Perserverance

Yes. All I have to blog about are screen shots of the “in progress” folder on my desktop.

However, I was feeling overwhelmed this morning, so a little look at how much less I have to do (and how many things have been down-graded in concern after a little hard work) is a reassuring event.

Seven things I’ve learned about myself from writing quite a bit in a short time (and which I should remember as I dive into writing even MORE in a short time):

1) I need the first 45 minutes of each day’s working time to be mindless writing towards any goal. These don’t need real footnotes or clear prose, but they do just need to be written. When enough of these sessions are written, I can string them together and edit.
2) I work best when this time is fairly early (for a Grad Student). 8:00 am with a nice cup of tea is perfect.
3) To achieve these writing goals, I need to turn off the internet. I use Freedom to control my morning writing session.
4) My husband is an excellent editor.
5) The more I read, the more easily I write. I think my ravenous devouring of pleasure reading is helping my brain recover from too many years of not reading much more than homework assignments and the internet.
6) I enjoy my time off more if I can look to something I have actually done over the day. Old news for people in more conventional jobs, perhaps, but for Grad Students who set their own goals and for whom the temptation to procrastinate looms large, it’s remarkable to feel like the evening is actually a time to relax.
7) Repeated re-working of a piece of writing is not something to be feared.

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