When she sat still, her swirling thoughts settled like tea leaves at the bottom of a cup. Then she could see clearly. She knew herself. She was a dreamer. A wonderer. A collector. She had to keep looking.
But she also had to earn a living.
– Laura Alary
Maria Mitchell was an astronomer, teacher, librarian, and entrepreneur (she started her own school. I’d consider that being an entrepreneur.)
She discovered the comet C/1847 T1. This was a response to the challenge put forth from King Frederick VI of Denmark offering a gold medal to the first person to discover a new comet.
Once again, picture books, children’s books, are underrated.
Work, to him, is a pleasure, and also a habit. When he moved into his flat on Powis Terrace in 1962, the largest room served as both his bedroom and his studio. On the chest of drawers, he place a notice in large capital letters reading ‘GET UP AND WORK IMMEDIATELY’ (which he did with all the more alacrity since he regretted wasting two hours painting the sign).
– Martin Gayford
One doesn’t need a separate room for a studio. You can make it work. Keep going.
Gayford, Martin, and Hockney, David. Spring Cannot Be Cancelled: David Hockney in Normandy. United Kingdom, Thames & Hudson, 2021. pp76
The concept is pretty simple. First, you prepare any work you have and set it out in front of you. Also, plug your laptop in, go to the bathroom, that kind of stuff. You set a 1 hour timer on a kitchen timer or phone. For that hour, you work hard with no interruptions. And I mean no interruptions. You turn your phone off and put it in another room. You can have your computer, but you can’t have it open when your work doesn’t require it, and you can’t even open a tab if it isn’t immediately necessary to your work. No stretch breaks, no bathroom breaks, no food, no talking. I know. Brutal. If an hour of total focus seems like too much, you can always do 1/2, 1/3, or even 1/4 of a Doro. The length of the Doro doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you totally focus for the entire time. Why is this so important? Two reasons.
First of all, totally focusing and not allowing yourself any breaks shatters the thought that many people, myself included have when they procrastinate: “I have a lot of work, and I’m going to get it all done, so I’ll just watch one or two videos first.” The psychological attitude most people have is that they are going to have to get a lot of work done, so they just want a quick break first. It’s important to recognize that this often leads into complete stagnation and hours wasted. You have to set a defined time in which you have to work, and can’t take any breaks.
Secondly, working without any interruption makes you way more efficient – you go into this zone where you forget about everything outside of your work. This sounds strange, but often when I finish a Doro I almost feel sad. This is because instead of constantly waiting for it to be over, you actually lock in and stop thinking about the outside world. When it ends, you’re brought back into reality, which is a bit of a shock, because you were so productive.
If you’re looking for a method to regain your concentration Doro’s are way to begin. Think of them like chin-ups for your focus-muscle. Don’t think about it too much, grab the nearest timer and go.
Macabee also gives another excellent tip for what to do if you finish your Doro session early:
If you finish your work, but you still have time left in the Doro, instead of ending the Doro prematurely find a way to use the extra time. Go over the reading again, check your homework answers, edit your paper for an even better final draft, or even do work that isn’t assigned for the near future, or just make something up! It’s good to complete Doros, because that mentally reinforces them as a unit of time, as opposed to just an incentive to get you working. It feels good to finish them, and also you will be able to put them on your calendar!
I like printing. I get a real kick out of it. I mean sometimes when I’m feeding the press, I forget that’s nothing but an old broken-down machine. I think to myself, that’s a black monster who’s going to snap off my fingers if I don’t keep him tame. You know what I mean?
MR. HEALY
I often have the same image myself.
THE BOY
When I go out on deliveries, I always wear my apron because I want everybody in the street to know I’m a printer.
MR. HEALY
Boy, I never met a linotyper who liked his job.
THE BOY
They like their job on payday, I bet you.
MR. HEALY
They sit all day, plunking keys. There’s no craft to it. There’s no pride.
THE BOY
Nowadays, I don’t know you have to be so proud. Mister Healy, I just figure there ain’t much future in being a compositor. I mean, what’s wrong with linotyping? If the didn’t have linotype machines, how would they print all the books in the thousands and thousands of copies?
MR. HEALY
Are there so many good books around? Are the authors any more clever?
THE BOY
How are you going to set up daily newspapers? You can’t supply the public demand for printed matter by hand setting.
MR. HEALY
Are the people any wiser than they were a hundred years ago? Are they happier? This is the great American disease, boy! This passion for machines. Everybody is always inventing labor-saving devices. What’s wrong with labor? A man’s work is the sweetest thing he owns. It would do us a lot better to invent some labor-making devices. We’ve gone mad, boy, with this mad chase for comfort, and it’s sure we’re losing the very juice of living. It’s a sad business, boy, when they sit a row of printers down in a line, and the machine clacks, and the mats flip, and when it comes out, the printer has about as much joy of creation as the delivery boy. There’s no joy in this kind of life, boy–no joy. It’s a very hard hundred dollars a week, I’ll tell you that!
Intriguing contrast in this scene. Mr. Healy doesn’t view The Boy’s work as craft, but the boy does. He take genuine pride in his work.
In a way both Mr. Healy and The Boy are both right. Reminds me of when Spike Lee mentioned drama is created when two opposing perspectives are right (paraphrasing).
I disagree with Mr. Healy though. We’re not inventing enough laborsaving devices…
Whatever the work is that you are doing, love it, and commit to it. – Zohar Atkins
“Love work” is different than “Love what you do”—for the injunction is less about finding the right work to love and more about finding any work to love. If romanticism suggests that there is only one thing that you can do and be happy, Shemaiah’s approach is closer to the logic behind arranged marriage: once you are prepared to love work your work becomes lovable. Meanwhile, the FOMO caused by wondering “Am I in the right line of work?” leads to restlessness. As the average time in any one job or company declines, one contributing factor may be the grass is always greener effect. A person who eschews status will not be as prone to this fallacy.
Read Zohar’s full piece here. And pair with Dorthy Sayers opening paragraph from her essay Why Work?
I have already, on a previous occasion, spoken at some length on the subject of Work and Vocation. What I urged then was a thoroughgoing revolution in our attitude to work. I asked that it should be looked upon, not as a necessary drudgery to be undergone for the purpose of making money, but as a way of life in which the nature of man should find its proper exercise and delight and so fulfill itself to the glory of God. That it should, in fact be thought of as a creative activity undertaken for the love of work itself; and that man, made in God’s image, should make things, as God makes them, for the sake of doing well a thing that is well worth doing.
Sayers, Dorothy. Letters to a Diminished Church: Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 2004.
I think both Dorthy and Zohar would agree on the idea that work is a noble pursuit on its own. But Dorthy takes the idea a step further, proposing the argument that work shouldn’t be taken on for only the purpose of earning money, but rather as an essential part of bringing glory to God.
Everyone has something stopping them from writing. Confronting the blank page isn’t hard because of your circumstances, it’s just hard. For sure, it’s harder for many people, but the advice applies all the same that you need to sit your ass in the chair and type.
Floodlights and Goalposts 