Doing nothing? Nothing doing

Here's your guided meditation for a Thursday.

You sit down to write a paper. You’ve done all the research you could possibly need to do, but for some reason, you just can’t get started.

Does this mean you’re procrastinating? Ask most anyone and they’ll tell you that you are, but it’s not necessarily true. The things we write aren’t simply a culmination of the research we’ve done into a topic. The mind needs to process new information before it can work with it, and even then, there’s still the matter of what you are going to write about it.

You might think you just need to do some research and get writing, and this is why you sit at the screen unsure of where to start. You haven’t let the project germinate, and it’s like trying to harvest the fruit from a tree while it’s still a seed in the ground. Your brain needs to process that research before it can work with it.

Sometimes I sit and stare around at all the literature I've amassed for a report I've been asked to write, and I just can't think what to do next. The problem may be that I just haven't finished processing what I've read. I should learn to forgive myself, relax and let the pieces of information fall into place naturally.

Of course, sometimes the problem is a dangerously severe chocolate deficiency. But that's another story.

Comments

[your mother]

Sometimes people have trouble starting to write a report because they want to write the introduction first. This seems logical except you can't really introduce something unless you know what it is. Sometimes it is better to jump into your most important developing point and write about this and then go on to the next sub topic.

Or you can dose up on dark chocolate.

[Tonya]

Oh, whew, maybe I can stop feeling guilty now (and forgive myself!) I was even getting to the point where I wondered if I might have developed a later-in-life case of ADD.

Off to the vending machine...

[e]

this is entirely because people confuse writing with typing. the process of the former only tangentially involves the latter. this is also true of art, although i had no idea for years that this was the case. what a pleasant surprise!