My new year’s resolution 2022; no more lectures or talks.
During the past five years I’ve lectured for about 10k people in different forums and settings, from small lectures to packed auditoriums and online audiences.
I’ve held lectures in a penthouse and 35 meters under ground, in an old nuclear reactor.
Since I do all of my lectures for free, and in cases where they pay the other lectures I ask the organiser to donate my share to charity, I’ve also generated over 4000 dollars to different charities.
But it has also cost me at least 30 hours of unpaid labour a month.
Since my days are packed with work and clinical trials, I prepare my slides and content for my lectures in my spare time. The little spare time I have in the evening.
Since I work with AI, AR, VR, MR, Chatbots, Neurfeedback, Neuroscience and IoT….I can’t really re-use my content. I try to make at least a portion of the lecture relevant and novel for each crowd, even if it consists of a group of five.
Even when it is for work, I don’t take time off to compensate for the extra hours I put in to this. Not to mention, that I also do about 10–20 hours of unpaid work on administration, updates and maintenance of all the tech we use in our clinical trials.
It is an impossible equation.
So this year I’m trying a new concept.
I’m not going to do any lectures or talks in 2022*!
*Of course, work presentations to my co-workers and research group are exceptions to this.
I feel immensely privileged that anyone wants to listen to me. And I deeply appreciate the network and exchange of ideas it provides, but I need to let go of it for a while and focus on something that will give me balance back, and give me time to devote to something I’ve been passionate about for 20 years: film making!
I’m embarking on a large scale documentary this year, and I can’t make a documentary, hold a job as a project manager for 12 projects, be a PhD researcher, caregiver, mother of two, wife and book lectures. It is an impossible equation.
So, with that 2022 will be free of lectures!
More about the documentary coming soon!
What is your resolution?
