Usually researching is a conscious decision. You go to the archive to look at specific collections or spend an afternoon with secondary sources to situate your argument or sit down at the computer to consult digitized documents (not check email). This researching is planned, often requires travel, and you know that for a set period of time your job is ‘research’.
But other times researching happens out of the blue. You’re out with friends and meet someone who works in the area you study or open the newspaper to see an article on your topic. Today I sat down to decompress before finishing prepping for a 36 hour research trip to Vancouver tomorrow and saw this commercial from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. It is not often that watching a TV commercial suddenly becomes researching.