One principle that really stuck with me from Getting Things Done is the idea of freeing up your psychic RAM. Always write stuff down. File things. Minimize distractions in your workspace…stuff like that. Otherwise everything can build up and compete for your attention all at once.
One of the things I did in my office was try to shelve books in cabinets or otherwise out of sight. If I had assignments with a lot of reading I’d gather all the stuff together but only put on my desk the material I needed right at that moment. That way, if I glanced up from the page I was reading I wouldn’t see a pile of more work and get lost thinking about what I had to read next. I would get to those other things eventually, but there was no point in flooding my mind with reminders of their existence while I was trying to do something else.
How, then, did things come to this?:
Over the last few weeks I have constructed a virtual book fortress in my study room. Books, I told myself, that I should read before calling my current project done.
At first I figured the stacks were going to be helpful; each one was a different category and I imagined racing through them like peeling potatoes or husking corn….but books, my friends, are not vegetables.
Before coming in to work today I knew I had to spend time writing and I realized the trick would be getting away from the books. Indeed, I had to follow my own advice from the contingency management post, hoping what I had written last summer would turn out to be true:
If you choose to write on a project in development, you’ll see that your concerns about not being ready to write are groundless (you really don’t need to download another article or check out another book before starting).
This morning I took action and migrated to the opposite end of the table:
It doesn’t sound like much, but just look at the view:
It worked like a charm. No longer drowning in books. Psychic RAM much clearer.
And I spent the day writing. 2399 words later, I’m a much happier man.
13 comments ↓
Of course the thing that jumps out of these pictures to me isn’t the pile of books, but the Mac. What program do you write in?
I’ve been writing in DEVONthink Pro, which has become my notetaking, writing, PDF managing, webpage archiving, does-almost-everything app these days. There’s a cheaper personal version (and always a student discount on both), but I like the features of Pro. I’ll probably write more about that someday.
There are other ways to get green-on-black full-screen goodness. I used to use MacJournal ($34.99), and there’s a new one out by Hog Bay Software called WriteRoom ($24.95).
But for the money, you probably can’t beat JDarkRoom, though I haven’t tried it myself. It’s free, so worth trying out.
Jeez, nice study room. Princeton perks? Lately I’ve taken to turning my DSL modem off for 2-3 hours at a time so I can write. Sometimes that doesn’t work–I somehow convince myself that’s okay to turn it back on. Yesterday I unplugged the modem and hid it under a pile of napkins in the kitchen. That worked pretty well.
Sorry, my comment should read: “that it’s”. Unfortunately, my modem is on now.
Hey Jeremy,
I shouldn’t really call it my study room; any soc grad can get a key to use it. But most days go by without anyone else coming in.
I loved the napkins.
Hey, Jim. Love the workplace efficiency posts. And the black screen looks great–i just downloaded a trial version of macjournal to try it for myself. But I wonder, does devon do footnotes well? Rob
Hey, Rob, thanks for the comment.
DEVONthink does a lot, but it\’s not actually a word processor. So even though I do a lot of my writing with it, I inevitably copy what I’ve written into MS Word.
Word has given me my share of headaches, so when it comes to writing a longer document (like my dissertation), I’m considering the program Mellel, which a lot of academics and people in the DEVONthink forums seem to like. Plenty of user reviews here.
Another innovative program is Scrivener, which the developers describe as a project management tool for writers (you’d still have to export your writing to do footnotes, etcs.). Here’s the product page and a review by Merlin Mann. I don’t think I’ll be trying this one out any time soon just b/c I’m happy with what DEVONthink can do and I’d like to keep my workflow as simple as possible.
I like the term “psychic RAM”! I feel blocked on occasion, but I know where EVERYTHING is located in my giant mess of a desk. Here’s a picture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/l.....372574672/
Is there a pack-rat gene?
Not sure about the gene, but it seems like there’s an anti-anti-clutter movement out there. The New York Times had an article called “Say Yes to Mess” in December.
Did the article mention Eric Abrahamson’s book “A Perfect Mess: The Benefits of Disorder–How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices and On-The-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place” ?? I saw this guy on Oprah and then the evening news profiled him. He SWEARS that mess is standard operating procedure for LOTS of people.
And all these years I thought it was just me. Turns out that a lot of people are clutter bugs. I feel better now.
Whoops, I just realized that article is already in the pay section of the site. Yes, the article was mostly based around his book.
dude i’m so into this idea. gonna buy this book.
cheers,
d
The power of a change of perspective :). Thanks for the pointer on JDarkRoom, I finally checked it out. Freedom from distraction is a very useful anti-procrastination aid, even on the computer screen. Personally I would be rather intimidated by that pile of books, but that’s just me!
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