Sunday, January 23, 2011

Today's post is brought to you by the letter "A"

for "Accountability." I've never tried the live blogging thing. But I'm doing it today to keep track of what I actually do on my diss.

1:27--decide to live blog, begin post

1:29--making notes on a book that must return to library tomorrow (have been doing this for 15 minutes or so)

1:35--finished that book; moving on to the 2nd of 3 that are due tomorrow (there wasn't much there as it is an intro book, but it's a good refresher)

1:46--decided that the 2nd book isn't useful and is about the author's posturing; on to book 3

1:53--decided 3rd book, while really interesting, isn't going to help me. I will come back to it later to read for fun, and maybe as a model for structure.

1:55--start typing up notes on the section due next Tues.

2:09--lunch break

Well that was a long lunch break. Serenity was on; I got distracted.

4:33--back to note-typing

4:48--done with notes; now I need to look at the section and make the changes I have in mind

5:14--printing what I have and switching over to writing by hand. The screen makes me sleepy.

6:03--brain went to doodleville, but I now have 4 handwritten pages that are clear, and more importantly, I figured out how these 2 specific theories work together to support what I'm trying to say. I've known that what I'm stating depends on both, but I haven't figured out how to explain them together. Now I have, I think.

Okay, end of experiment. What have I learned? Today I was very anxious and only worked in very short bursts before needing to change my focus. Writing by hand helped me think in a way the computer didn't today. After ~45 minutes, my brain doodles. I have also found that I'm repeating myself in my notes. This particular big idea may be smaller than I originally thought. Also, I found myself writing lots of introductory material. I think that when I'm not focused on a specific text (analytically), I flounder. But that does seem like a productive 2.5 hours (albeit with a long break in the middle). Okay, more work to do, just not bogging it.

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