As may be apparent, I have not been on the ball (to use a footballing metaphor) this morning. No, that is not because of football. That is because yesterday's ‘scribing' brought to a close an extended period of work.

I had not planned that quite so many projects would end simultaneously, but that appears to have a happened.

I book chapter on tax ethics has been submitted.

My submission, with Prof Adam Leaver of Sheffield University, to the government on audit reform has gone in, and will be published here very soon.

A second piece of work with Adam, this time also including Prof Colin Haslam and Dr Nick Tsitsianis of Queen Mary, University of London, on the phenomenon we describe as ‘hollowed out firms' has been completed and accepted. That will also appear very soon.

And at almost exactly the same moment the Global Initiative for Financial Transparency has accepted the final version of my work with Prof Andrew Baker of Sheffield University on tax transparency. That work now moves on after publication soon to discussions with parties such as the IMF and World Bank.

I did not expect this lot to all happen at the same time, and I admit I feel in relaxed mode as a result. I might enjoy that for a day or two, before new work starts. Some of that is a new project with Copenhagen Business School on sustainable cost accounting. There will also be teaching to prepare for. And on top of that there is new research, focussing on tax in financial statements. Initial research shows that there is a major failure in this area and that, quite literally, accounts do not add up with regard to tax. Plus a paper on the nature of the so-called national debt that is long overdue for completion, and which was put aside last autumn as the work just finished accumulated, will need to be revisited and be updated, and will hopefully see the light of day.

I am also aware that wise head around me have been saying I have been overdoing it. My defence is that there has been a lot to do, but I might take heed for a bit, although the blog tends to be the last thing to be impacted by such decisions.

However, for the next day or two if I am quiet(ish) then there is a reason. I am taking a day or two to think about priorities, plans and to recover from producing a mighty lot of words, and having done a great deal of thinking over the last few months. It is time, for a moment, to not just look out of the window but to maybe even wander out a bit, to have a coffee and do some mind mapping of plans for the next stage.