“There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there. You must go beyond them." – Bruce Lee (maybe)
Does anyone else remember those P90X workout infomercial videos? It was described as an intense home workout for your entire body. The key, says the P90X peoples, is something called muscle confusion. It keeps you from hitting the dreaded plateau. You know, that place where you just keep working out day after day with no results? P90X makes sure that doesn't happen. Just look at this:

I mentioned last week the movement of my desk. I am now looking out into the front yard. Old desk orientation, back yard. New desk orientation, front yard. It's a version of muscle confusion I am calling workspace confusion. It's keeping me alert. Crazy alert.
It's day one. The first thing I notice is the sunshine. The front of the house faces east and well, that sun can shine. It's quite invigorating. The second thing I notice is when the neighbors leave for their respective places of work. (or wherever they head off too. A friend told me a story of quitting a particularly heinous, but high level, job and being afraid to tell his spouse. He got up every morning for nearly 3 weeks and left for the office/public library before finally confessing. Who knows what people do when they leave the 'hood?)
The next thing I notice are the workers showing up for home improvement work. My lovely bride and I are not the only people rearranging our nests. The day is warm and sunny and the guy across the street leaves his windows down. He's older. Grizzled. I wave but with the reflection in the windows he doesn't see me. (my bride is right, no one can see me and the bush hasn't even bloomed)
The cat, Bianca, loves the new perch. Turns out there are a lot of birds in the bush. She makes chortle noises and flicks her tail. Very agitated. This is when I see a young man walking down the street on his way to work, I assume. I watch him veer from my side of the street to the neighbor's side and stick his head in the grizzled guy's open window. What?!? Who does this?
I now have to push back from my desk and do the old man thing. "Hey! Get outta there!" I bellow in my best don't-make-me-come-over-there voice. He snaps back and takes off. I have been doing the Peloton bike thing pretty regularly, but I'm not up for a chase. I let out one more, "Whatever you took you should put back!" yell and feel approximately 1000 years old.
I stomp back inside, climb back into my desk chair, make some chortling noises, and paw at the keyboard.
Workspace confusion is exhausting.
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