- Rush, press yourself, give yourself 15-25 minutes only.
- Write, don’t meditate; writing is thinking, so think by writing.
These are instructions for people who have never written anything. Sure, you should start, and sure, something can be done in a short amount of time. But limiting yourself in this way is damaging, and pressing yourself ahead in this mode is unsustainable. You have to do things with love, not with threats, after all.
On the second point, I disagree as well. I’ve never liked “journaling” as a way to work things out. I like to write but I’ve always thought before writing, and sometimes without putting things on paper. The first lecture on a piece of literature for an upper division class I ever gave, I composed mentally while washing dishes and no, I never had or took the time to write it down, I just went to bed, got up, and went to class, and my co-teacher said it was great.
Sitting at a desk with a timer and trying to force something out is bad. It’s carceral. Most people are happiest in prison.
Good advice is that if you like down with dogs, you get up with fleas. No you should not listen to fools, yes you should associate with people who can do a bit better than the above.
Every writing problem I have ever had has involved trying to please by not reading or thinking enough ahead of time, and by orienting myself as directed toward production only.
I never agreed with this strategy. Before I was advanced enough to have to be responsible to mentors, I accomplished a lot and was a confident and competent researcher and writer. I think the professors and faculty mentors didn’t have as much research or writing experience as I did. They certainly were not aware of my work, or did not respect it.
Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas. One of my main reasons for writing now is so as to associate with strong minds. Reeducation was about renunciation of self, and that was not a good idea.
Axé.
Remember the “tomato” technique some grad students and Early Career Researchers were into years back? The Pomodoro technique? Of setting a timer for 25 minutes? What did that produce in the long run? I am someone who mulls a topic over in my head before writing and I have to see a clear narrative line before I start to write, which means that I will already having picked my way through a lot of secondary material to see how it fits in –or doesn´t. I use a journal only to jot down what is (in my opinion) a key phrase I don´t want to forget. It’s part of the process of notetaking. In the end I compile quite a few notes and that allows me to quote liberally from what I read. I learned about copying lengthey paragraphs from my sources from a fellow student at Cornell, He was in Southeast Asian Studies. He said it helped him remember , even though it felt tedious at the time. I guess the point is, there is a a lot of mental and physical work you need to do before you start writing. And only the words themselves can be made up as you go along, not the ideas. That’s my experience, anyway.
They still do the pomodoro / timer / 25 minute hourglass thing. People in professions do it too, for tedious tasks or things that require picky concentration. “I will struggle with this coding issue for 25 minutes, as sensibly as I can, and then take break.” It’s not appropriate for writing, really. I think the issue is that people didn’t have research and writing habits already? I mean, I started building them in elementary school, but it appears that many people do not have a writing process when they start their assistant professor jobs and have to develop one from scratch. (Their hands were held throughout their dissertations, that’s why they didn’t at least start there.)