It might seem like the point of slowing down is to take a moment for recharging the batteries, but it turns out that the change in pace can sometimes help restart stalled projects. This has been my experience in the TOA context, where I've used quiet periods to examine the backlog in my draft folder and find ways to move those posts closer to completion. You could also include in this category results like the esteemed "Reading Clearout" posts, which I generally finalize by determining that the fifth sentence in the draft is actually the final sentence, again a process that seems to come more naturally during a so-called break. When I started up around a year ago with the idea of organizing TOA around an informal "in-season/off-season" pattern, I think what I had in mind was a structure that would make the best of both worlds - a way to benefit from schedule-driven elements such as deadline urgency while also ensuring that I blocked some time to review anything I'd left half-finished. In hindsight I still think this was a good decision, the seasonal concept loosely mirroring one of my favorite podcasts, More or Less. This podcast has maintained its momentum for at least several years (and likely more), so in my mind it implies a format for sustainability and longevity.
Of course, TOA has some major differences from that podcast, the least of these being the fact that this isn't a job for me or anyone else (there is no "staff" at TOA), but perhaps more importantly that I don't have a large audience imposing certain expectations on my output. To put it another way, this only happens if I do it, and I don't have to do it. This line of thinking became an unanticipated feature of the slow periods within the seasonal structure, when I had so much downtime that I found myself wondering at certain odd moments whether it would make sense to shutdown TOA. Despite being unanticipated, I could hardly describe it as a surprise - I know all things end, even great things, and I've known this all along; I like to think I've tried my best to make TOA exceptional, but exceptional doesn't make it an exception.
The memory of these deliberations simmered under the surface of last week's post, which considered the endings of various favorite podcasts from over the years. I suspect the hosts of those shows went through something similar to what I just described before their respective decisions to end their shows. The post meandered to something resembling an original thought, or at least an original question - why stop the show when you could just reformat it? I suppose there is no way for me to know for certain, but I suspect I have a decent guess - they didn't feel like it. I think that's what will make TOA different than those examples, at least over the next few months, because I don't have any aversion at all from doing the equivalent of reducing an hour-long show into seven minutes. I think this has always been true to an extent for despite my struggles evading the various obstacles created by my self-imposed scheduling expectations, I've had no difficulty hitting "publish" on posts short enough to fit on a CVS receipt.
I suppose in the end it all comes down to a fairly straightforward consideration - do I have anything left to say? When I took a moment last week to scribble down "commitment to the Swiss cheese model" as a reminder for a future post, it seems clear that I still have at least one reason to keep moving along with TOA. Recent readers may also recall the Proper Labmin post, which listed out a few different ideas I'm kicking around in the draft folder. It seems that while there are some things I need to say, then it remains the time to say them. And of course, there is the other side of the argument - if I stop, then maybe it becomes harder to say certain things when I need to say them, and there is nothing worse than not saying something when it's time to say it. In fact, these days it seems like few things are more important than being able to say the things that need to be said when it's time to say them. But to be honest, despite all the good reasons I guess I just don't know regarding the long-term, so I suppose it remains to be seen - whether I will continue to generate writing ideas, whether I will feel up to the effort of working those ideas into a coherent final draft, and whether I will feel its worth the risk of hitting that post button so that I can say what needs to be said; regarding all that, now is just not the time to say.
