Housekeepery
Aug. 27th, 2009 02:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterI've had a somewhat hard time, over the last two days, getting myself in to school at the usual hour. This isn't catastrophic; it's just a change from my usual routine. I think my mind is still trying to transition back into thinking/analysis/writing mode, from the longstanding frenetic data-collecting mode. Thinking, data analysis, and writing don't happen on the same sort of schedule as many other types of work. My mind must be very clear to do these things. And for me, one of the early stages of this mode of academic work is the housekeeping stage.
My advisor is actually the same way--before she can sit down to write, she has to clean the house. I wonder where this compulsion comes from. It might be that the physical act of mundane tasks like cleaning and organizing leave a person's mind free to work on the early parts of writing something--thinking about what needs to get written, in what sort of order. It might also be that housekeeping clears out a lot of those small distractions that buzz through one's brain, leading to improved focus--for me, it's looking around and trying to remember to fix the typewriter (done, I think), to secure my bike bell on my handlebars so that it doesn't slide around (done), to empty the litterbox and clean the bathroom already (done), to sweep the floors (done), to clear out some of the junk that has accumulated on my desk and in my room (done), and to attach the basket securely to the front of my bike (haven't gotten to that one quite yet). If these things are finished, I don't have to think about them anymore. And in any case, the house is cleaner, which is quite civilized.
So now I am moving on to the phase where I am back to really hating my desk. Seriously, I bought it when I first moved to Arizona, at Target. It had one of those fold-out keyboard trays instead of a regular old drawer, and it's just too small and shallow and crappy. I devoted an entire post to the subject a few months ago, so I won't rehash the whole matter. I'll just note that I'm on the lookout again for a nice, solid, flat wood door that can be repurposed into a desk. Hmm.
My advisor is actually the same way--before she can sit down to write, she has to clean the house. I wonder where this compulsion comes from. It might be that the physical act of mundane tasks like cleaning and organizing leave a person's mind free to work on the early parts of writing something--thinking about what needs to get written, in what sort of order. It might also be that housekeeping clears out a lot of those small distractions that buzz through one's brain, leading to improved focus--for me, it's looking around and trying to remember to fix the typewriter (done, I think), to secure my bike bell on my handlebars so that it doesn't slide around (done), to empty the litterbox and clean the bathroom already (done), to sweep the floors (done), to clear out some of the junk that has accumulated on my desk and in my room (done), and to attach the basket securely to the front of my bike (haven't gotten to that one quite yet). If these things are finished, I don't have to think about them anymore. And in any case, the house is cleaner, which is quite civilized.
So now I am moving on to the phase where I am back to really hating my desk. Seriously, I bought it when I first moved to Arizona, at Target. It had one of those fold-out keyboard trays instead of a regular old drawer, and it's just too small and shallow and crappy. I devoted an entire post to the subject a few months ago, so I won't rehash the whole matter. I'll just note that I'm on the lookout again for a nice, solid, flat wood door that can be repurposed into a desk. Hmm.
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-28 03:13 pm (UTC)I love my flat "desk" (Danish! Came with the apartment and will go with the apartment) but what I'd really like is something slightly bowl shaped.
Particle board sucks.
Your subconscious just cannot accept that you legitimately intend to tackle a major task when you consistently fail to tackle small ones. If you keep telling yourself "I'm going to do X" and then not doing it, you lose creditability with yourself. Any large undertaking has a certain amount of ritual associated with it, perhaps stemming from this... the launching of ships, breaking ground for a new building, ...
People who up and radical things without warning are kind of scary... case in point, the friend of a friend who got deported then went to Japan then Spain and now the UK. It's almost anti-social to do something without the required amount of ritual.
-s
Door
Date: 2009-08-30 04:07 pm (UTC)Re: Door
Date: 2009-08-31 12:50 am (UTC)Re: Door
Date: 2009-08-31 04:50 pm (UTC)Re: Door
Date: 2009-08-31 06:13 pm (UTC)