Today I complete 40 days of writing over the course of two calendar months, and I’ve managed to maintain discipline and consistency throughout this period of time, despite a couple of brief interruptions to my schedule of writing 500-800 words a day, five days a week. I reflected on the 10th day that the real challenge at that point was generating interesting ideas, but I successfully got another 29 days of writing in before I got so stuck figuring out what I wanted to write about today that I decided I’d go back to being metacognitive about the process itself.
To be fair, I have an handful of ideas sitting in a virtual ‘ideas’ document, but I know most of them will take some time to write, so I am putting off engaging with those ideas for a day where I have more time. Of course, I am on summer vacation right now, but I have been using my time exploring St Louis by biking around, taking care of walking and training the shelter dog we just adopted, cooking and baking, exercising, doing a lot of reading, and playing a couple of computer games on and off. Today I’ve done a lot, and just don’t feel I have it in me to do one of the deeper dives I had planned.
As I was working out earlier, I was listening to the latest episode of Ezra Klein’s podcast, and he was interviewing Annie Murphy Paul’s The Extended Mind. Side note: If you like interesting ideas and thoughtful interviews, check on the podcast! One of the ideas she shares is that our computer model of the brain don’t accurately reflect how the brain evolved to function, and that trying to grit out a paper or finish intellectual work without engaging other areas of the brain, is actually less efficient than if we were to go out for a walk or spend some time meditating for example.
I’ve noticed in my 40 days of writing that I am most productive when I write before 1 pm, and that after 1 pm my focus is diminished, regardless of whether I’ve walked, exercised, or meditated. Indeed today, having done both of the latter, I am still struggling to stay focused on this writing. However, to some extent, this lack of focus has been a self-fulfilling prophecy. I have told myself I’m not focused, and therefore I believe it. Likewise, my desire to finish the amazing book I have been reading (Children of Ruin, another Klein recommendation), the handful of chores I have to get done (cleaning and cooking), and a phone call I have scheduled, have led me to this moment where I am feeling drawn in a number of different directions, unable to focus on my writing.
On that note, I am going to wrap this up. There’s not much point in writing when you don’t want to, and I am just about to reach 500 words. I feel like one of my students, trying to string together a last handful of ideas to reach a specific word limit set by an assignment. Success.