Petra...I don't know quite what you mean by "beat on my chest more powerfully..."...I don't think it is like that. I would also disagree with the highly unproductive part...although with email etc, and, for example, posting on this page, one does have to be careful. When I worked at Gulf Oil, they thought I was great because I would come in on time, work 8 hours, interpreting/mapping the whole time, and then go home. I worked 40 hrs/week and rarely more. But, many others were not productive...Also, I had blind good luck like, just about the only time I worked on a Saturday the big boss of New Orleans exploration came in and I was the only one there. Or, one time I worked late and was leaving the parking garage on my bicycle late and was seen by the same boss. Oh, yeah..I was quite the fashion plate...polyester pants, too short (etc.).
Now, I have multiple projects and it is harder to focus...plus there are things like proposal writing and report writing. The paper I am working on will have 4 animations as supplemental data, and more than 15 figures. It will probably be published in about 15 pages. It has 3 or 4 complicated ideas in it. I have published 4 page papers....well...one as first author...several as second author.
Oh, yeah...the best part of what I do, for me, is brainstorming an idea with a colleague and coming up with some cool idea that neither would have gotten alone. But, some people I work with do not know about this concept of brainstorming. I had 2 nice brainstorming sessions before my watch and before my daily "nap" (turning light off and not sleeping) with RD and we figured out the last 50 million years of tectonic and climate history of 1000 km of Ross Sea...that is kind of cool...actually, glacial..
Chris