Last week I went to the library to get some work done in a less distracting environment. However, I couldn’t get any job done. You should suspect that my going to the library meant it was serious business for me.
One of my new semester goals is to visit the library more often. Even though I recognise that there are lots of online resources in terms of up-to-date journal access, I acknowledge that the library has a lot of resources that help one with understanding the theoretical and fundamental issues one intends to address in the cause of a PhD journey.
So I went to the library to use the resources and get a chunk of work done but guess what? I couldn’t do anything! The words were not flowing coherently. It was taking me a longer time to understand the article I was trying to read. Mind you, this was the early hours of the day (well not so early), between 10 am to 12 pm. The point is that this was the first intellectual work I was doing for the day, but I was not making any headway.
After trying and trying to get into my flow, you know what I did? I stopped trying. I closed everything that had to do with PhD and do something else unrelated to academics. This is not my first time experiencing a day like this, but this is the first time I am writing about it
I bet you have experienced some days like this. If you have, you should know that it’s not just you and the fault is not with you. Some days are just not for writing. Some days, you get into the flow effortlessly, other days it is just a struggle. Don’t think too hard about it, get away from the system for a little bit. Probably have a chat with a friend, read a book not related to academics or talk a walk or even journal.
It could be that your mind just needs a day to cool off and sometimes it could require more than a day but don’t take too many days off as it becomes harder to get back into the flow.
Just remember that some days are not just for academic writing so that you can be less hard on yourself for not getting it right. It is not you. Today is just not the day. Sometimes it’s just that simple.
Photo credit: mayankbhogal on flickr
