Koh Lanta Week 1 Update

3 minutes

I arrived at Koh Lanta 10 days ago so I figure its time to give everyone an update.

My flight landed in Krabi, and everything was pretty smooth sailing. My airport transfer was actually there — unlike in Cochi. The drive to Koh Lanta from Krabi airport used to require two car ferry rides but one of those has been replaced by a bridge — the other will be replaced by a bridge in 2023.

I got dropped off at the Kohub apartments and my room is on the second floor. The room is quite large with two single beds. I also have a balcony and a decent window. I spent the day having a nap as I had slept poorly the night before given my anxieties about my flight to Krabi. I wasn’t up for much for the rest of the day so other than a short walk to get some food and water, I stayed in my room.

For the next few days, rather than try to jump straight into the book writing, I decided to give myself a few days to acclimatise to the environment. And I definitely needed that. Getting my bearings as well as dealing with the heat took a fair bit out of me — mentally and physically. The difference between the heat of a Melbourne summer and Koh Lanta is the humidity. I understand why people in hot and humid areas are so chill and slow— its too exhausting to behave otherwise. When Lee Kuan Yew chose the air-conditioner as the invention of the previous millennium, it was because he felt that it served as an equaliser that allowed us in the tropics enough comfort to be as productive as the Europeans. What Mahathir had to say about the tropical people perhaps is best left for another day.

For the rest of the week, I sorted my emails and other administrative tasks — of which there were more than I thought I would have. Life has a lot of little mundane administrivia.

I had still not started writing in a focused manner. When I sat down to write, I either did not know where to start, or what to start with. It sounds strange, but I thought I had at least enough of a plan to kickstart my writing. There was too much noise in my head, so I did what I recommend others when there is too much noise.

Have a mind dump and then make lists. And that was what I did. And damn did I have a lot of noise in my head. And not just about the writing. There were so many things I wanted to get done during the break, that I had to honestly ask myself – what do I HAVE to get done? One of my usual failure points is to try to have too many projects. If I have 5, I might get two-three done barely to satisfaction, while the others languish in my to-do lists.

It made me think of something I tell my students. Most of education is deficit focused. You might do really well in physics and math, but badly in chemistry and biology, so the solution is to work harder on your weakness. But maybe we need to think of it in a different way by leaning into our strengths, and making sure we are the best at those.

To that end, I decided that for the next two weeks I will focus only on one task – the writing for the book. I have my other projects captured in my mind dump and my to-do lists. Also, I have created a tickle file to capture other ideas and potential explorations while I focus on one thing.

I started writing on Monday with a target to write 800 unedited words a day, and I have exceeded that target everyday. That is making me think that maybe I should have a stretch target to push myself to write more. Any thoughts?