My previous posting certainly generated a lot of impassioned responses! I love it!
As we move into the summer months, how are you feeling? I feel tired in a good way, fat in a well-earned way, pretty and content in the way that comes when you feel very good about being authentically you, wishing for a romance, and determined as h*** to write my dissertation. My church goes on hiatus in July-August for the most part, and I can hunker down and focus. The question is: will I? What does it mean to “focus?” When I was on sabbatical, my focus was on keeping my eyes, ears and heart open to the presence of God in everything and everywhere I went. The world felt like one big congregation,with connections and love and mutual care crossing borders and boundaries of culture, class, race, language, history and theology.
Now, my focus must be much more practical: stare at a computer screen every day in a room filled with books and silence and write a doctoral paper on covenant.
Very few meetings, very little preaching, few pastoral calls, just this big work to be done.
How do you focus your energies when a “big work” must be accomplished?
How do you take care of yourself, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually when you have a daunting project to tackle?
One of my bad habits when I have no obligation to dress professionally for any reason is to launch into my day in my pj’s and never really get dressed. I may get a lot accomplished (or not!), but it just feels icky to find myself in my nightgown at 3pm at the computer, typing away. Why is that so depressing? Do you feel the same way when you do the same thing (assuming you have ever done the same thing!), or do you revel in the simplicity of it? After all, what could be more “low-impact” than not showering, not needing to launder more clothes, and not taking the energy to change clothes, brush the hair, etc.?
The Secret Life of the Pastor… do tell!
So I’m not a pastor, but I do work from home and have days where I find myself in PJs with unwashed hair all day long. I don’t feel bad about it all, I find it rather a luxury, except when the UPS guy comes to the door, my landlord or a neighbor stops by, or any of the other random human encounters that seem to always happen on those days.
I know I always feel better when I do the shower and get dressed thing – but don’t always do it when I am working on papers or other projects. But when I do I have a compromise – I shower and find my comfiest of all comfy pj’s I have and my bunny slippers with the biggest ears. 🙂 Sometimes I wear dangly silly earrings with the whole “outfit” – makes me smile just thinking about it (the earrings, not the writing!)
As far as focus – I can be such a procrastinator! But when I finally buckle down to work I find that I can get myself into such a driven and uptight place when I make too much of a difference between what you described you did on sabbatical (“focus was on keeping my eyes, ears and heart open to the presence of God in everything and everywhere I went.”) and the work at hand. I try my best to keep my focus on the presence of God in my writing process, research, editing etc. When I do not only do things seem to go more smoothly but creativity sparks and I see connections between things I didn’t see before or the relevance of research information I had previously put aside. I don’t stay in that space all the time – I trip and fall into my own mental traps regularly. But what a blessing to be able to realize I’m in the trap – awareness is the only way out! Didn’t Gurdjieff say something to that effect?
When I was working on my thesis, I had a lot of trouble focusing and getting anything done when I stayed in my apartment. I’m an extrovert, so being alone in my apartment is draining instead of helpful for focus. I discovered that if I took my books and laptop to my favorite coffee shop, working on my thesis felt more like a social activity and adventure, and less like a daunting chore that I had to do alone.
When I was working on my doctoral project two years ago, after taking a few years off while settling into my first full time ministry and my doctoral mentor told me to just get it done, I found that I had to leave the house in order to focus. I have ADD so I needed to practice all of the behavioral strategies at my disposal, otherwise I would get up and eat whatever was in sight, but especially junk food. I went to the local college library and was able to get a great deal accomplished.
I had an amazing experience when I was doing my third draft. I needed to be home because I was cleaning up the footnotes and bibliography and could lug all my books to the library. I had been doing kirtan, my spiritual practice of devotional singing- in particular chanting the Hanuman Chalisa – 40 verses to the Hindu God Hanuman. It was the full moon in April, which is Hanuman’s birthday. It is the custom to sing the Chalisa on this special day. I tried to convince myself that I couldn’t possibly go to the local temple to chant because I was just Too Busy. Well I did go and we did many Chalisas, and I was asked to lead it once. It was very uplifting. The next day I got up and started to work on my project – it didn’t take long to realize that the desire to eat junk food was completely gone and I was completely focused. I hadn’t asked for any boon – it was just pure grace. I went months without eating poorly. I’ve since slipped back but remember that great gift.
I try and work from home in my pajamas without showering at least twice a month. I would do it more often if I could – It is one of my favorite things to do. It feels like such a luxury.
may the ideas and words flow as freely as God’s grace while you complete your important work.
Not a pastor, but theologian and ministry trainer. I finished my dissertation and defended 9 years ago (which is hard to believe). Get dressed, treat it like work–you are going to start at a certain time, you will take a lunch break at a certain time, you are allowed one 20 minute coffee break morning and afternoon, and you will finish at a certain time. That is the minimum you will do, although you may work ‘overtime’ (but it doesn’t mean you work less the next day!).
I finished my entire PhD in 5 years–coursework, languages, qualifying exams, dissertation. Almost to the day. I was quick in terms of most of my contemporaries (my current houseguest took almost 10). When people asked how I finished so quickly, I told them it was an exercise in gardening–I planted my a$$ on the chair in front of the computer (or in the library, or wherever), and stayed put until it grew roots and finally bore fruit!
All that said, I also had a year of travel fellowship in my PhD, as my work could not be done without resources at a great distance (UK) from my granting university (Milwaukee). And although I crammed into two months the amount of research most people do in a year, and it was hard work, but I had a great time.
How am I feeling NOW? Mainly good (despite a spasm in the trapezius that’s caused numbness and mild dislocation in my shoulder!). My houseguest is leaving Saturday–good friend, but it’s been a bit much having him here for 9 days when he just bought the ticket and said ‘I’m coming’ (note to self–learn to say how LONG people can come for, and to adjust the time according to the guest…).
We have our university scrutiny events this week (where our validating university examines the structure and rationale of our programmes), and that will be gruelling.
The Principal Tutor is going on holiday from 27 June until end July, which is a GOOD thing. He’s sort of a difficult person, won’t go into that just now!
But mainly good. The sun shines in Canterbury this morning.
Helpful friends gave me the advice to NOT give advice to thesis and dissertation writers, even though I have written my own theses. What works for me doesn’t work for other people.
What works for me is getting up, showering/getting dressed, and starting REAL WORK by a certain time (i.e., turning off Facebook and fun email just as I would in an office), and working for something like 50 minutes, then 10 minute fun break. I also add in a few of what I call “Obama snacks”, based on the picture in the paper a while back. Slice of cheese, fruit, and crackers. “Obama snacks” just make me feel productive. “The President wouldn’t be checking Facebook right now!”, say my crackers…
That is what works for me, and results are not promised for any others. I know ministers who work best at home writing parish letters in their jammies from bed with cats in their laps.
I’m motivated by rewards, so if I worked hard on my dissertation at home all day (it helped that I didn’t have high-speed Internet), I would treat myself in the evening for an hour or two to whatever I wanted: browsing aimlessly at the bookstore, a long walk, or a cupcake. Luckily the walk cravings balanced out the cupcake cravings.
I also second Lauren on working at coffee shops– being around people helps you feel like you’re part of the non-dissertating human race.
You might find a month or two of subscribing to the Academic Ladder’s Writing Club (http://academicwritingclub.com/) helpful. I found it very rewarding to form a temporary community with other writers for support and accountability, and have often subscribed in the summer when I’m trying to get a writing project completed.
I am listening, as well as advising. I’ve got a commission for another book, and just can’t kick myself up the backside to get the sample chapters in….I’ve done a ton of articles, but the book, which would actually possibly have some ££ attached, well, I just can’t get going!
I’m not a minister, but I struggled with disciplining myself when working on papers in grad school, especially after I quit smoking and could no longer sneak a cigarette break to kill time. However, I found that keeping my body moving helped (way more than the smoke did). A short brisk walk or a sequence of yoga stretches before sitting down to work or during a break kept my body from getting too accustomed to the comfy computer chair and it gave my brain the break it needed to step back and come up with that perfect sentence or a new way of organizing particularly troublesome sections.
Cheers and good luck!
On the getting dressed or not thing. I have what I call lounging chic clothes. They are not “nice” or fit for the public, but they are clean and largely without holes. I wear yoga pants and a tank with a shelf bra (the happy medium between braless and not!) and a sweater as appropriate. I also shower. Then I am ‘ready for the day’. It helps. That way if I have to run to the store for supplies, I am only a pair of real pants and shoes away. Best of luck! Also, be gentle with yourself. I sometimes like to post a paper that says “This is not an ICU” on my wall when I am working on stuff like that. Also, I always have this on my computer, “You are a beloved child of God. Listen. Be present. Trust Yourself.”
on my work at home days, I might stay in pjs, or tshirt and sweats/shorts, stuff I wouldn’t ever wear anywhere outside my home…
but I never start work without putting on a bra.
then I know I am ready (oh, and brushing the teeth, rinsing face, and pulling hair back into somethin’) to work.
love ya pb!
The Rev. Bee is totally on about sharing what works for her, recognizing it’s not what works for all of us.
I LOVE the feeling of not having to shower and get dressed first thing in the morning. I’m most productive in the morning, so while I would never make it by sticking to a hard clock schedule, I did have a routine of tea, breakfast, news, then the computer. When I got to that point of feeling icky for not having gotten dressed, I’d shower and freshen up then. It usually coincided with a brain freeze, anyway. Sometimes a work-out might be included. That always makes my brain work better – but I have a hard time reminding myself of that!
The closer I got to the end the more focused I got, and the more confident that I actually could get done!
Good luck PB, and happy writing!
Carol, I love your post– I do the exact same thing when I have the joy of a day off. And yes, a dissertation is not the ICU, no matter how vital it is right now. Gosh, I’m actually jealous of your summer of writing; definitely a sign I should think even more seriously about grad school….
My mother works from home, and she does her morning routine in her pajamas– coffee, breakfast, newspaper. When she starts her day rolling, she throws on yoga pants and a sweatshirt/tee/tank/etc and comfy socks to head down to the computer. The shower typically comes later, if at all, and sometimes after a workout (as Donna said, it can really help shake things out in your head!). I think that a happy medium between just-out-of-bed pajamas and a full face with heels is yoga pants and cute socks. 🙂
Best of luck, PB. <3