place i work. Will have to keep an eye on it when i am asked to start travelling again but usually i have more work from a travel event rather than less.
80%, your doing way better than I am
I am always amazed by the endurance of campaigning political leaders. They are working long hours before the campaign, meetings, lots of homework, roleplays etc.
Then into the campaign, 6 weeks in the case of the last Australian federal election.
Working long hours, 7 days a week, lots of travel, meetings, press conferences, answering endless barbed questions, camera following you everywhere, pressure, pressure, more briefings, more homework. I noted, at one stage, that Albanese was in Perth one afternoon and North Qld the next morning. All this must be epically draining.
Then, finally, the Saturday election, another huge day.
Sunday, maybe a little sleep in, then more meetings and phone calls.
Monday, Albanese attended his PM investiture and then flew to Tokyo for the Quad meeting.
I’d be sedated in a darkened room.
It's weird but working at that kind of relentless pace you just accept that is your life now and get on with it until you can breathe again. It's having a couple of highly intense days then a slow day in between then back into intensity that fucks you up.
1000% suffer from this. You are going from an environment where someone else is making your bed, cleaning your room, washing your clothes, cooking your food etc. and then when you get to work because you travelled people often say “thank you so much for coming all this way” to “the dog shat on the rug again why haven’t you cleaned it up yet”
As an anecdote to the "post-princess syndrome" caused by sycophants treating you like a God, I am prepared to lavish insults upon you regularly, purely for efficient writing practices to prevail. Just let me know when I should start.
Can't say I travel enough to have experienced what you have described. These days all my time I seem to spend in a strange daze, I figured its living through a period of time facing fundamental existential threats but acting like its the usual sustainable world I grew up in. I was curious as to how it got dubbed the 'post-princess syndrome' as it seems a bit hard on princesses but having met Jane my only response is "yes of course you are correct and I am sorry to have asked".
I’ve only travelled overseas for work, to Europe, so in a week doing 4 days work and essentially 3 days travelling, I end up exhausted at the end. There’s no hope of anything productive after that.