It’s hard for me to read and write a lot when I’m at my parents’ house. I had expected to be able to retreat to my bedroom to work, but I found when I got home that my bedroom has been taken over by my mom’s quilting equipment. I’ve either been sleeping on the couch or in my little brother’s old bedroom, but there isn’t really a place in the house to retreat to to just read and write away from the family and the television. I feel like I’ve worked a lot on my thesis over break, but not as much as I would have liked. I have about 39 pages of text written (not all that I think I’ll keep), but I feel like I have a lot more to do. I know I have a lot more to do. I wish that Mt. Ayr, Iowa, had a nice coffee shop to sit down and work at, instead of my parents’ house and the library, which is only open a few hours a day.
Or, you know, if I still have my own bedroom back at my parents’ house. Oh well.
[EDIT]: Combine these problems with the fact that this is NOT a quiet library.
Isn’t it interesting that a noisy place like a coffee house is still more conducive to thinking than a semi-quiet library or a very quiet house (well, apparently the TV and radio are on at your house). It’s the anonymity of the coffee house that helps me tune out the surroundings and focus. In a library, which we expect to be full of intellectuals (well, here at OSU maybe?), instead in a town we find a variety of distracting conversations that are not muted or drowned out by background white noise of espresso machines and coffee shop music. Even a quiet room at home is surrounded/invaded by the vibes of family. Do you use ear phones for your music and can you write listening to music? For me, I cannot write words if I am simultaneously listening to words. But if you are just writing and don’t need to be online, can’t you just sit in a car somewhere alone? That really works for me. It’s quiet and isolated and I can pause and look out at the scenery (snow?).
I work well in coffee shops because conversations around me are like white noise, as you’ve noted. And it’s not a visual thing like the television. I can listen to earphones and read or write, but it’s not something that I do a lot. And the car thing sounds like it would work, but it’s not an environment that I’m accustomed to, and I always feel too crowded in a car to type and read — I tend to spread out when I work.
Unfortunately, there still is no snow in Iowa. It’s been warmer here than it was in Oregon.
I did my PhD (in business administration) and like many people found writting up the dissertation the most difficult bit. Research can be fun and interesting as one learns. But the tedious bit of writting it up and getting it complete is hard. So many people got to this point and stopped, the professors created a term to describe these people: ABD (All But Dissertation).
When I was in an environment which wasn’t conductive to writting (which I find requires the most intense concentration), I would try to use the time by doing something useful that required less concentration. For example, do the laundry (so at least when suitable times came along, I wouldn’t have to waste the time on chores). Also, work on the dissertation outline, chapter titles, joint down key points that I wanted to make under each topic. I found all these could be done in so-so environments, and would come in handy when things did quiet down.
Anyway, best of luck, and don’t become an ABD.
Thanks Robert! I’m in my master’s program right now, so can’t become ABD. 🙂 Now that I’m away from my parent’s house, the only obstacle is really a) the Internet, and b) when the quarter starts again and I’m really busy. Thanks!
When I wrote my thesis in England, I was lucky to have a room within 10 minutes walk of the Science Library. My room looked out over a large garden with lovely trees and an abundance of flowers.
So I had the best of both worlds – a place to reflect on my thoughts and close to the fountain of all knowledge.
I got my M.Sc. – so good luck Michael
Thanks Howard. Sorry it took me a while to get your comment up. It got caught by the spam filter. Oops. I noticed two really similar comments, so I only approved the one.
I finished in August, so yay! I have an MA now!