[techcode]

Then you have to go further back in order to find instances of fun/excitement/engagement.

While I haven't been keeping a detailed log - I did recall last time (and then several more before that) when I was able to put important/urgent project or work on hold to do something else that's more fun and has been itching for a while.

Literally last time was 3+ years ago - when I said to my team/manager "I know this project is behind/urgent, and to continue for a while longer on it, I'll take 2-3 days to work on this other thing that's not in our scope".

Since then it's been a stream of such behind/urgent/huge/important projects - and only now I realized that I didn't do those "breaks" of working shortly on something else.