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Okay, printing out these papers and trying to study in the uni library (albeit a very sad and neglected place now) is helpful, but I've had a ridiculously slow start to the day... and I'm dreading having to go to work the next couple of days, breaking the concentration/energy I need to focus on a very different mode of thinking/writing.
Maybe doing this work and study thing isn't a very good idea :c I thought I had it in me but I don't have the energy that I did 4-5 years ago. Okay okay, no more dwelling on these negative thoughts, just keep on with what I can do at the moment. I'm making some progress on this assignment outline.
Launching study lemons straight from the tree in your general direction for alertness and energy. I can also launch calamari and veg gyoza to accompany for sustenance but my trebuchet wasn't designed for those.
Gracias! I will gratefully accept all calamari and veg gyoza offers even if they arrive the slow way via train (maybe throw some potato cakes from your chosen train station in as well). I need all the moral support I can get 💪🏽
Academic writing is very different to the SEO blog content I used to crap out at an old job, but that approach to writing might behelpful.
I'd start with the title of the piece, then skeleton it out with subheadings, and expand on those subheadings to populate the body.
It's a great way to structure your writing even when you don't have the mental capacity to start. Then you can think about your argument before you do a bulk of the writing and you're not staring at a blank page when you sit down to write again.
Also, check if the text editor you're using has a referencing tool. It makes putting them in and your bibliography so much easier if you're not using it already
Well, I have a bit of a skeleton going now thanks to a few meetings with my supervisor and emails summarising the overall logic flow.
Where I'm getting a bit stuck is going through the literature to actually understand what the hell I'm talking about. I find myself getting lost in the weeds without being able to understand what I need to focus on at this stage of the project. The specific area of research is an area I didn't have much exposure to in my coursework so it's kind of on me, choosing to jump into the deep end... but I feel like I've made some progress by getting through a couple of particularly dense papers and starting to how everything is connected, adding notes to the skeleton as I digest the papers.
I like need 3 more entire days to just smash through this but I frustratingly have to work to earn money and all that shit, and it's mostly screen based work... I'm going to see how much I can get away with phoning it in at work this week so I don't lose my study momentum
This is where I would kind of work backwards and skeleton out my writing, then look for anything in the research papers that supports it. I know it's not so easy to Ctrl+f academic papers because they're so dense, but you can skim until you find what you're after.
If you're not having luck then you adjust your argument to something more along the line of what you've read so far
Would a ritual before and after help?
One thing that does help is working in the same place.
A ritual before and after study?
I could definitely see that helping. Being physically in the library does help me focus a bit better (like the ritual of getting to uni, setting up, and acknowledging that now is uni time)
I haven't worked out a good way to get into that mindset when I'm at home or have had work that day though. It seems nigh on impossible for me to work up the energy to think about uni after a day at work. It took me years to work out a ritual to help me get into 'work mode' when working from home.
I may need to accept that I'm only going to get uni work done while I'm at the library. Luckily, it's only a 15 minute drive from home.
Mr Seagoon has specific tokens on his desk when he's working on unique and individual projects. Maybe you can carry a desk token with you when you go to uni and have it at home too. Bring it out for that project.
One of my rituals is to use special washi tape to decorate the top of my notepaper for that day - I can set aside some special washi tape for uni work, maybe!
Though I definitely find that working in a different physical environment altogether has been the biggest help. I have gotten a lot more done today than I have in the past couple weeks