{"id":4481,"date":"2017-06-12T06:30:34","date_gmt":"2017-06-11T22:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/librariansmatter.com\/blog\/?p=4481"},"modified":"2017-06-10T22:10:17","modified_gmt":"2017-06-10T14:10:17","slug":"just-stop-bingeing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/librariansmatter.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/12\/just-stop-bingeing\/","title":{"rendered":"Just stop bingeing"},"content":{"rendered":"

(According to the Grammarist, it can be spelled “binging” also<\/a>, in fact it is most often spelled that way. But looks wrong to me).<\/p>\n

A simple change to my morning routine would make me happier in the long term, healthier and more productive. I’ve known this forever, and in the last three weeks have been giving myself a bit of a bad time for not simply switching.<\/p>\n

I should be snacking more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Every morning on the three days I am on campus, I walk down to the coffee shop outside my building with my coffee mug, buy a coffee, return to my office and deal with the morning’s email.<\/p>\n

I am meant to write as part of my job, but feel like I cannot be productive unless I can devote a good solid couple of days to writing. I schedule full days every second Friday and have blocked off a couple of weeks between semesters to write an article with research data collected in 2015..<\/p>\n

What is wrong in this picture?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Coffee costs $4 a pop – $12 a week, $552 a year if I take 4 weeks’ holiday.<\/li>\n
  2. Coffee is full of caffeine, which does affect my sleep<\/li>\n
  3. I don’t need the extra calories<\/li>\n
  4. I am at my most alert and potentially productive and I am using this to … answer email???<\/li>\n
  5. Authors like Rowena Murray<\/a>\u00a0 and Maria Gardiner and Hugh Kearns<\/a> suggest that “snack writing” is actually a more productive way for academics to increase output.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So, the solution is simple.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Instead of buying coffee, put into practice what I learned at two months of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course<\/a> that I did in March\/April through work. I could instead spend 10 minutes sitting still, practicing mindfulness to start my day, increase my focus and energise myself.<\/li>\n
    2. Instead of answering email first up, follow Hugh Kearns’ suggestion that I use the first hour of the day to write, when I am alert and fresh. If there is an emergency I will have another 6 hours to work on it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Hmmmm… Both ideas have actually come from on-campus seminars provided to staff. I know I have felt rather guilty and indulgent spending time at these instead of actually … working. I also think that, should I be able to change my habits, my workplace will benefit from someone probably more productive and balanced.<\/p>\n

      Why am I not following that morning routine now? Why am I finding it so hard to change?<\/p>\n

      Maybe for some of the reasons that Amanda Palmer sings about in In My Mind<\/a> . tl:dw (or if you have a problem with the word “fuck” and people in their underwear…) – if it was what I really thought was best for me then I WOULD be doing it, so perhaps it is not. It’s all my choice…<\/em><\/p>\n