I’ve been having difficulty getting my work started. There are two things I need to be actively working on for the next week (and longer) but I haven’t been able to find the time. I finally realized that my problem was preparation. I am a far cry from the romantic ideal of writers who magically dip their quill into their pot of ink and begin to manically scribble brilliance onto their parchment paper for eternal noteriety. I tend to (like most people) need some amount of preparation, even if it is just entering a certain state of mind. Dissertations and writing projects for other people are hardly small things produced by magical means. These are both things I’ve already invested a fair amount of time and research into which makes it all the more difficult to simply begin writing something. There is a certain amount of planning required for such large projects and this is the type of planning I needed to do. My papers, however, were littered in various locations and becoming more and more buried under the remnants of Christmas morning and Holiday snacking. It was time to clean off my desk.
I spent the evening cleaning my desk. This was a worthy goal and needed to be done. The amazing thing that has happened is that I’m actually feeling ready to write. Tomorrow morning when I wake up I will already have reviwed and organized not only my thoughts but also my resources. There are only two piles on my desk now (and small ones at that). One pile for my dissertation and the other for my writing assignment. I can safely begin without being burdened by locating all of the material and sifting through the muck before I hear the footsteps of our son wanting me to read him a book or the ding of a new e-mail or the pull of another cup of coffee. I’ll be in it and working before I can convince myself not to. This is a welcome change. Hopefully I can stick with it. In short: organize a little because it helps a lot.