To Be or Not To Be

A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell;
And very hard the task I find
Of governing it well.
~ Louisa May Alcott

...that more or less describes my situation!

~A Wise Man Said~

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
~ Aristotle
Sunday, June 28, 2020
 
I am grappling with a productivity problem these days! :( I am not sure if it’s a new problem as much as an old problem that rears its head whenever I start a new piece of research writing. I get this feeling that I am easily distracted by the phone/social media and I don’t know what to do to stop myself from impulsive-compulsive browsing. The thing is I don’t technically do nonsensical or wasteful stuff but visit interesting sites or groups on relevant things like writing, philosophy and so on. I’m not sure if that renders it as a valid activity to do when I am very much using it to distract myself from what I should be doing, if you get my point? It becomes an easy excuse to give myself that I am doing something valuable but the value is diminished if it’s not indulged in a balanced way, I guess. I am trying to think of how to make myself more accountable to my goals and how to reduce distraction in the course of achieving my daily work goals. One thing I have started to do is to keep the phone in a different room so it takes some effort to check it—this does reduce the frequency but I still find myself drawn to it.

I have always believed that reading up other things or letting my mind wander into other areas does help my creative process or does help my subconscious simmer ideas at the back of my mind. Which is why I have always encouraged myself to explore interesting ideas or articles or concepts even if not directly related to my research writing. There are connections and patterns that can be suggested by the most unrelated of ideas. But what is bothering me now is that the optimal balance is getting disrupted. Instead of the distractions triggering some interesting thought processes that help me in working out my writing, I am wondering if too much of it is clouding my thinking. As in, my subconscious is perhaps losing sight of the main goal, it perhaps does not have the resting time required to join the dots? This is what’s troubling me really. On the other hand, I have always been troubled about this whenever I have felt like I am not getting where I want to be with what I am working on especially if that piece of work happens to be a bit high stakes or key as it is at the moment. Sooner rather than later things do fall in place though. So maybe I am just overthinking it as I am wont to do. Oh well…

posted by Sylvia D'souza at 9:30 pm 0 comments
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